The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-11
THE SAN JUAN CLAIMANTS.

Judge F. A. HAMMOND, of San Juan
county, will leave for Washington Thurs
day morning, in the interest of the settlers
of the county named. The people down
in the forbidding and inhospitable corner
of this territory have about made up their
minds that they will have to go. Colorado
is state and has political influence, while
Utah is a territory and, consequently,
without influence CT the character sug-
gested. There is fertile and well-watered
valley in Colorado which is owned and &C.
cupied by Ute Indians. These Indians are
not agreeable neighbors. Sometimes they
are entirely too friendly and affectionate,
being source of expense and annoyance
both to the whites in their vicinity; at
other times they are neither friendly nor
affectionate, and are the cause of a good
deal of trouble, as when they forget the
laws regarding the ownership of property,
such as cattle on the range, or when they
delight in the aboriginal pastime of hunt
ing for scalps. Then, our friends on the
other side of the border are disposed to
look with cevetous eyes upon the fertile
soil comprised in the Ute reservation, and
being influential they have succeeded in
having the order go forth that the Indians
shall be transferred to Utah which is pow
erless to prevent the thing. The Indians,
for a consideration, have agreed to
the removal which they were shrewd
enough to understand they could not pre-
vent, even if they could delay it few
years: and now all that remains to be
done is the formal action on the part of
Congress. That action will certainly be
taken this session, and Judge HAMMOND
goes as the authorized representative and
agent of the few settlers in San Juan to
represent matters as they exist and to ask
that government will be Just, if not gener-
Gus.
Years ago these people went into the
then wilderness country to create homes
and gain living. They went in good
faith, firmly believing that in due time
they would be able to obtain title to the
public land on which they settled and
which they set out to reclaim. They
went to work with a will, as
pioneers in this region are in the
habit of doing. Disaster after
disaster overlook them, and misfortune
seemed to pursue them vindictively; yet
they persevered, and against odds and in
spite of opposition that would have dis
couraged less determined people they went
on, building houses, creating homes, dig
ging bitches, and wringing from the for
bidding and unwilling earth the means for
their support and comfort. Not all Of them
have been prosperous, but all have worked
hard, and the product of their labor is in
their farms, their cottages, their fences,
and their irrigation canals. All these are
valuable, their owners being psesent to
use them, and all are absolutely
valueless their owners being away
Little or nothing can be removed,
but all must be left, the land to re
turn to its desert condition, the bitches
to fill with soil, the homes and fences to be
fuel for the Indian fires.
1t is to be hoped that Congress will look
generously upon the claims of these poor
people. 1t seems cruel thing to drive
them away, and it will be more cruel to
send them away without full compensation
for all they shall leave behind, the product
of years of severe toll and rigid economy.
We regret to note disposition on the
part of certain Of the Colorado newspapers
to hurry along the removal of the Indians
to this territory without regard to the
rights of the little colony Of settlers in San
Juan. To these citizens we suggest that
there is in this world such thing as JUS