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Show I REPORTS OF AGENTS IN COLORADO. 17 SOUTEERN UTE AWNCY, COLORADO, Isgust, 1880. SIR: In obedieuoe to existing orders I have the honor to submit my second annual report. The Southern Ute Indians are located in the nout~bwestern portion of Colorado, on r l ~ nU oited St r t s s reservation, containiog abont 864,000 acres, of which ooly abont 21,000 are agl.icnltura1 lalands, so situated that they eno be irrigated, without which no orops of ang kitdoan be raised in this portion of Colorado. The Ute Indian is not favorably di spo~edto wsl.rls agriooltnml pursuits, and progress in that direction is, and will continue, necessarily sloa. Much rnore rapid a<lrsnce toward makiog them sslfsnpporting would be made were anthor i t ,~gi ven, and the name efforts made and the saute money expended in endeavoring to intlt~oe thrm to raise herds of sheep, cattle, nod horses tBet is beiug made to ioduee the111 to till the soil. They are oatorally inolined to pastoral purgnit,s, and theland oo which they are located and the olimate are much more suitable for stoOk raising than for agrioolbural "..,...""a- """.,. The Sonthern Utes now have some herda 'of sheep and goats, and large bands of horses. Camsone has more than one hundred bead of cattle. None of these Indians make any attempt st farming; they refcse all ofirsnf sohools; none speak Fogliah ; n greater portion understand same Spanish, sufficient for ordinary daily commnnicntion; in council they usoally use one of their number to translate from Spanish to the Ute Inogua.gc. They livs in tents or brush lodgen,and frequently move fromane portionof the reservation to suother, as their desires may dictate, or when one of their number dins, in which oass t,he tent or lodge of the deceased, wit,h blankets, gun, sot1 other artioles, are at once hnmed, several of their beat horses killed, and t,he eutire band re-more to sore other locality; the near relztioua of the dceeasetl cut their hair as a badge of mnurniug. Since Dseembt:r, 1879, tlphyaiaian has been in attendance nt this ngenoy. Man). seem desirous of availing tl~emselvaso f his services, aud t s k r themediainea prescribed, while some, even of the seemingly most intelligent, prefer their nativei8medicioe men " and their manner of relieving the sick, which is not unlike the Hoodoo practices of the most soperstitions plaotation negro. Three days after the massacre of Agent Meeker, a t White River, abont 250 ntiiea distant hy trail, six youog bnoks arrived here and endearored tb iurllzoe the Southern Ute8 t o join them in a. general wa r ; scalp and war dances rero held day ; ~ n dn ight, and s grand oonncil was lleld nt the a.seocy, and for n time there seemed bnt little doubt of their success. Iromnined with then,, and madeevery eifort to induoe them to remain with me on their ovn reservation. Finally mg efforts wereorowucd with suc-cess, and the deoisioo rendered thst they would t,ake no parl in the White River trouble, nor render them any ssaistance, and rlavired oouriers ~ e nttn the WhiteRiver, Uints, sod Los Pinotlhpencies, and also a letter sent to the Great Father in Washing-coo, informing them sod him of their action, with a request that the Greet Father's reply might be oommunicated to them when racaivud, which request was complied ~ l t l , . For some naeks the 1Jtw rr,r.: i l l ., > I :&IV #,ig r u r ~s c i t emcnr ,n nd ;appt,araur,xq ree~l>ertlo iwlicaro titar any O V b l I act hy v11I1,.1 1100 Iutliz~n( ~wr h irv I I~:!zIl~igh t ll.ndt,, R rcnc.tirinn of the \('hire 1firc:r in:cra;t .re: re,>urt.r wrlv rirv~llnredr tnal telc.-rr ,an.h ,.,l - . thrt;ugllotlt tltnrottntr1 that rllo 'inurbt,ru 1.w; It.tcl lr~olinn otll. ~lc.trt,verl ~ I I I . n:cnrv. ;end \rere nu tlln war-pnrh. 1 ' ~ t r r t ~ n ~t~lwtdvvl r~* ?&fl"Iwtst r ? ~vitI.csu1< .ut~d:a!ioo,: tnil, ,I, fnr :u kuoan, not :t er i l t~l ro f n h*.riuas ilJlllrr llur been r##n.tt.ilrr.l I,\. a >JIIIIIIPII Ute doring the past year. While the excitemeat canaed by the White River troubles mas at its highest poiot and an ontbreak Reelllad ttl be incvitnble, permissinn wan given to Morris Belknap aaud John Leanard, my only emplor4s a t that time, to go from the agency; they both declined to accept the oEsr and contitlned to perform their usual duties a t t.he agency. For sereral da.78 no tidincs frorn the agency roscherl the settlements, and as feara werr entertained that those a t the agency had been mur-dered or were uosble to eommo~,icate with then!, a party of citizens, uomberingabnut fifteen. re~irlents of Animas Citv and vieinifr. orvanieed end rode to tlln nnnnrv fnr .. - 8 . i any ,IS. oentrt. ~ I I . I I II: ON (i.<rldoal. WI I I V t \ v 1 l ~ ~ ~ ~ t~doirlevds~i dlti t it, 11.): .iu~alol llol. 1,rr ur Furt I.ewt5. dft,v-tw.? ~ ~ l leei)*<r . bt.ing il0.iutiirit.01. evou it'~avuil;tl~l+t o.,c , , n + ~ ~ . l ~n~cvraufullwyl rb .t lo$uclle r.;tter nt~!nl#rorf Ilodl:tll+. follb 1 ~ ~ 1 1 19~n1 l1i well snlt)nlied .A with ~mm;ni t ion; fortunatdl7 t r o o p ~w are not requirt4 orapplied fir. On the mriaal of General Hstob, U. S. A., at Fort Lewis, with additional forces, I took twenty of the leading Indians v i t h we and proceeded to Psgosa Springs, where ' 21ND |