Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1880.djvu/22

20 will no longer have any charm for him. He will gradually become ashamed of being a beggar, as many of them have expressed themselves already, and feel a pride formerly little known to him, to depend for his own sustenance and that of his family upon his own efforts. This is not a mere fancy picture, for I have myself observed a multitude of examples of this kind, and manifestations of urgent desire in this direction on the part of Indians are coming to this department in constantly increasing numbers. It appears, therefore, of the highest importance that the government should promptly take advantage of this disposition and stimulate it with generous aid until the final solution of the problem is reached.

At the time I rendered my last report, the settlement of the difficulties which had occurred on the Ute Reservation in September, 1879, was still the subject of negotiations between the Ute tribe and the commission appointed for that purpose, consisting of General Hatch, Mr. Adams, and Chief Ouray. Those negotiations resulted in the surrender of Chief Douglass, of the White River Utes, to the authorities of the United States. The commission recommended that a delegation, representing the various bands of the Ute tribe, be permitted to visit Washington for the purpose of effecting such a settlement as would prevent further troubles. Several headmen of the Southern Utes, under the leadership of their chief, Ignacio, and of the Uncompahgre Utes, headed by Ouray, as well as of the White River Utes, were received here, and after prolonged negotiations these representatives of the Ute tribe consented to the surrender of the whole Ute Reservation in Colorado, on condition that the Ute Indians be settled in severalty, with an individual title in fee simple to their farms on certain small tracts of land in that reservation and immediately adjoining it, the White River Utes to go to the Uintah Reservation, and that the annuities due be paid to them, and further annuities be provided for; the Utes thenceforth to be as individuals occupying their farm tracts respectively under the jurisdiction of local laws and courts. This arrangement was considered a measure of great importance, not only for the reason that it would be apt to prevent a costly and destructive Indian war, but also that for the first time in the history of Indian management it provided for the formal discontinuance of the tribal existence of an Indian nation and for their individual settlement as farmers like other inhabitants of the country under the laws of the land. This agreement was not to have binding force until ratified by three-fourths of all the male adult members of the different bands of the Ute tribe, the ratification to be supervised by a commission which, after the completed ratification, was also to make the payments agreed upon and to superintend the settlement of the Indians upon the farm lands designated for them. This agreement was submitted to Congress with the draught of a bill to give it the force of law. Prompt action was repeatedly urged, so that its most important