PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Utah and the Arizona Strip: Ethnographic and Historical Background

The Federal Government's Response: Creation of the Kaibab Indian Reservation

Mormon settlement at Moccasin and elsewhere in the region was not the only threat to the Kaibab Paiute way of life. Federal government actions also made a significant impact. In 1893 much of the nearby high country to the southeast was set aside as a forest preserve. The impact on the Kaibab Paiute was noted 10 years later in the Commissioner of Indian Affair's annual report to the Secretary of the Interior for the year 1903. At that time the Kaibab Paiute numbered 110 (64 men and 46 women). Special Agent James A. Brown, who described existing conditions in the following excerpts, made the report:

These Indians are gradually adopting the ways of the white people.

As yet no houses have been built by the Indians, but all of them live in teepes [sic], never remaining in one place long at a time. They are quite superstitious, and as soon as one of their number dies they will move camp within the next few hours.

They have a small farm, located at Moccasin Spring, about 18 miles from Kanab. This farm is taken care of by the Indians. At present about 7 acres are cultivated. Corn and alfalfa are the chief crops raised. They do not realize much money from their farm, as they do not try to market any of their products; but as soon as it is ripe most of them go to Moccasin and eat up what they have raised.

The men work for the white men at odd jobs. The haying season is when they are most employed. Some few are herding sheep this year. The squaws have steady employment the year round washing for the white people. They get from 25 cents to 60 cents per day for putting out a washing (or a batch of clothes). They never get anything ahead, but spend their money as fast as they make it to support themselves.

The young Indians do a great deal of hunting, but game is very scarce, rabbits being about all they get. Formerly the Buckskin Mountain afforded excellent hunting ground, but since that has been made a forest reserve the Indians have been shut off. In fact, they have not been allowed the same privilege as white men have during the open game season, which I think they certainly should have.

Deer are very plentiful on the Buckskin Mountain, and before it was made a reserve these Indians obtained most of their living from that source. [233]

Concerned Church officials brought the condition of the Kaibab Paiute to the attention of Utah Senator Reed Smoot who, in late 1905, asked the Office of Indian Affairs for federal relief. [234] The situation regarding access to traditional hunting lands, however, only worsened. On November 28, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Grand Canyon National Game Preserve. [235] On January 11, 1908, Roosevelt proclaimed Grand Canyon National Monument, separating it from the Kaibab National Forest which was created that year from the forest reserve set aside in 1893. [236] From 1906 to 1923, the federal government employed hunters of the U.S. Biological Survey to kill predatory animals, including more than 800 cougars, 30 wolves, nearly 5,000 coyotes, and more than 500 bobcats. [237] State deer-hunting laws suddenly became rigidly enforced in the interest of the infant tourist industry. As off-reservation Indians with no treaty protection or hunting rights, the Kaibab Paiute were subject to these laws. The imposition of state license, season and bag limits dealt them a serious blow, as they had long been dependent on deer for food and buckskins to trade. Cut off from deer hunting, the Paiute were, as Ethnohistorian Martha Knack wrote, "plunged into hunger and poverty." [238]

The displacement of the Kaibab Paiute from their lands and the resources they had depended on created a crisis that prompted remedial action from the federal government. The government's solution to the "Indian problem," implemented throughout the West during the 19th and early 20th centuries, was the creation of Indian reservations. The creation of the Kaibab Indian Reservation was not accomplished by a single act of government, but rather evolved by fits-and-starts over a period of 10 years, from 1907 to 1917. This section describes the major factors in that evolution. Also included is information drawn from letters of superintendents of the Kaibab Agency, as well as from a number of investigatory reports filed by field agents during the early years. These data provide a picture of how the Kaibab Indian Reservation first developed and what resources were available to it during the years leading up to the establishment of Pipe Spring National Monument. It also offers additional information about Moccasin Ranch and about relations between its white residents and their Kaibab Paiute neighbors. [239]

