but now refused and claimed the land as theirs; they were menacing the Utes and monopolizing the pasture and waterholes with their vast herds (Nav. Ex. 351). In August 1896 Navajo Agent Williams reported that as soon as the Navajos' crops within the Ute Reservation were harvested they would leave (Nav. Ex. 352). On August 22, 1897, a resident of Holyoke (McElmo), San Juan County, Utah, complained that Navajos' sheep ate her crops and the Navajos threatened her if she attempted to drive the sheep off (Nav. Ex. 355). Some of the history reflected in the documents for the next two decades concerns Howard R. Antes, who located a small mission at Aneth on the north side of the San Juan River in Utah. He used this as a school, teaching up to 15 Navajo children. He later apparently also operated a trading post. On November 14, 1898, he complained to the Secretary of the Interior concerning a Fred Adams of Bluff, who claiming to be a county official taxed Navajos for grazing their sheep on the Government land north of the San Juan River. Antes stated that the land was worthless and only inhabited by several traders and two men who had a few acres in cultivation and desired to use the land for grazing themselves. He requested that Indians, or at least the Navajos, be allowed to leave their reservation temporarily to get subsistence for their flocks and that they be exempt from taxation (Nav. Ex. 358). By letter of December 2, 1898 (Nav. Ex. 359), the Commissioner reported to the Secretary of Interior that for several years "a few of the Navajos and a number of Southern Utes as well, have been finding subsistence for their flocks in San Juan County, and this with the tacit consent of the office." He stated that as wards of the Government they should be permitted to graze their stock on public lands and that the county should have no right to impose any grazing license tax upon them. He recommended that Antes be advised to inform the Indians that they should pay no taxes on their flocks to anyone, so long as they are kept upon the unoccupied lands of the United States. He also advised that Antes should lay all the facts relative to Adams' conduct before the prosecuting attorney in San Juan County with a request that he take action. He then stated: It is not deemed wise to officially notify the Indians of the Navajo Reservation that they are at liberty to leave their reservation when they please to occupy lands outside and they should not be encouraged to do so. A system of irrigation on this reservation is now in course of construction, and when completed, the Indians will have no reason for going outside for grazing or for agricultural land. Id. The record does not contain the Secretary's response, but Antes in a letter of February 2, 1899, to the Commissioner (Nav. Ex. 361), stated that the Commissioner's letter to the Secretary was forwarded to him with the Secretary's concurrence "that the Navajo Indians could graze their flocks off of their June 29, 1973 reservation without being obliged to pay taxes to white men who do not occupy it." He requested that supplies be sent to the destitute Indians. On December 14, 1898, Navajo Agent G. W. Hayzlett reported of complaints from people in Utah of Navajo depredations (Nav. Ex. 360). He also stated that he had written some of the parties that in in his opinion the Indians had the same right to occupy and graze on the public lands that the whites had subject, however, to the same laws of the State or territory, as the whites, and that he would ask the Department for advice. He also stated the Navajos were selling their sheep to traders and others but he directed his police to arrest any who did so. He also wrote to Antes on November 2, 1899, to advise the Indians not to sell their stock as once they did, they would have nothing (Nav. Ex. 362). Antes took it upon himself to issue "passes" or "permits" to the Navajos to go on the public lands. In January 1900, Kate Perkins, Clerk of San Juan County, Utah, complained to the Commissioner that the County derived its revenue from taxing stock, that the range was in bad condition due to drought and stocked to its utmost capacity, and that the Indians refused to remove their stock across the river because of permits issued by Antes. She asked what authority he had to issue them and enclosed a copy of the "permit" from Antes (Nav. Ex. 365). The Governor of Utah also asked the Secretary of the Interior as to Antes' authority to issue permits. The record does not reflect the Secretary's reply, but it does reflect a letter of January 22, 1900, by the Commissioner to the Secretary (Nav. Ex. 366 and encls.), which avoids an answer to that specific question, misstated the facts concerning the "permit", and refers to his letter to Hayzlett of March 3, 1899, advising him that: ** many persons living in Utah just across the northern boundary line of the Navajo Reservation had complained about the Navajo Indians entering San Juan County with their herds, for the purpose of grazing the same, upon a permit issued to the Navajo Indians by a proper County official of the said County; that in reply he had advised the complainants that in his opinion the Indians had the same right to occupy and graze on the public lands as had the whites provided they comply with the laws governing the whites and he requested that he be