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Show The lands, of the first and second classes are comparatively level, but those of the t&d and fourth classes range from rough to veq rough, and there is more or less gumbo in all. This appraisement was approved by the Department on March 13, 1907. I THE ABSENTEE UTES. During the summer of 1906 a band of about 200 nonprogressive Utesmostly members of the White River band-left their allot-ments and homes on the Uintah Reservation, Utah, to go to the Pine Ridge Reservation, S. Dak., there to enjoy an unrestricted com-munal life. Capt. C. G. Hall, acting United States Indian agent of the Uintah and Ouray Agency, Utah, in a report dated July 12, 1906, on the question of retaining troops at Fort Duchesne, said that the band of malcontent Indians had been considerably decreased in strength by the departure from the reservation of probably 200 members; that their dissatisfaction with the Government was the result of the changes which had recently been brought about through allot-ments having been made to them and their surplus lands thrown open to public settlement; that since the opening of the reservation they had been able to secure all the intoxicating liquor they wanted; and that as a result several Indians had been killed and the lives of settlers threatened by drunken Indians, all of which aggravated the situation. The agent at Pine Ridge telegraphed the Office on July 24, 1906, that a part of the band of Absentee Utes had reached. that reservation and had been ordered to leave, and that 50 others had been noticed near Casper, Wyo., on July 10. In response the agent was instructed to ascertain fully their purpose in going to Pine Ridge, and to tell them that they could acquire no rights there; that they wuld not be allowed to interfere with the Sioux Indians of that agency; and that they might, by reason of their absence, lose their rights on the Uintah Reservation. Capt. C. G. Hall, U. S. Army, the acting agent in charge of the Utes, reporting on August 11,1906, in response to an inquiry from the Office, said that there were in the party of Absentees about 120 men, 73 women, and 8 children; that they were then near Casper, Wyo., but purposed going into the Dakotas and would probably camp at Wounded Knee for two weeks. He added that they had committed no depredations or unlawful acts, and recommended that Inspector McLaughlin be appointed to assist him in inducing the Indians to return. About. ten days later he telegraphed that nearly all the Absentees were then at a point abut 10 miles west of Douglas, Wyo.; that he had held a council with them and urged them to return home, |