By 1906 the Kaibab Paiute population reached a historic low of 73. By the Indian Appropriation Act of June 21, 1906 (34 Stats. 325 and 376), Congress appropriated $5,000 for the purchase of lands and sheep for the San Juan Paiute and $10,500 to "support and civilize" the Kaibab Indians in southern Utah and northern Arizona and for the purchase of lands and water, along with farming implements, machinery, and livestock. At the time of this appropriation, certain facts were reported by Office of Indian Affairs on the San Juan Paiute and Kaibab Paiute tribes. Regarding the latter, the Office reported that,

...a remnant of the Kaibab tribe, consisting of 73 Indians, owned a small tract of land aggregating about 12 acres and lying west of Kanab, Utah, on which they were trying to produce enough to exist, but that it was impossible for them to make a living because the land was next to worthless and that they had to rely upon the citizens of that place and the surrounding ranches and towns for enough to keep them from starving; that in past years they had access to the Buckskin Mountains [sic] to graze their ponies and secure game, that they realized quite a revenue from the sale of buckskins, which has since been cut off; that the only thing which they could secure money from was the sale of the few pine nuts they were able to gather during the fall. [240]

U.S. Indian Inspector Levi Chubbuck was immediately directed by the Office of Indian Affairs to conduct an investigation for purposes of determining how the funds could best be expended in the interests of the Indians in the region. Chubbuck's report of December 31, 1906, failed to find the Indians in a starving condition, but made other observations:

Hearing the Indians express the desire that they might have the Moccasin Ranch because it was where their fathers and grandfathers had been born and were buried, I made inquiry of Mr. Nephi Johnson, Sr., one of the first white men to come into that section, as to the early occupancy of that land by the Indians, and he stated publicly that to his knowledge the Indians were living on what is now known as Moccasin Ranch long before any white men lived there, and that they tilled the ground and used the water from the springs. Afterwards white men took full possession and the Indians were located on land close to Kanab. Their close proximity to the town being distasteful to many at the time, the church undertook to relocate the Indians at the ranch acquiring a claim to the 10 or 12 acres with water right and putting them in possession of the tract. [241]

As opposed to Office of Indian Affairs accounts, in the 1920s local Latter-day Saints and their attorneys asserted that the Kaibab Paiute were drawn to the settlement of Moccasin only after the Church mission was established there, as well as by the Church's "gift" of land and water. These assertions were made in legal defense of their homestead claims.

What appears to be the case is that Indians were indeed living at Moccasin Spring, at least seasonally, prior to Maxwell's 1865 claim. In fact, the suggestion that any such reliable water source went unused prior to the Latter-day Saints' arrival would seem highly improbable as the livelihood of the Indians depended upon the use of all available resources. When the Navajo raids of December 1865 forced the four-year abandonment of the Kanab settlement, some, if not all, of the Paiute band at Moccasin may have moved to Kanab Creek, joining others already there prior to the settlement's abandonment. Their combined numbers would have offered an increased measure of safety against the Navajo. As Latter-day Saints responded to Brigham Young's 1870 call to resettle Kanab, demand for irrigable land along Kanab Creek grew quickly. With the threat of Navajo raids ended, the Paiute were no longer needed in Kanab as political allies. At that point it is likely they were viewed not only as competitors, but also perhaps as a public nuisance. The fact that some Indians were reduced to begging for food and clothing may explain Chubbuck's 1906 report (cited earlier) that the Indians' close proximity to Kanab was "distasteful to many." The Church's solution to the problem may well have been to draw the Indians back to Moccasin with an offer of water, land, and a Church mission. The offer of the return of some part of their traditionally used land and water would have been attractive to the Kaibab band, especially as they were being squeezed out of the Kanab area by a growing number of white settlers. The establishment of a Church mission might also have been considered beneficial by providing institutional charity to the Indians, a form arguably more reliable than individual charity.