instructed in the premises. In reply, the office, under date of March 3, 1899, advised him as follows: In reply you are advised concerning the first subject that this office is of the opinion that Navajo Indians who comply with all the laws of the State of Utah and pay for and obtain a license to own, raise, or pasture their livestock within the lands of the said State, would have just as good a right to do so as have the whites. While you are expected to restrain and prevent so far as practicable Indians under your charge from going off the reservation for such purposes, yet it is very much doubted that you have a legal right to prevent them by force from peaceably leaving the reservation for this purpose. There would seem to be no remedy for this state of affairs except that of using moral suasion and your personal influence over them. Of course, they should be warned that when they leave the limits of their reservation and enter territory within the jurisdiction of Utah they are subject to all its laws and also to arrest and punishment by the proper state authorities in case they violate any of such laws. If, therefore, the Indians while off the reservation and in Utah commit depredations on the stock of settlers and otherwise annoy them, the stockmen and others must seek relief under the State laws. You are expected, however, to use such influence as you may have over them to cause them to give up these expeditions and stay within the limits of their reservation. * * From this report from the Agent, it is thought that the permit referred to by Miss Perkins as giving the Indians permission to graze their cattle is one that has been issued to them upon payment to the proper County officials of a grazing tax or license. If, as is supposed, the Indians have complied with the grazing laws of this County, it is not seen but that they have just as good a right to graze their stock as the whites, provided, of course, that they do so peaceably; and it is hoped that they will in justice be allowed the same privileges as the white stockmen enjoy. The foregoing contains the most specific references to the San Juan County, Utah, area in the archival materials prior to and during the year 1900. Other materials relate to the Navajos generally. There is no evidence that the Indians complied with the state laws. For the next decade, the people from Bluff and people involved with the Antes' mission at Aneth figure most predominately in the archival material. In March 1901 (Nav. Ex. 371), Utah Senator Thomas Kearns reported the Governor of Utah claimed the Navajos and Utes were engaging in depredations. The Ute agent stated that the Utes did not bother anyone and owned few sheep and goats at the Navajo Spring Agency, but suggested the Navajos were the subjects of the reports because the Navajo reservation was to the south, and many of the Navajos owned large herds of sheep, cattle and ponies, and some grazed their stock in Utah and hunted there. He stated that houses alleged to have been built on the north side of the San Juan River were not built by Utes, nor did any of them have any intention of residing there (Nav. Ex. 372).12 In September 1902 settlers at Bluff petitioned the Secretary of the Interior for help for the Navajos who within a radius of 50 to 75 miles of the town were in a destitute condition (Nav. Ex. 375). Indian Agent Hayzlett went from the mouth of McElmo Creek along the San Juan River and requested the Indians to come see him, none said they were hungry and refused an offer of a $1 a day job with the railroad. He saw few sheep as most of the Navajos had their flocks out in the mountains as there was no grass along the river, but some had crops 12 In May 1901 the Ute Agent found 8 to 10 Navajo families within the Ute Navajo Springs Agency who claimed they had the Navajo Agent's permission to plant crops there that spring. He stated that for the last 5 or 6 years some of the Navajos had done so. He requested the Navajos be informed to stay on their own reservation and asked for their police to remove them. In reply the Navajo Agent at Ft. Defiance stated he had never given the Navajos permission to enter the Ute reservation for any purpose. but asked that they not be removed until they harvested their present crop (Nav. Ex. 373 & Enc.). June 29, 1973 of melons and pumpkins which "looked good and a number of ditches." He stated that there was not a white settler on either side of the river about Bluff nearer than 70 or 80 miles "still the people in the state want the Indians called back to the reservation." He advised them to stay and improve the lands, and make permanent homes if they liked and if they desired to file on the lands, he would assist them. Three said they wanted to remain and make permanent homes, and he asked Antes to assist them with their papers. He asked for additional farmers and additional irrigation development work (Nav. Ex. 377). Other reports were made of poor conditions of the Navajos. These pertained to Indians inside the reservation, as well as any outside. On November 17, 1902, Hayzlett discounted reports that 6,000 Navajos were starving as the Census Bureau for that "whole district" (apparently the northwestern part of the reservation) showed only 1.747 (Nav. Ex. 381). However, subsequently, he reported that Indians along the mountains and in the Chinle