Years of unrest, fighting, and intimidation on both sides always seemed to end with another request by whites to get the Utes to their reservation in Colorado. However, the same pressure that evicted the Northern Utes in Colorado to the Uintah Reservation, was also working to get the Southern Utes off of their Colorado lands and into San Juan County, Utah. Ignacio, leader of the Southern Utes, agreed to look the region over, and so with a delegation from his tribe, traveled to the area around Monticello before giving a nod of approval in 1887. A year later, the government presented a plan that signed over to the Utes 2,912,000 acres, a promise of $50,000 in ten annual payments, and $20,000 worth of sheep. For six years the politicians in Washington, encouraged by local and state support, tried to prevent the loss of the county. In November, 1894, 1,100 Indians and their agent, David Day, tired of waiting, arrived in San Juan. Messages flew thick and fast, the end result of which set the Utes back to Colorado, but left the original Ute and Paiute stock in place.

Special government agents who visited the Utah Weeminuche in 1908 and 1915 reported their destitute condition and the continuing friction against their white neighbors. Two serious events happened within the next seven years. The first incident involved a Ute named Tse-Ne-Gat, who killed Juan Chacon, a Mexican sheepherder. Ten months after the crime occurred, the Ute was still free, so Marshall Aquila Nebeker deputized local helpers from Cortez, Bluff, and Blanding and set out to make the arrest. Men from both sides died, but the Utes were only too happy to flee the field. Hysteria in local white communities ran rampant, and it was not until General Hugh L. Scott arrived that the Indians felt comfortable in surrendering. Polk, Tse-Ne-Gat, Posey, and Posey's Boy accompanied Scott to Salt Lake City then Denver, where Tse-Ne-Gat stood trial and the jury found him not guilty.