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Show Uintah & Ouray Agency, •..hito Rochs,Ut:h,Feb.C7th,IOOG. To the Honorable The Secretary of the Interior, Through the Hon Commissioner of Indian Affairs, v;? sftington, D. c. Gir. I have the honor to enclose herewith a. cutting from the Gs.lt La_ce Tribune of the 15th ins* ant in which appears such a vicious attempt to •'mis inform and. mislead the p folio mind as demands that I "bring tho matter and its connections to attention of superior authority,especially referring to the character of the Llr W. B. Latthers.attorney etc.,of Washington,E. C. as he has appeared in his"nimble and sinister tricl.s and shifts"in connection v.-ith my experience, as Acting Agent for the Ute Indians in Utah. Immediately after entering upon the duties of this office I ras reliably, informed that the Attorney of the Gt Louis Asphaltum Company had sent a letter to the Agent for that Company residing at Fort Du Chesne, in which it was advised fehat'T.ar.dlett must be rorh-ed. If he co.'_r_ot be merited he must be disposed of in some other my". Ghortly after this I was told that the I..r Lathers quoted in the Tfibune cutting sent herein,vras sn Attorney for the Gt Louis Gilsonite.-Asphaltum Company,and from what ras said of his standing among men of honorable repute,concluded that if he vras the person that had.-writ ten the advice for my destruction he could not have intended to be understood ss contemplating more than having me wrought upon by blachmail and other less vicious methods which as the Department is awsre have since been practiced in attempts to destroy my official character mid repute*ion. In JXnusry 1005 this I.'r Lathers vras reported in c .".sit Lal-cc nersp»pcr c;s quartered at the Knutsford hotel of that city,end quoted cs expressing his views in opposition to the views of the Hon Secretary of the Interior concerning tho opening of the Uncompahgre Reservation,and 7 in a general xxy unfavorably criticising the setion of the Hon Secretary in executing certain provisions of the Act of Congress approved August 15,1804. He ras further quoted ss expatiating upon depredation claims against these Indians as if he ras in full sympathy rith zll claimants and hoped their claims rould be sustained by.the Courts and soon be paid. About the same time he ras quoted in another Gait LXAC pppcr as "Llr Lathers says he is attorney for the Denveritcs rho sre so anxious to have the mineral lands of the Uncompahgre Reservation opened". From the foregoing it seemed reasonable to believe that Mr Lathers ras an employed Attorney for Corporations that rcre meriting regardless of the rights of the Indians,the claims of origin*?! c.iscovo_or7ho interest of the gen- A eral government,a-iid of everything else ..xcept the sole purpose of securing for his employe^ s monopoly of sll the valuable Asphaltum deposits of this Country. A /• fer months after these rerop;"pcr snnovj.cements of the attitude of Lr L?thews rogrrdiug the Indians of this Agency siid their reservations, he sddressed sever-11 letters to rr.e cf whioh the follor-ing ;rc extract .opies t.Xxi /.'rem origin-Is thst .ro still in repossession:- Celt Lshe City, Utah. 'August 5rd,1305. Col. J. ' F. Randlett, •' U. G. Array, Fort EuChesne, Utah. |