Valley which extends from Cana Desha north to the river opposite Bluff were in need of food, but the Indians along the river were all right (Nav. Ex. 392). This was in agreement with a letter from Mary Eldridge in December 15, 1902, to the same effect (Nav. Ex. 384). In December 1902, Miss Sophie Hubert who worked at Antes' mis sion wrote to the Commissioner requesting more schools for the Navajo children. She stated there were 15 children at their school but that there were 50 to 60 more children living within 10 to 12 miles up and down the river (Nav. Ex. 383). William T. Shelton, Superintendent of the Navajo San Juan School, Farmington, New Mexico, in his letter of April 30, 1904, to the Commissioner reported on a trip to Aneth. He stated that about 95 percent of the Indian country he passed through was a wild, barren, inhospitable waste, devoid of all vegetation, except for an occasional growth of cottonwood trees along the river. The remaining 5 percent consisted of small sandy tracts located here and there along the river; some of which were being cultivated by the Indians when possible to get water and in a most primitive way. He stated: The general condition of the Indians west of the Four Corners, and along the river where most of the Indians are located, as to ideas, customs, morality and progress, is far below the average of the Navajos heretofore met with. But those below Aneth and about with all of their bad points most of them (Nav. Ex. 397). On April 18, 1904, Antes asked the President to extend the Navajo reservation north of the river at Aneth (Nav. Ex. 399 Enc.). He stated that several small bottoms of the San Juan River on its north bank had been occupied by Indians for many years and are occupied by them. He stated that the land was government land subject to settlement, but no filing had been made upon it, although "there have been numerous attempts to settle upon it by white men, but in every case, it has been abandoned as impracticable except that three trading posts have remained." He requested the area to be reserved for the Indians except for the sites of his mission and school and the Aneth Post Office which he conducted. He stated: The Indians have all along come across the river, from their reservation, and have camped here, and sometimes built themselves cabins and tried to raise crops. No one but Indians want any of this land for homes, and yet there has been more or less friction, and a constant probability of contention and eviction by stockmen who want the whole country for their stock. The Commissioner questioned whether the Indians would not be amply protected by allotments or Indian homesteads (Nav. Ex. 399). Superintendent Shelton in his report to the Commissioner, dated July 30, 1904 (Nav. Ex. 403), recommended against allotments or Indian homesteads because of the isolated conditions, the Indians' few opportunities to come in contact with civilized people, and because these Indians were far behind the Indians located on some other parts of the reservation. Although he had not at that time made a trip to inspect, he recommended the addition to the reservation suggested by Antes,13 The March 2, 1905, letter by the Commissioner to the Secretary of the Interior (Nav. Ex. 412) recommended the addition to the reservation and referred to a report by Shelton, dated February 15, 1905, of a recent trip he made into the area. 13 Shelton placed on a rough sketch (not included with Nav. Ex. 403, but separate as Nav. Ex. 1) where he had remembered the different settlements of Indians are located along the north side of the river in Utah and inside the boundary in question. He estimated 250 Indians in the area, but said the number may be considerably more or less. He stated he had only been a few miles below the mouth of McElmo Canyon and had little idea of the number and location of the Indians between there and Montezuma Creek. He could remember only one tract of land about 500 acres, which seemed to be of agricultural potential, located 2 miles below the mouth of McElmo Creek, but this would require the "taking out of a good ditch, before it will be of practical use to the Indians." Other small parcels of land up and down the river were in danger of being destroyed by high water at any time. "To more fully demonstrate the poor condition of this land, it has been frequently located and settled upon by white people, who in every instance, have starved out and given it up." The best benefit for the executive order reservation would be to protect grazing land for the Indian stock. He had been told that stockmen near Bluff, "frequently run in thousands of sheep in this section, which eat out what little food there is, leaving the Indian stock to suffer." (Nav. Ex. 403.) A Harriet Peabody (who had been teaching at Aneth for 5 years) in a letter of July S. 1904. to the Commissioner recommended allotments for the Indians. She had checked the surveys and found that one camp is just below the survey which ends at the Butter Canyon. "Near Aneth the Indians have their lands all fenced, their irrigating ditches made and are doing quite good farming." She couldn't understand why Shelton didn't think they were ready for allotment, but indicated they needed schools and "someone to assist them in their work and to teach them to respect each others rights" (Nav. Ex. 402). |