More importantly from the Church perspective, the mission may have facilitated some measure of Church control of the Indians by offering a tried-and-true means of imposing Euroamerican, and distinctively Latter-day Saint, values upon them. In other words, if the Indians became enough "like them," the Church and its members would provide enough work, food, clothes, and other essentials to enable the Indians to physically survive. Even so, Kaibab Paiute lives were still miserable enough to prompt such heart-rending appeals as the one made in 1880 by Jacob Hamblin to John Wesley Powell (cited earlier), to warrant the Indian Appropriation Act of June 21, 1906, and to prompt later federal investigations, such as the one made by Levi Chubbuck (quoted above). Levi Chubbuck filed a supplemental report to the Office of Indian Affairs on February 12, 1907. While unsatisfactory to his superiors in several ways, these two reports led to a modification of the original Indian Appropriation Act of 1906. Under the Indian Appropriation Act of March 1, 1907 (34 Stats. 1015 and 1049), the original sums were reappropriated and made available for the use of the Paiute Indians in southern Utah and northern Arizona. [242] In Chubbuck's February report, he stated, "Stock raising must be the principal means of support for these people, as it is for the whites of this region, hence it is necessary that ample provision for grazing ground be made..." [243]

On May 18, 1907, Inspector Frank C. Churchill was instructed to return to the area and to complete the investigation begun by Chubbuck. While Chubbuck had reported on the conditions of the Paiute, his report failed to make definite recommendations. Churchill inspected conditions of the Shivwits group residing near St. George, population about 150, and at Moccasin Ranch, where the Kaibab Paiute were reported as numbering about 80. In his report of August 30, 1907, Churchill also noted a fenced pasture containing several thousand acres and "some ten or fifteen acres of tillable lands, well-watered by a spring located on the private property of Moccasin Ranch, owned by Mr. Jonathan Heaton, the Indians owning one-third of the full flow of the spring..." [244] Churchill reported that the Indians' share of water was sufficient to cultivate 50 acres. [245] Churchill also reported on several smaller, scattered groups of Paiute living in northern Arizona, central Utah, and eastern Nevada. [246]

In submitting Inspector Churchill's report to the Secretary of the Interior on October 8, 1907, Acting Commissioner C. F. Larrabey stated,

It appears from the report that it will be practically impossible to locate these Indians on any one tract of land, as each group is attached to the vicinity where it is now located and would not be content elsewhere; and as the appropriation would not be sufficient to purchase lands for each group in the vicinity of its present location, some other policy must be followed. [247]

In this letter Larrabey concurred with Churchill's recommendation that a reservation 18 miles long by 12 miles wide be established "for the use of the Kaibab and other Indians." He also agreed with the Inspector's other recommendations: 1) that one-third of the flow from Moccasin Spring be piped down 1.5 miles south of the spring "to a point at or near the cedar post set by me with the assistance of Jonathan Heaton, Walter Funke, and E. D. Wooley [sic] ...the object being to construct a small, inexpensive reservoir at the end of the pipeline;" 2) that an engineer be directed to measure the flow of Moccasin Spring and to stake out a pipeline and reservoir site; and that 3) after the construction of the water system, between 50 and 100 two-year-old heifers, along with a suitable number of bulls, be issued to the Kaibab Paiute. Larrabey assured the Secretary that "the adoption of these recommendations for the Kaibabs will place them in a comparatively independent position whereby they can protect their homes without further assistance from the Government." [248]

The Secretary of the Interior approved Larrabey's recommendation on October 10, 1907. Five days later, Larrabey requested the Secretary to direct the Commissioner of the General Land Office (GLO) to withdraw the necessary lands (216 square miles, or 138,000 acres) from settlement and entry. On October 16, 1907, First Assistant Secretary Thomas Ryan approved the request and referred it to the Commissioner of the GLO for action. On October 23, 1907, the GLO notified the Register and Receiver in Phoenix, Arizona, of the withdrawal of public lands for the Kaibab Indians. The 1907 withdrawal - the first step toward creating the Kaibab Indian Reservation - enclosed all of Moccasin and Pipe Spring and part of the town of Fredonia within the boundaries of the reservation.

