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| Cabin used by Grant and Josephine Bayles in upper Allen Canyon. In the Southern end of Allen Canyon, Indian agent, Ed Black, and his family lived There was even a school and orchard. A school teacher that lived with them and provided the instruction that was given to the Ute students in the late 1930's (after the Posey Wars). (Janet Wilcox photo.) |
Both the settlements at Bluff and Blanding at that time had Ute Indians, Paiute Indians, and some Navajo Indians living near the communities working for the farmers or stockmen trying to get by as best they could with the moneys that they would make in doing this.
The end result of the skirmish was that the Ute Indian people were given allotments of land and the Federal Government accepted responsibility from that point on in trying to make sure that the children had opportunity for education, making sure there was some means of the land being developed and the livestock improved to where it would be easier for the Indians to be able to make his own way. The Blanding dormitory, the place that was used as housing for Ute students, had been constructed as a home by the first Bishop of Blanding, Hansen Bayles. It was later used to house some of the Ute students as they attended school at the Blanding Elementary Public School. In the late 1930's there was a school building constructed in Cottonwood near where Hammond Canyon intersects. Within just a couple of miles you have Dry Wash, Allen Canyon on the east, and Hammond Canyon on the west all draining into Cottonwood. It was near the place that Hammond Canyon comes into Cottonwood that the school facility was constructed as well as a store and some dwellings.
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| Beautiful Allen Canyon, where part of the Posey uprising took place. Many Ute families have lived here over the past century. (Janet Wilcox photo.) |
The White Mesa community, 10 miles south of Blanding, is a result of a land settlement where the Ute people received a large amount of money from the United States Government--the Government having taken land from the Indians. They gave them this money as payment.
In 1954 there were meetings held that resulted in Belle Posey, who happens to be Joe Bishop's daughter--Posey's granddaughter-- saying, "Well, the rest of you can build in Blanding, or Allen Canyon, or Westwater, or wherever you want. But I want to build on my allotment in White Mesa." Other Ute people agreed with her and that's how the community was started at White Mesa.
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