OCR Text |
Show settlement. The Senate agreed with Vilas and amended the bill to allow the Indians to take allotments anywhere within the boundaries of the 1879 reservation. This partially blocked the attempts of the Colorado people to gain full access to the eastern portion of the reservation for settlement purposes/' However, the amendment did insure Ute agreement to the bill since the Capote and Muache bands did not want to leave the eastern part of the reservation. In its final form the Hunter bill gave the Southern Utes the right to choose land in allotment anywhere on their old reservation or land in common on the western forty miles. It passed the Senate on January 28, 1895, and was sent back to the House for concurring consideration. By February 11 both Houses had agreed to the bill as amended and President Grover Cleveland's signature proclaimed the Hunter bill as law. 7 Congress and the President had finally acted to settle the Ute question. The implementation procedure of the law stated that a commission of one would go to the Ute Reservation, consult with the Indians and put the bill to a vote. If the bill were approved then the commissioner was to aid the LItes in choosing their allotments, and to relocate to the western reserve those Indians who didn't take allotments. 8 The commissioner named for these duties was Meredith H. Kidd, who had just retired from service on the Dawes Commission.') Kidd established his office in Durango during the month of May, 1895, and began to record Indian opinions of the Hunter bill. However, he was soon joined by the Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Thomas P. Smith, who aided him. io Later a third member, Agent David F. Day, was added to the commission. The document presented by this commission to the Utes was an abbreviation of the bill passed by Congress, but it did indicate the basics of the agreement. It read: Whereas, it is provided in Section Six, of an act of Congress, entitled, ' An act to disapprove the treaty heretofore made with the Southern Ute Indians, to be removed to the Territory, where they may so elect and are qualified, and to settle all those not electing to take lands in severalty, on the west forty miles of present reservation, and in portions of New Mexico, and for other purposes, and to carry out the provisions of the treaty with said Indians, of June fifteenth, Eighteen hundred eight.' approved February twentieth, Eighteen hundred ninetyfive, that the provisions of said act should take effect only upon the acceptance thereof and consent thereto by a majority of all the male adult Indians, now located or residing upon the reservation, and such acceptance should be at once obtained under such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior might prescribe; And whereas the Secretary of the Interior, on the thirteenth day of April, Eighteen hundred ninetyfive, appointed Meredith H. Kidd, a commissioner, to explain and lay before the male adult Indians, located or residing upon the reservation of the Southern Ute Indians, in Colorado, the provisions of said act, and to obtain their acceptance there of, by a majority vote of said male Indians, and whereas, said commissioner has fully and explicitly 6. U. S., Congress, Senate, " Southern Ute Indians," Congressional Record, Vol. XXVII, Part 2, 53d Cong., 3d Sess., January 28, 1895, pp. 1443- 56. Hereafter cited as Congressional Record. Vol. XXVII, . . . 7. Congressional Record, Vol. XXVII, Part 3, Senate, " Southern Ute Indians," February 11- 12, 1895, pp. 2012, 2067. 8. Leupp, op. cit., pp. 17- 18. 9. The Dawes Commission was named to implement the policies of the 1887 Indian Allotment Act. 10. Leupp, op. cit., p. 18. - 51- |