Show TIM SAN JUAN CLAIMANTS Judge F A HAMMOND of San Juan county will leave for Washington Thursday Thurs-day morning in the interest of the settlers of the county named The people down in the forbidding and inhospitable corner of this territory have about made up their minds that they will have to go Colorado is a state and has political influence while Utah is a territory and consequently without influence cf the character suggested sug-gested There is a fertile and wellwatered valley in Colorado which is owned and occupied oc-cupied by Ute Indians These Indians are not agreeable neighbors Sometimes they are entirely too friendly and affectionate being source of expense and annoyance both to the whites in their vicinity at other times they are neither friendly nor affectionate and are the cause of a good deal of trouble as when they forget the laws regarding the ownership of prcperty such as cattle on the range or when they delight in the aboriginal pastime of hunting hunt-ing for scalps Then our friends on the other side of the border are disposed to look with covetous eyes upon the fertile soil comprised in the Ute reservation and being influential they have succeeded in having the order go forth that the Indians shall be transferred to Utah which is powerless pow-erless to prevent the thing The Indians for a consideration have agreed to the removal which they were shrewd enough to understand they could not prevent pre-vent even if they could delay it a few years and now all that remains to be done is the formal action on the part of Congress That action will certainly betaken be-taken this session and Judge HAMMOND goes as the authorized representative and agent of the few settlers in San Juan to represent matters as they exist and to ask that government will be just if not generous gener-ous Years ago these people went into the then wilderness country to create homes and gain a living They went in good faith firmly believing that in due time they would bo able to obtain title to the public land on which they settled and which they set out to reclaim They went to work with a will as pioneers in this region are in the habit of doing Disaster after disaster overtook them and misfortune seemed to pursue them vindictively yet they persevered and against odds and in spite of opposition that would have discouraged dis-couraged less determined people they went on building houses creating homes digging dig-ging ditches and wringing from the forbidding I for-bidding and unwilling earth the means for their support and comfort Not all of them have been prosperous but all have worked hard and the product of their labor is in their farms their cottages their fences and their irrigation canals All these are valuable their owners being psesent to use them and all are absolutely valueless their owners being away Little or nothing can be removed but all must be left the land to return re-turn to its desert condition the ditches to fill with soil the homes and fences to be fuel for the Indian fires It is to be hoped that Congress will look generously upon the claims of these poor people It seems a cruel thing to drive them away and it will be more cruel to send them away without full compensation for all they shall leave behind the product of years of severe toil and rigid economy We regret to note a disposition on the part of certain of the Colorado newspapers hurry along the removal of the Indians to this territory without regard to the rights of the little colony of settlers in San + + Juan To these citizens we suggest that there is in this world such a thing as justice Jus-tice |