Show I c The following letter is in answer to a request made by Curry for information regarding grazing land set aside by the Federal on the Uintah Ouray as to whether it should be to those Indians who had received smaller Last I submitted tills letter and my explanation of the reply from Secretary of Interior but the Standard was unable to print the full the letter is being printed in full this Oran F. Curry May 1961 Oran F. Curry Utah Dear In your letter of May 8 you raise the question of whether the acres of grazing land set aside on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in accordance with the Acts of March 1903 and March 1905 should not be to those Indians who received the smaller You state that your claim is based on the Act of June 1889 Stat that ratified an agreement of March among other provided that the White River Utes agreed to remove and settle upon agricultural lands on the Uintah Reservation In Utah and were to receive allotments of one-fourth section to each head of family with an additional quantity of grazing land not exceeding one-fourth Each single person over 18 years of age was to receive one-eighth of a section with an additional quantity of grazing land not exceeding one-eighth of a The Act of 1894 did provide for al of lands to Indians on the Uncompahgre Reservation in amounts as specified in the Act of June With regard tp the Uintah the Act of June 1893 contained a similar It the allotment of agricultural and grazing lands to Indians residing on the Uintah Indian including Indians who were not able to obtain allotments within the Indian as each head of a one-quarter of a with an additional quantity of grazing land not exceeding of a to each single person over eight-teen years of one-eighth of a with an additional quantity of grazing land not exceeding one-eighth of a to each orphan child under eighteen years of one-eighth of a with an additional quantity of grazing land not exceeding one-eight of a to each other person under eighteen years of age born prior to such one-eighth of a with a like quantity of grazing land V Thereafter allotments were made on the Uintah Reservation as provided by the Acts of May 1902 amended June 1902 March 1903 and April 1904 The Act of May in the Secretary of the shall cause to be allotted to each head of a family eighty acres of agricultural land which can be irrigated and forty acres of such land to each other member of said and allotments to be made prior to October nineteen hundred and on which date all the lands within said reservation shall be restored to the public With regard to eligible Uncompahgre further allotments on the Uintah Reservation were made in accordance with the Act of June as which provided in allotments hereafter made to Uncompahgre Indians of lands in said Uintah Indian Reservation shall be confined to land which can be and shall be on the basis of eighty acres to each head of a family and forty acres to each other and no The grazing land selected and set apart as aforesaid in the Uintah Indian Reservation for the use in common of the Indiana of that reservation shall be equally open to the use of all Uncompahgre Indians receiving allotments in said reservation of the reduced area here Under the provisions of Act of March amended March the grazing lands reserved were not to exceed acres and were set apart for the common use of the Indians on the Uintah If you will read these acts cited we believe you will agree with us that It was the clear Intent of Congress that the grazing land should be used in common by the Indians as provided in the and there was no intent on the part of Congress that it should be allotted or that it should belong only to those Indians who received the smaller action taken under authority of the Act of August 1954 Stat was We recognize that it may appear unfair not only to but to other groups of Indians who received smaller allotments than some of their neighbors under the authority of the applicable The circumstances which resulted in the various allotment acts were undoubtedly carefully considered by the and we f eeL the laws enacted were those which the Congress believed would be most beneficial to all We regret that it is not possible for us to give you a more favorable Sincerely John A. Secretary of the Interior |