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Show 137 The White River Utes were very reluctant to move, but they could understand it. The whites had superior force. They understood- force. To the Uncompahgres, the expulsion from Colorado was unbelievable. They believed that since they had not offended the federal forces and had even intervened to stop the fighting and killing of Thornburg's men, surely thay would escape the wrath of the men who would be sent to punish the White River people who had killed the soldiers. Alas! This was not to be. The fury that had been mounted by Vickers and Pitkin was to carry the anger of the whites into the Uncompahgre's camps. In addition to this, there was an additional problem; the best of the agricultural lands were held by the Ouray and the Uncompahgres. They, too, had to go. The next question was "Go where?" The first answer was, "The Indian Territory," but an easier solution was available in the neighboring territory of Utah. The use of the Uintah and Ouray reservation was never satisfactory to the federal officials, and the failure of Agent Critchlow to concentrate the Indians there left the place as the obvious choice for the expulsion of the Utes. It was a propitious time for another reason. The Mormons were beleaguered by the legal assaults of the federal government; their institutions related to ownership of property, and their polygamy caused them to be the target of a storm of abuse and public indignation nationally. In short, the people of Utah were not able to prevent the officials of the new state of Colorado and the federal government from transferring their unwanted Indian residents |