History 3010

Treaties and legal authority establishing Indian land holdings

Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties,ed. Kappler

Indian Claims Commission Decisions

Access Genealogy posts legal authority (laws) establishing Indian Reservations

Utah American Indian Digital Archives (U of U)

Navajo

• Treaty of 1868
• Conflict over the ranges in the Montezuma Canyon area continued until it was divided in 1933. The Paiute Strip was officially added to the Navajo Reservation.
• In 1991 a coalition of Navajos, Utes, mixed-blood Utes, and other Indians orchestrated the passage of a landmark bill that gave them increased representation in Utah politics. Legislation was passed that established governance of the Utah Navajo Trust Fund.

Ute

1. The Mouache band lived on the eastern slopes of the Rockies, from Denver, south to near Las Vegas, New Mexico.
2. The Capote band inhabited the San Luis Valley in Colorado near the headwaters of the Rio Grande and in New Mexico especially around the region where the towns of Chama and Tierra Amarilla are now located.
3. The Weeminuche occupied the valley of the San Juan River and its northern tributaries in Colorado and northwestern New Mexico.
4. The Tabeguache (also called Uncompahgre) lived in the valleys of the Gunnison and Uncompahgre Rivers in Colorado.
5. The Grand River Utes (also called Parianuche) lived along that river in Colorado and Utah.
6. The Yamparicas (also called White River) band inhabited the Yampa River Valley and adjacent land.
7. The Uintah Utes inhabited the Uintah Basin, including the Great Salt Lake Basin.

Utah Ute (Uintah)

• Spanish Fork Treaty of 1865 (not ratified by Congress)
• Uintah Reservation established by Executive Order, 1861

Colorado Ute (Uncompahgre, White River) -- now in Utah

• Uncompahgre Treaty, 1868
• 1880 Treaty of Removal -- Uncompahgre Reservation established by Executive Order, 1882

Southern Ute

1880	Ute Agreement signed.

1894	Ute allotment bill presented to Congress.
1895	Ignacio led most of the Weeminuche to the western part of the Southern Ute Reservation in protest against the government's policy of land allotment.
1895	Utes agree to the allotment bill.
1896	New agency set up at Navajo Springs to serve the Weeminuche who did want to accept land in severalty
1896	Allotments are distributed to Southern Utes.
1899	Southern Ute Reservation opened to Anglo settlement.

1937	Restoration Act returns 222,016 acres to the Southern Utes.

Southern Paiute

The Utah Paiutes and the federal government signed a treaty in 1865, but it was not ratified by the Senate. The first reservation for the Paiutes was established at Shivwits, near St. George, in 1891. Other small reservations were established by executive order: Indian Peaks in 1915, Koosharem in 1928, and Kanosh in 1929. The Cedar City Paiutes were treated as a scattered band and lived on land owned by the Mormon Church.

In the 1950's the Utah Paiutes' tribal status was terminated by Congress. This caused many problems for the people for nearly 30 years.  In the 1970s award money was given to the people to pay for land that was taken many years before (27 cents per acre!) On 3 April 1980 President Carter signed legislation that restored federal recognition for the Paiute.

Shoshoni

Eastern - Wind River
In 1868, Washakie and a council of tribal elders signed a treaty formally establishing the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.

Northern - The four remaining groups of Shoshoni are usually listed under the general name of the "Northern Shoshoni."

• One of these groups, the Fort Hall Shoshoni of about 1,000 people, lived together with a band of about 800 Northern Paiute known in history as the Bannock at the confluence of the Portneuf and Snake rivers.
• A second division, the Lemhi, numbering some 1,800 people, ranged from the Beaverhead country in southwestern Montana westward to the Salmon River area, which was their main homeland.
• In western Idaho, along the Boise and Bruneau rivers, a third section of about 600 Shoshoni followed a life centered around salmon as their basic food.
• The fourth and final division of 1,500 people, the Northwestern Shoshoni, resided in the valleys of northern Utah--especially Weber Valley and Cache Valley--and along the eastern and northern shores of Great Salt Lake.

  • Northwestern Shoshone v. U.S., 1945

Western  -- occupied what is today northern and western Nevada. There were as many as eleven major bands distributed from the present Utah-Nevada border to Winnemucca on the west. Their descendants today live on the Duck Valley Reservation or scattered around the towns of northern Nevada from Wells to Winnemucca. The Duck Valley Indian Reservation is situated  on the Nevada/Idaho border. Established by Executive order on April 16, 1877, the site for this reservation was selected by Captain Sam, a Shoshone leader who felt that the plentiful wild game, fishes, wild berries, abundant water and the fertile valley soil held a promising future for our people.  In 1886 and again in 1910 additional land was annexed.

Goshute

Federal authorities established a government farm at Deep Creek for the Goshutes in 1859, but the project was abandoned by the next year. Attacks on the Pony Express and Overland Stage, which ran through traditional Goshute territory, resulted in an 1863 treaty between the Goshutes and the federal government to allow peaceful travel through Goshute country. The Goshute did not cede any of their territory in the treaty, but federal officials were intent on removing the Indians. Between 1864 and 1912 they undertook efforts to remove the Goshutes to the Uintah Basin, Idaho, Nevada, and Oklahoma, but when these attempts failed, the Goshutes received reservation land in their native Utah. The Skull Valley Reservation was created in 1912, and the Deep Creek Reservation was formed in 1914.

Comanche