The daily sentinel., 1912-06-01


1 Myton, Utah, June Hundreds
of Ute Indians on the former Uintah
reservation arc actually hungry
while they have plenty of money in
/ the bank. They know practically
nothing of work and their credit at
| the stores has been cut off by order
I Of Charles l.. Davis, acting Indian
agent and supervising farmer The
usual annuity of 500 per capita has
not been paid for this year, and if the
! redtape of the Indian department is
! strung out much longer there will be
more suffering among them than ey-
er before. The local government far
mers are making every effort to teach
the redman how to cultivate the
sell. but he declares that he mo
lilum work on heap empty stom-
ach."
Rabbit Perank, who has an allOt-
ment near Myton was one of twelve
to receive a hundred pounds of po-
tatoes to plant. He promised faith
fully to plant the spuds in the ground
and he kept his word, but it is said
ne dug them up again right away
for food. Rabbit and his squaw
have $1,000 in the bank. They also
have team of sleek, black horses
which cost $500, shiny new harness.
wagons, plOws and all other farming
implements. The horses have plenty
OF hay and oats to eat and warm
stable TO sleep in. Rabbit and his
squaw live in a tepee and eat and
sleep on the ground,
Pekepoyits and his squaw have
more than 1000 in the bank and Ac-
cawinna $1,000. yet they all have
10 20 hungry every day. Instructions
have come from the agency at Fort
Duchesne to issue ratlons as carefully
as possible and the reason Is given
that the available money will be
scarce until the crops are made. It'll
is safe to say that the crops on the
Indian allotments this year where the
Indians themselves are the farmers
VIII not be sufficient to feed so many
canary birds The land is mostly
new and must have a certain amount
of life before IT becomes productive.
Ten thousand acres of what is
known as dead Indian land has
been sold in the last two or three
years and the Indians would be rich
er by at least 100000 if they could
get the money, but most of these
sales We're not confirmed until with
in the last few months The money
is now in the bank and in the
meantime hunger prevails A few
days ago q valuable team was seen
standing idle in plowed field. The
driver, an Indian, was some distance
away with a rifle shooting at a prairie
dog. II was learned that he had
eaten scarcely any breakfast and
that before he could do further work
he must replenish his stomach, even
though with a dog The rations is
sued to so-called working Indians
amount to so pounds Of flour for TO-
days, 10 pounds of bacon. l pound
baking powder, 3 pounds beans and
4 pounds sugar. The bottom of the
flour barrel is in sight soon after
'the end Of the first week and the
entire larder is empty before many
days have passed, and again the In
dian Is on the still hunt for prairie
dogs sand the work goes undone In
no case Is clerk allowed to issue
rations to more than four in one
family and many families are twice
that large.
Besides the money derived from
recent sales of allotments the
United States government owes the
cCntederated band OF Ute Indians
from S3,5OO, GOO to SI.OOO.OOO and
1t has heeu due for more than a
quarter of a century. Effort after
effort has been made to secure the
money and finally a Judgment was
"endered in the supreme court of the |
United States a year ago against the !
government for approximately So
500, 900. A bill has been introduced
in congress providing for the paw
ment of this amount and early ia
vorahle action is expected