Office of Indian Affairs Chief Engineer William H. Code was directed on November 11, 1907, to further investigate the water situation at Moccasin Spring and to determine the requirements and cost for a pipeline. After he reported, it became apparent that the pipeline and irrigation project could not be completed by June 30, the end of the 1907 fiscal year, and also that this work should be accomplished prior to the purchase of farm equipment and livestock. The Secretary of the Interior learned that the $10,500 appropriated in June 1906 had to be spent in fiscal year 1907, and took action to have the funds reappropriated by Congress for fiscal year 1908.

In 1908, by agreement between the Department of the Interior and the Heaton family, the Kaibab Paiute moved from the 10-acre tract the Church had given them located next to Moccasin Spring, to a location 1.5 miles to the southeast. The new school and village were established on lands claimed by the Heatons but relinquished to the Indians in exchange for the Moccasin land the Indians had vacated. That year a division weir was installed at Moccasin Spring and a pipeline was laid to transport the Indians' one-third share of water to the new village reservoir. [249] Both Indians and white employees living and working in Kaibab Village for both domestic and agricultural purposes used the Indians' portion of spring water. Other developments (believed to all date to 1908) comprised a school, an office/residence for the superintendent, six stone residences for Kaibab Paiute families, and several support buildings. In addition, the Indian Office issued 83 heifers to the Indians.

A number of protests were received against the setting aside of the lands for the Kaibab Paiute. On December 9, 1909, Senator Reed Smoot submitted a petition to the Secretary of the Interior signed by about 100 residents of Kanab, Utah, and Fredonia, Arizona. The petition requested that the newly created Kaibab Indian Reservation be reduced in area. The Secretary replied that he would request a report from the superintendent of the Kaibab agency "as to the needs of the Indians for the lands referred to in the petition," and would advise Senator Smoot later about the matter. [250] While no other correspondence on this particular petition was found, no action was taken at this time to further reduce the reservation's size.

With their traditional economies threatened or destroyed by Euroamerican incursion and removal to reservations, Indians were forced to develop new strategies for survival. In his article, "When Indians Became Cowboys," historian Peter Iverson describes how and why many Indians became involved in the lucrative cattle industry:

As Indians began to search for ways to transform the imposed setting of the reservation into a home with appropriate cultural meaning, once again they had to tie economy with society. How could they use the lands they now occupied? They did not have to look far for possibilities. Non-Indian neighbors all over the West had appropriated Indian land for the cattle industry. Now whites were trying to gain access to Indian reservations for the same purpose. It is not surprising that Indians soon realized that cattle ranching offered them opportunities too. Indian cattle ranching therefore began to emerge as a strategy to confront changing times. It gradually became part of the tradition of many western Indian communities. [251]

Cattle were initially provided to the Indians by the federal government, while agents of the Office of Indian Affairs worked hard to develop the reservation's fledgling industry. Despite problems (such as continued pressure by non-Indian neighbors for the government to reduce the Indian land base), cattle ranching still offered the best chance for many Native American communities to build a local economy and rebuild a society.

Early reports by Indian Service officials provide a glimpse into the increasingly important role cattle ranching played on the Kaibab Indian Reservation shortly after it was set aside. During the month of June 1911, at W. H. Code's instructions, engineer Howard C. Means of the U.S. Indian Service at Ft. Duchesne, Utah, investigated conditions relative to the water supply for the Indians on the Kaibab Indian Reservation. Means' report of July 12, 1911, included a description of Kanab Creek and its use by Kanab residents, along with a description of Moccasin Springs. The latter, he reported,

...is composed of two springs. The larger one flows approximately 1/2 second foot and the smaller one about 1/3 of the amount of the larger. The Indians own 1/3 of the flow of the larger spring and this amounts to approximately 1/6 of a second foot. The Kaibab School is located 1? miles south of Moccasin Springs and the water is conveyed from the spring to the school through a 4" pipeline. This pipe empties into a small reservoir above the school buildings from which the fields are watered through open ditches. The school buildings are supplied for domestic use through a branch line connecting with the main line before it reaches the reservoir.... The school and farm is located on a sandy spot, which increases the amount of water necessary to grow crops.

