Omaha daily bee., 1897-11-05
Eix ia. Iffls


A number of men and teams from Ashley
valley are at present working over on the
Uintah reservation, where a canal is under
construction, for the purpose of carrying
the water to lands that have been allotted
to the Indians, says correspondent OF the
Salt Lake Herald.
Although everyone in the state Is ac-
quainted with the fact that the Ute rescrva-
tlon is located in the northeastern section
of Utah, and have a vlgue idea OF Indian
farms and farmers, yet but comparatively
few are aware of what is actually being done
for these wards of Uncle Sam
There are no doubt great mlny people
throughout the state who are under the
impression that the taking of lands in
severalty by the Indians is only in its first
stages The fact is 1t has been going on
for years, particularly among the Uintahs.
Years ago, when the Indians first began
to take to the idea OF individual ownership
of land. they moved slowly and cautiously in
the matter, but gradually the "wickiups'
began to appear upon pieces of grass land
here and there along the creek bottoms
where the grass grew without artificial as
sistance. Section lines were unknown to
these children of the wilderness in those
days, and they located where their fancy
directed them. Subsequently fences were ran
around hither and thither, which zigzagged
and twisted over the landscape in a very
bewilderng manner.
The dusky Inhabitants of this tangled net
of inCpient civilization were pretty clfe from
intrusion by their white bro .her and be able
to penetrate that domain of uncertainties and
retreat in god order necessitates a very
well developed bump of location indeed.
1t was step in the right direction, how
ever, and paved the way for something
better.
In the last ten years the allotments have
been taken much SyStpmatipallV
tion lines have been traced and locations
made 'all same white man" Canals have
been constructed to cover these lands and
fences to enclose them. Houses have been
built together with granaries and all the
other outbuildings incident to a well reg
ulated farm.
Thousands of acres of land have been
broken up and put into tillable condition.
Hundreds of acres have been seeded to
lucern and timothy, and the piebald and
pinto ponies row stand and MUNICH placidly
al the finest of hay, produced from the land
over which they scurried like evil spirits at
every sound in the days that are gone.
Between the Uintah and Duchesne are
some beautiful benches dedicated to the use
of the red men.
Imagine, if you can standing upon an
elevated plateau, which slopes gradually away
to the north some twenty miles to the foot
of the great Uintah mountains which form
magnificent background with their lofty
SUBMITS clothed in eternal snow.
There one may stand in the swelering heat
of the midsummer sun and gaze wistfully at
the great drifts from which trickles the
purest of water that feeds the streams flow
ing at his feet The water has been taken
from these streams and distributed over the
country in a systematic manner, transform
ing the once dry benches into fields of green.
Here may be seen Indian farms of from
eighty to 200 acres, as level as any front
yard in the "Cty of Saints"
You may see in your minds eye the mobile
red man" with his shirt sleeves rolled up and
a pitchfork in his hand earning his bread
by the sweat of his brow.
The fact of the matter is ne earns his
bread by the sweat Of some other fellows
brow. The farms are, as a rule, leased or
rented to the whites, who work them on
shares. The farms are not rented fron the
Indians direct, but from the agent or the
"hndan farmer" an official whose duty con-
ssts of teaching these restless nomads the
essential points of agriculture.
The willy Ute takes kindly to this style of
farming for he may sit upon his own hay
stacks and with an sir of satisfaction behold
his white brother toing in the fields while
he, "the moCnrch of all he surveys" tolls
not, neither does he epin''
The future cuts no figure with an Indian,
the present is all he cares about. He be
lieves implicitly in the old saying, Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof" conse-
quently it is found necessary to compel each
Indian to haul sufiicttS't grain to the agency
to insure seed for the next year where it
is stored away for safe keeping uClder lock
and key.
Formerly all the hay and great portion
of the oats consumed at Fort Duchesne
came from Ashley valley Now it is raised
on the Indian farms within few miles of
the post.
When the "boys in blue" first came on
to the Unitah and the post was in course Of
construction hay was $25 and $50 per ton,
and everything else in proportion. Now hay
is $5 ton and even less, and everything
else shows corresponding reduction.
The prospect of the reservations being
thrown open to settlement has aroused con-
siderable interest among prospective To-
Gators, and all kinds of stories are afoat
concerning them.