COLORADO. 



151 





That the Indinnfl view with distrust and jealousy 

 nil supposed eneroaohmenti now necessarily nwlc in 

 oommunioftting with the mining districts aforesaid, 

 uiul tluit tlu< transportation of machinery and supplies 

 to said districts, uml oommonkctton with thorn, w at- 

 trii'U'il l>y ifivat rislf and danger to life and property. 



That l'iy n -.^i\ of the vast extent of said reserva- 

 tion, the people of the State of Colorado are deprived 

 ..I tin; use of a great area of fertile and productive 

 lands, the development of several districts rich in nil 

 the precious metals is prevented or impeded, and the 

 growth of the State fe hindered by the absence of 

 thousands who will be attracted to the State as soon 

 is tho said reservation is opened to exploration and 

 settlement. 



That the interest upon a small portion of the mon- 

 eys which will be derived by the General Government 

 for the side of lands in said reservation will support 

 it- ] resent occupants on another or lesa extensive res- 

 ervation. 



Your memorialists therefore most respectfully urge 

 and pray your honorable body to take such action as 

 may DC necessary for the opening of said reservation 

 to settlement and the removal ot tho Indians there- 

 from. 



Within the limits of tho above-mentioned 

 tract of land are large mountains, from most of 

 which explorers have been excluded by the 

 Indians. Prospectors, however, have explored 

 some portions of the country and found valu- 

 able lode and placer claims, and there is rea- 

 son to believe that it contains great mineral 

 wealth. The number of Indians who occupy 

 this reservation is about three thousand. If 

 the land was divided up between the individ- 

 ual members of the tribe, it would give every 

 man, woman, and child between three and 

 four thousand acres. It has been claimed that 

 the entire tribe have had in cultivation about 

 fifty acres of land. These Indians are fed by 

 the Government, are allowed ponies without 

 number, and, except when engaged in an occa- 

 sional hunt, their most serious employment is 

 horse-racing. If this reservation could be ex- 

 tinguished and the land thrown open to set- 

 tlers, it would furnish homes to thousands of 

 the people of the State who desire homes, 

 would furnish grazing for immense herds of 

 cattle, horses, and sheep, and might prove to 

 be exceedingly rich in minerals. It has been 

 necessary already to construct toll-roads over 

 portions of the reservation in order to trans- 

 port supplies to the population at Ouray, 

 Mount Sneffles, San Miguel, and other pros- 

 perous mining camps in that vicinity, for the 

 shipment of ores and the transportation of the 

 mails. The Indians look with jealousy upon 

 any supposed encroachments upon their rights. 

 An accidental quarrel between them and a 

 party of whites would immediately stop all 

 travel across the reservation, would cut off 

 the supplies in these frontier settlements, and 

 involve that whole country in great trouble. 



An act was passed to prevent the defacement 

 of natural scenery by advertisements. Dur- 

 ing its discussion Mr. Walcott of Clear Creek 

 said that in his county " every available rock 

 was already plastered and painted over." Mr. 

 John opposed the bill in its present form, for 

 the reason that " it provides for the deface- 



ment of all advertisements by the county com- 

 missioners, which would bankrupt every county 

 in the State." 



In the Senate, an act was introduced to re- 

 peal the code, and extensive debate ensued on 

 the merits of the code system and the common- 

 law practice. One of the speakers asserted that 

 Judge Dillon had said in Denver, when decid- 

 ing a demurrer in the United States Court (a 

 motion having been made to strike out cer- 

 tain parts of the pleadings demurred to), in 

 substance as follows: "There is no use of 

 that. You are just passing through the ex- 

 perience of other States that have adopted a 

 code. Its adoption has always been followed 

 by a large crop of demurrers and motions and 

 violent opposition. Treat the code fairly. It is 

 the correct system ; there is no doubt in my 

 mind about that. Get your cases to issue on 

 the merits. You have adopted and are to have 

 the code. No State has gone back to the com- 

 mon-law practice after adopting the code. You 

 will soon be at work all right under it, and will 

 be surprised after a while that it was the occa- 

 sion of so much trouble." The code was sus- 

 tained by a vote of 14 to 10. The question 

 arose in the Senate whether Sunday was inclu- 

 ded among the legislative days of the session. 

 It was decided that it was, and should be so 

 counted. 



An act provides for the appointment of sheep 

 inspectors, and the inspection of every flock 

 brought into the State and its subsequent pe- 

 riodical inspection. 



A temperance bill was reported in the House, 

 which provided that u every wife shall have 

 a right of action against the man who makes 

 her husband drunk." A person who rents a 

 building to a saloon-keeper shall be responsi- 

 ble jointly with him for the damages ; but the 

 lessor may dispossess the saloon-keeper if he 

 unlawfully sells liquor. There was six major- 

 ity against the bill, and it was laid aside. 



The subject of irrigation received careful con- 

 sideration, owing to its great importance to the 

 State. The bill provides that the county com- 

 missioners of each county shall, at their regu- 

 lar January session, hear all applications from 

 parties desiring the use of the water, with all 

 such details as may be necessary, and proceed 

 to fix the price to be charged for the water 

 from the particular ditch in question. This 

 shall not be changed within two years. Limi- 

 tations are prescribed to this general grant of 

 authority, and also upon the use of the pur- 

 chaser. " If at any time any ditch or reser- 

 voir from which water is or shall be drawn for 

 irrigation, shall not be entitled to a full supply 

 of water from the natural stream which sup- 

 plies the same, the water actually received into 

 and carried by such ditch, or held in such re- 

 servoir, shall be divided among all the consu- 

 mers of water from such ditch or reservoir, as 

 well the owners, shareholders, or stockholders 

 thereof, as the parties purchasing water there- 

 from, and parties taking water partly under 



