Item Detail
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24449
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1
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1
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English
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The Replevied Present : San Juan County, the Southern Utes, and What Might Have Been, 1894-1895
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Utah Historical Quarterly
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Winter 2011
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79
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no.1
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52-71
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"December 1894 was a bitterly cold month with snow sweeping across the Great Sage Plain, piling high at the foot of Blue Mountain, located in San Juan County, Utah. The Mormon settlers went about their daily tasks of feeding livestock, chopping wood, and hauling water, but something weighed heavily on their minds that year. Christmas was in the air, and for the children, there were preparations to be made and presents to get ready. The adults, however, were soon to be involved in their own preparations for something that had been discussed for years, but they never believed would happen. There were now hundreds of Utes either in southeastern Utah or on their way from Colorado to claim their present--all of San Juan County--as had been promised, in their mind, by the United States Government.The settlers would soon be looking for new homes. Preparation for this month had started years ago, in 1888, in the meetings of the Southern Ute Commission then empowered to modify land agreements promised in previous treaties. Beginning on August 9 and ending on November 13, a series of eight councils interspersed with visits on both the Colorado reservation and in southeastern Utah, were held with representatives of the Capote, Muache, and Weenuche bands, identified collectively as Southern Utes. Most prominent for those representing the Weenuche were Ignacio and Mariano. Buckskin Charlie spoke for the Muache, Severo for the Capote, with forty-five chiefs and subchiefs also attending the agency in Ignacio, Colorado." [From author's introduction]