Show southern utes turn to farming new living ways As long ago ax as the late IMs the ute indian wag was told his big way of living must yield to that of the white kanand because they heeded that advice most members of the southern ute tribe are farmers chief buckskin charley who assumed leadership of the and capote tribes when they combined saw almost as soon as the was established in southern colorado and northern new lew mexico that the old indian way of life was doomed he tried hied to have his people moved to another reservation more suitable e to stock raising and without the handicaps handicap posed by their reservations odd rectangular shape when the attempt to move failed buckskin charley urged his people to learn to farm as the white man did and to send their children to school they heeded bis his advice and today most of the Sout southern utes are farmers the southern utes are not tourist indians they live in houses not no in teepees tee pees they do not make blankets or rugs as do the nava jos or make jewelry or beadwork for sale as do some other tribes they dress much as their white neighbors do the auto and tractor have replaced the horse to a great extent on the reservation as elsewhere most members of the tribe speak english nevertheless the southern utes have been a people p e apart th they IZ have become pr banners fan mers ners but because of tribal land problems and other factors few have been able to make a living by farming alone other job opportunities have been few in the ignacio community and years of inevitably fostered a habit of dependency upon the indian service many of the indians were pov erty stricken until income from oil and gas leases started filling the tribal coffers about four years ago they had received no gratuities in cash or provisions tor for about 20 years tribal leaders were aware that their aple people through years of poverty and d dependency epen dency had lost much of the self reliance and dignity of then their ancestors they knew also that many ny indians had fallen into the e obit habit of idleness the tribal leaders set out to overcome these conditions at a most difficult tim ewhen their people suddenly had become wealthy with no imperi experience ence ia in handling wealth the leaden leaders determined that the land claims money the southern ute share amounted to about after fees were paid must be used to fit at their people for full citizenship no tb southern ute utes they said must be b trained id it management of both their personal and tribal affairs go 0 o that their resource eft would b increased rather chaa I 1 depleted and so that in i time the of al the india indian servie vice could be enad and too bee the elf respect and A neu elf milan of f aust th tb must be b restored tw two attempts at drafting a pe habilitation program for use al f the land claims money which would baet do approval 61 both bk the aw p people p ae and the bureau of indian in lan affail affairs r failed B but ut these first plans reflected the ideas of non indians rather than the thinking of the southern themselves so the indians set to work to write their own plan A young member 0 the tribe john E baker a veteran of world war n was called back from engineering school to h head hd d the task baker termed the resulting report a blueprint for action the plan called for building a better family life for better education of younger indians for remedying defects in the tribal land code for improving the status of indian farmers it called for eventually u transferring I 1 all I 1 the functions of the indian service to the same agencies which serve the neighboring white community it called for extensive participation of the la in ians themselves in all phases of the program |