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Show in Del Norte. i The first settlements in the area were in late 1872, and by 1877 people were able to file homestead claims. 2 In the spring of 1880, W. A. Bell surveyed an area located about 28 miles from the Southern Ute Agency at Ignacio for the purpose of developing a town. i The patents for this site were obtained from the land office early in 1881 and enough people were located on the site to vote for and approve incorporation as the town of Durango. In 1885 the population of Durango and Animas City, its forerunner, had grown to 2,254 people. 4 These whites wanted the Utes removed from their reservation to allow the development of better routes of travel to northern New Mexico. They were eager to support the efforts of other Colorado citizens to convince Congress of the need to remove the Indians from the state entirely. On February 4, 1878, two of the first three bills presented to Congress by the Colorado delegation to secure the removal of all the Ute Indians from the state were introduced by Representative T. M. Patterson. The bills called for negotiations to extinguish the title to the Lite lands and for their removal to Indian Territory.^ The two bills were numbered 3020 and 3021 and immediately referred to the House Committee on Indian Affairs for consideration/' Apparently Senate Bill Number 706, introduced seven days later, calling for the consolidation of the Lite bands on one reservation to be located on the White River in northern Colorado, was considered the best bill by all parties concerned and was substituted for Patterson's bills. 7 It was certainly most important in establishing the pattern for legislation on the Lite bands for several years to come. The question of removal was not again presented to Congress until after the 1878 negotiations, which sought consolidation of the Ute lands in Colorado, were finished. By April, 1879, it was apparent to observers that the consolidated Utes would neither locate on one small reservation nor would Congress agree to the negotiations with the Southern LItes calling for their removal to a new reservation in the San Juan Mountains near the continental divide. One of the observers, Representative A. M. Scales, introduced House Resolution Number 351, asking that the Secretary of the Interior be given the authority to negotiate with the Indians on the reservation of the Warm Spring, LImatilla, Chippewa, Ute and other Indian tribes and establish by law the extinguishment of title to their lands, removal from their present locations and consolidation on certain reservations.* The bill was sent to the Committee on Indian Affairs for consideration. The Colorado citizens were not only land hungry; they also feared an Indian attack. This fear was inflamed by the murder of the agent at the White River Agency, and the abduction of his family and the killing of several employees as well as some of the soldiers who had been called to the area to quell the violence. Immediatelv the cry came from the citizens of Colorado and their legislature for the immediate removal of the LItes to an area where they would not pose a threat to the white 1. Richard McCloud. Durango, As It Is. ( Durango, Colorado: Durango Printing Co., 1892), pp. 5, 50. 2. Ibid., p. 50. 3. Ibid., p. 5. 4. Ibid., p. 6. Animas City was founded in 1877. 5. U. S., Congress, House, " Ute Indians, Colorado," Congressional Record, Vol. VII, Part 1. 45th Cong., 2d Sess., February 4. 1878, p. 739; Part 3, pp. 3020- 21. 6. Ibid., p. 739. 7. U. S., Congress, House, " Ute Indians in Colorado," Congressional Record, Vol. VII, Part 3. 45th Cong., 2d Sess., April 24, 1878, pp. 2777- 78. 8. U. S., Congress, House, " Extinguishment of Indian Title," Congressional Record, Vol. IX, Part 1, 46th Cong.. 1st Sess., April 21, 1879, p. 615. - 20- |