Supt. R. A. Ward has approximately 150 acres under fences which is the school farm. He has 10 acres of this planted to alfalfa, 6 of which is good. The remainder is very poor on account of lack of water. He also has 1/2 acre of potatoes, which he waters... [252]

Means also mentioned that in addition Ward dry farmed 6 acres of wheat, 10 acres of rye, 5 acres of corn, 1.5 acres oats and cowpeas, and 2.5 acres cane and millet. "It appears that Supt. Ward is accomplishing considerable with the amount of water and help he had to work on," he wrote. Means' report continues, describing the Indian settlement at what is now called Kaibab Village and the white settlement at Moccasin:

There are about 90 Indians attached to [the Indian] school of which 50 live in the six small houses back of the school buildings. The remainder live around Kanab. Supt. Ward states these Indians own 300 head of cattle, which are kept in a pasture about 8 miles square and on a good range.

The Moccasin Springs, owned by Jonathan Heaton (except that portion claimed by the Indians), Pipe Springs, owned by Jonathan Heaton, and Two Mile Spring, owned by Brig. Riggs, are all the springs on the reservation that amount to anything.... I believe that Heaton acquired the rights to these springs from the Mormon Church and am unable to state how the Church acquired them. The Pipe Springs practically control the range to the Buckskin Mountains [sic] to the south and thousands of head of cattle water there. The Mormon Church built a two-story stone house at this spring a good many years ago but no one lives there at present.

The Heaton family live at the Moccasin Springs, which has been developed by planting trees and shrubbery until it is an oasis in the desert in reality. There are 4 dwelling houses, a schoolhouse and two barns, besides several small houses and sheds, located around the springs. [253]

When Means visited Moccasin during the summer of 1911, Jonathan Heaton was away, so he spoke with two of Heaton's sons, described as "joint owners in the place." He asked at what price they would sell their interests in Moccasin Springs. They told him that the place had been offered to the government "at the time plans were being made to move the Kaibab School there for $12,000 but were sure their father would not consider such a price at this time." [254] Means observed that given the fact that the federal government had expended $17,000 in building the school and pipeline and as water was in such scarce supply, he couldn't understand why the government hadn't taken advantage of Jonathan Heaton's earlier willingness to sell. Means urged that steps be taken to determine the Heaton's legal holdings, to arrive at a fair appraisement of their rights, and to acquire them by purchase. There is no evidence that his recommendation was acted upon, but others later echoed it.

15. Map of Kaibab Reservation, 1911
(Courtesy Bureau of Indian Affairs).

In 1911 Special Agent Lorenzo D. Creel reported to the Office of Indian Affairs what he had been able to learn about Jonathan Heaton's ownership rights at Moccasin and about the way in which the Indians' had obtained their one-third ownership rights to the main spring at Moccasin. An unknown informant made the following statement. It is apparent from the quotation, however, that the informant was living in Kanab, Utah, and that he was president of Kanab Stake at the time of the interview. [255] The informant stated the following to Agent Creel:

Mr. Heaton acquired his title as follows:

The Springs were located by an unknown man. [256] The Indians had undoubtedly used them for centuries and [had] attempted to obstruct the flow of the Springs by various means. They later allowed the white man to remain in possession of them. A cooperative association within the Mormon Church, known as the "United Order," purchased his right. When this Society dissolved and distributed its property among the stockholders, the Church purchased 1/3 of the water and gave it to the Indians who were then living close to the present Heaton improvements and sent a man to help them bring some of the land under cultivation, as sort of a missionary enterprise. [257] Mr. Heaton took the remaining 2/3 of the Springs and all improvements as a part of his interest in the stock of the 'United Order,' and has retained peaceful possession up to the present time.... Now this is the natural home of the Indians. They already own ten acres of land with water right that was bought and given to them over twenty-five years ago by our Church and that right has always been respected by the whites that have operated from then till now. The Indians have cultivated the ten acres all these years.... And to show he [Mr. Heaton] is not extravagant in his values he has given me, as president of the [Kanab] stake, a standing offer of a thousand dollars for [the] Indians unimproved, so far as buildings are concerned, ten acres with water right. [258]

