The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-24
Utah Red Men Are In Danger of
Starvation.
NOT ALLOWED TO HUNT
BARRED FROM COLORADO GAME
TERRITORY.
General Fl. C. Merriam Makes An In
vestigation and Finds That the
Uintahs and Uncompaghres Are
In Bad Way-Conaict Between
State and Federal Authorities.

According to the Denver News. thu
majority of the Indians in Utah wht
have been forbidden to cross the Colo
rado line in order to hunt, are in danger
of starvation. This condition is due
it is stated, to a disagreement between
Colorado officials and federal officers a:
to the right of these Indians to hunt or
their old grounds in Colorado
An investigation was ordered by Gen.
eral H. c. Merriam some days ago. Al
its conclusion General Merriam an.
nounced that the red men were poverty.
stricken and in need CT assistance. The
News quotes him as saying further:
Colorado, of course, is trying to en-
force her own laws" continued General
Merriam, and among them is that per-
tanning to game. But hundreds of years
ago, / might say these Indians who
are now driven back across the line
were enjoying their hunting grounds in
this state. When they were driven
across the line to their present reser-
walton in Utah, the United States gov
eminent guaranteed that they should
be allowed to return to these same
hunting grounds and kill game. This
and appreciated
Colorado Game Law.
1.-THE right for them to so hunt in
Colorado was part of the transaction
involving their movement into Utah.
That was years before Colorado became
a state and had state laws. But Colo
RADIO enacts laws, and among them is
one preventing the slaughter of game
at certain seasons of the year, and pre-
venting the Indians from Utah crossing
into Colorado onto their old hunting
grounds. Here we have a case of a
creature of the United States enacting
laws which are calculated to repeal or
deaden the laws of it's parent.
Hardship of Indians.
'If the state of Colorado wishes to
enact game laws, it has a right to; but
when the present ones were compiled
there should have been a provision in
them allowing the Utah Indians to cross
over the line and hunt upon their old
grounds, as that privilege was granted
them by the United States. government
when they were driven across the line,
and has never been by that government
destroyed. The. Indians, in my mind,
have no desire to create trouble.
Most all these stories about out
breaks are founded on little or moth
ing. But they wish to hunt and to hunt
upon their old grounds. Hunting is
their natural avocation. Is it not ser
ious when it has been taken from them
by second parties? If Colorado has the
right to destroy the effect of a privilege
granted by the national, government
long before Colorado had laws, then
there is nothing more to be said.
Red Man In Distress.
Recently 1 Investigated these In
dams, and 1 find that they are in dis
tress. The government does not give
them fortune. They cannot live upon
that. They are engaged in agricul-
tura1 and cattle pursuits, but the ma
jority of them are in a wretchedly poor
condition, and in need of assistance.
My sympathies are far from against
the Indians. You read of the Indians
coming over the line for game, and in
the next paragraph you read of the
white men killing this same game.
Which has the more right to do SOP.
There are now from fifty to 100 In
dams across the line, and the game
v-ardens have been instructed to drive
them back, using force if necessary.
The White Rocks agency, near Fort
Duchesne, Utah, has four tribes of In
dams, namely, the Uintah. White River,
and White River Utes.
The total number is about LOO.