The
Uintah-Ouray Reservation in eastern Utah is the home of nearly three
thousand members of the Northern Ute Tribe. It is the largest reservation
in Utah, containing valuable timber, oil and gas, water, and other natural
resources.
The
intrusion of Mormon settlers onto Utah
Indian lands in 1847 touched
off an extended period of conflict between Mormons and several Ute (Nuciu)
bands in particular. By 1860, Ute Indian agents suggested removing these Indians to the Uintah Basin. Brigham
Young agreed to the proposal after
satisfying himself that the isolated area was "one vast contiguity of
waste," fit only for "nomadic purposes, hunting grounds for Indians
and to hold the world together." In 1861, Abraham Lincoln set aside
the Uintah Valley Reservation, comprising 2,039,400 acres in the Uintah
Basin. By 1870 most members of the Tumpanuwac, San Pitch, Pahvant, Sheberetch,
Cumumba, and Uinta-at bands of Utah Utes (collectively called the Uintah
Band) resided on the Uintah Reservation.