The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-04-25
SENATOR RAWLINS' SPEECH
RELATIVE TO THE OPENING oB
THE UNCoMPAHGRE.
His Reply to Senator Jones During
the Debate in the Senate on April
Fourteenth.

Following are the remarks made by
Senator Rawlins in the senate on April
Ii, during the debate on the pending
measure providing for the opening OF
the UncomDahgre reservation. as re-
ported in the Congressional Record:
The act enacted in 1894 was recon-
mended by the secretary of the inter-
Tor, in the first place, in a report to the
committee on Indian affairs of the house
of representatives secondly, in a report
10 the committee on Indian affairs of
The senate, of which. / think. the dis
tinguished senator was then chairman.
This Identical bill. containing substan-
TALLY this provision, was also reported,
1 believe unanimously. by the commit
tee on Indian affairs to the senate. II
enacted that these lands should be al
lotted to these Indians In accordance
with the provisions of a treaty which
had been entered into with them in
1880 The policy of allotment was de-
cided, after full discussion, in 1894, by
the act which was then passed.
Moreover, this legislation then re-
ceived the approval, not only of the
secretary Of the interior. but of the
head Of the Indian division in the in
terror department.
1t may be of assistance to the senate
to understand the precise status of this
question. In 1894. in the Fifty-third
congress, a bill was introduced in the
house of representatives, which subse-
quently was passed into a law on the
18th of August. 1894. Section 20 of that
statute provided:
That the president of the United
States is hereby authorized and di-
rected to appoint a commission of three
persons to allot in severalty TO the I'm
compahgre Indians within their reser-
walton, in the territory of Utah, agri-
to the treaty of 1880, as follows:
Then there is quoted bodily in this
section the agreement which was made
with these Indians in 1880, at the time
they sold their lands to the United
States, in connection with other bands
of Ute Indians in the state of Colorado.
The confederated bands owned in Colo
RADIO 100000 acres of land. AS the
result of the sale of those lands they
realized something like 81. zoe. 900; and,
in accordance with that same agree
ment, If those Indians took their al
lottments in Colorado upon their reser-
walton. they were to receive them with
out consideration If they got lands
from the United States off their reser-
walton, their agreement provided that
they should pay for the lands at the
rate of $1.25 per acre. The commission
ers having charge of this matter viz
tually forced the Indians into Utah
upon these lands.
In 1882. by executive proclamation,
the Uncompahgre Indian reservation
was set aside. They were to use it in
sufferance. The question of the title
of interest of these Indians to these
lands was referred by the committee
on Indian affairs of the house of rep
to the law officers of the
interior department. After a careful
examination, those officers reported
both TO the house of representatives
and to the senate that these Indians
had no interest in these lands; that
they were mere tenants at sufferance;
that the government had a right to
make allottments of the lands to them
within the reservation or off the reser-
walton, but that, in accordance with
their express agreement with the gov
eminent, thew should be required to
pay at the rate of S1.25 an acre for the
lands that might thus be allotted
to them.
The secretary of the interior approved
this legislation and recommended it. 1t
was passed. The commissioners were