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Show COLLIER VISITS 1 DINTAHJRIBES Th redman's whit god. John P.! Collar, United Btates commissioner of Indian affairs. Friday was visit- i ing Utah's Indian reservations In the Uintah baain for the tint time In nil career. He announced In Bait Lake City late Thursday that he Is here to "let a break" for inhabitants of the Uintah and Ouray reservations. The Indians-then no-w have only! one-half of one per cent of the! ortfinal lands given them by treaty I with the United Statu government I The white man and his cattle and I heep hava literally wrecked the redman'a lands by denuding them of vegetation and allowing erosion to destroy fertility of the lands, he said. Indians' Friend Incidentally. Mr. Collier is regarded regard-ed by the vast majority of Indians In the United States as the first commissioner to work wholeheartedly wholeheart-edly for their Interests. He is opposed by one faction of (hem, the American Federation of Indiana, which, ha said, does not number "more than two or three hundred members." Mr. Collier said the Indian service ser-vice Is attempting to put tribes-1 men on a self-sustaining basis, obtaining ob-taining for them a minimum subsistence sub-sistence number of livestock and securing proper Irrigation for their; farm lands. Besides Increased acreage, he said the Indians are In urgent need of federal financing for necessary Improvements. Im-provements. , j Tribes Progress The commissioner reported that the Navajo Indians of New Mexico, j Arixona, Utah and Colorado are making excellent progress In their efforts at setting up a self government. govern-ment. The tribesmen have drawn their own constitution. Neither i white men nor Indians In the employment em-ployment of the U. 8. government are allowed to hold office in the , tribesmen's councils. ! He reported that the pinenut crop, i Upon which aouthweat redmen are largely dependent, ia "fairly good this year, but spotty." i He haxarded the opinion that the Navajos, while still subject this year to the blixzards which last fall marooned and threatened hundreds hun-dreds with death, are better pre-! pared for such a contingency now because of supplies which have! been left at strategic spots. Mr. Collier was accompanied to the Uintah basin by John T. Mont-! gomery, regional supervisor with the Indian service; A. C Copley, I Utah director, and C. C. Wright, supervisor of the Uintah reservation. |