This quotation documents that by 1911, Jonathan Heaton had an interest in buying the land and water rights granted to the Indians by the Church when its mission was established about 1880.

Correspondence between Superintendent Ward and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs indicates that providing water for Indian stock continued to be a concern. By 1912 the Indian cattle herd had grown to 350-400 head. [259] On March 5, 1912, Ward wrote that there had been one unsuccessful attempt to pipe water from some of the mountain springs to the flat below and that it had failed, primarily because of the pipe's exposure to the elements. He opined that the construction of two or three reservoirs was a more viable solution, to be located in different sections of the pasture. The possibility of digging wells was also suggested. [260]

In the same letter, Ward referred to "drift" permits he had issued to cattlemen for grazing: "These permits call for 1,700 head of cattle which, of course, will not be on the reservation all of the time as they drift on and off. The rate charged was twenty cents per annum or a total of $340. For years sheep have grazed on this land much to its detriment, however, they are not allowed on the reservation now." [261] Ward stated that his main objective was "to make the Indians self-supporting and self-reliant." He maintained that the Kaibab Paiute

...have the nicest bunch of cattle in the country. This spring I expect to sell for the Indians about $1,000 worth of steers which will be the first sale from the increase of 83 heifers, which were issued to them three years ago and which the purchase price was $1,860. Beside this a number of steers have been slaughtered which is a great benefit to the Indians....

Agriculture is a great factor in the Indian's development and much more difficult to impress upon him than stock raising.... The people are just beginning to realize the opportunities that agricultural pursuits offer them. [262]

Ward had fenced over 200 acres of the reservation for dry farming. Most of the Indian residents were skeptical of his experiments, but a few were beginning to show interest. "The main thing is to get the Indian to see the necessity of cultivation," he asserted. He also was making "very slow progress" in convincing the Kaibab they needed better horses, but "a few of them are gradually working toward better stock," he reported. [263]

Office of Indian Affairs Second Assistant Commissioner C. F. Hauke forwarded Ward's letter of March 5, 1912, to the Secretary of the Interior stating, "It is clear from this report that the most promising means for supplying the necessary water supply for stock, at least for the present, lies in construction of reservoirs rather than to undertake the reconstruction of the pipeline from the springs higher up the mountain side." [264] Hauke directed Ward to construct reservoirs and to dig test wells in the ravines near the school site, using Indian labor. Hauke advised Ward that the $500 appropriation to develop water for stock must be expended by June 30. Hauke stated that he was "not convinced that the course you are now pursuing with reference to the grazing of outside cattle on the reservation is obtaining the largest revenue..." and wanted to discuss the matter at a later date. Documentation indicates that by 1913 grazing fees charged to non-Indian cattlemen were significantly increased. At least 28 permits were issued in 1913; the rate charged per head for cattle was most often one dollar per head, paid in advance; a few men were charged 50 cents per head. [265]

On June 11, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson issued Executive Order No. 1786 temporarily withdrawing public lands ("Township 41 N., R.2 W., G. and S.R.M.") from settlement, location, sale, or entry "for the purpose of classifying said lands, and pending the enactment of legislation for the proper disposition thereof..." [266] (As this executive order did not supersede the Departmental Withdrawal Order of October 16, 1907, it is presumed that its intent was to strengthen the 1907 order in anticipation of the creation of the reservation.) A few weeks later, on July 2, Office of Indian Affairs Commissioner F. H. Abbot wrote to Department of the Interior Secretary Franklin K. Lane to request that the lands that included the town of Fredonia be eliminated from the reservation. The public survey completed in 1912 showed that part of the town lay within its boundary. In describing the process by which lands had been set aside for the Indians, Abbott stated that the October 1907 withdrawal,

...was temporary in its nature and was made for the purpose merely of protecting the Indians from encroachments by whites and not with the idea of establishing a permanent reservation. Since the withdrawal the Office has had correspondence with officers of the Indian Service and with other persons, and has invariably promised to eliminate the lands not actually needed for the Indians, and has assured the settlers that any prior rights obtained by them would be respected. At the time the withdrawal was made the lands were unsurveyed, but the township containing the town of Fredonia, namely 41 north, range 2 west, has now been surveyed and the approved plat of survey filed in the local land office.... The established line of the reservation on the east runs almost directly through the center of the town of Fredonia, and the citizens of the town have requested that all of the township now included in the temporary withdrawal be eliminated. [267]

Abbott wrote that Special Agent Creel had been sent to Fredonia, as instructed by the Office, "to gain a thorough knowledge of the true conditions so that he may be in a position to make a clean cut recommendation as to what eliminations should be made." Creel submitted his report on May 5, 1913, stating,

So far as I was able to learn that part of the petition giving a history of the town and conditions is substantially correct. These people settled upon this land in good faith and proceeded to make homes in the face of almost insurmountable difficulties, and have had a constant struggle to maintain themselves and families. They appear to be honest, industrious citizens and anxious to comply with the law in every respect, but earnestly desire that they may obtain legal right to the homes they have labored so hard to establish. [268]

In his report, Creel recommended that the township of Fredonia be eliminated from the reservation to enable its citizens "to obtain a legal title to their holdings without further delay." Commissioner Abbott concurred with Creel's recommendation and asked that the Departmental Withdrawal Order of October 16, 1907, be revoked "so far as affects the township" of Fredonia. The recommendation was approved by First Assistant Secretary A. A. Jones on July 8, 1913, and referred to the Commissioner of the General Land Office. Thus by Departmental order, the part of Township 41 north, range 2 west, that lay within the boundaries of the reservation was withdrawn. [269]

The General Land Office survey of the boundaries of the Kaibab reservation (Township No. 40 North, Range No. 4 West) was begun on July 1, 1914, and completed on August 10, 1914. At the urging of Chairman Mulford Winsor (Arizona's State Land Commission), First Assistant Secretary A. A. Jones wrote to Office of Indian Affairs Commissioner Clay Tallman in early July requesting that the survey be suspended, stating, "It is the belief of the Department that should it later be decided to establish a permanent Indian reservation it is best to fix the boundaries of such reservation in accordance with the regular public land surveys." [270] Commissioner Tallman concurred and subsequently telegraphed the Surveyor General on July 14, 1914, instructing him to omit the survey of the reservation boundaries. [271] The first township plat of survey for part of the reservation was not approved until February 15, 1916, and was filed in Phoenix, Arizona, on September 8, 1917. The map shows the 22,637.66-acre area surveyed as public land, not as Indian reservation.

A lengthy "Report on Water Supply of the Kaibab Indian Reservation, Arizona" was submitted to Commissioner Tallman in November 1914 by Henry W. Dietz, Superintendent of Irrigation, U.S. Indian Service, Salt Lake City, Utah. It contains a description of the reservation, weather conditions, and water supply sources, including Kanab Creek, Moccasin Springs, Pipe Springs, Two Mile Spring, Stock Spring, and seepage water. Dietz described Agency developments at a site located 1.5 miles from Moccasin Springs. They included a schoolhouse, a combined office/superintendent's residence, barn, sheds, and six stone cottages "built for Indian families in order that they might be near the school and water." [272] These were located close to the school. A water and irrigation system consisted of a four-inch pipeline about 7,760 feet long piped to the various buildings, also discharging into a small reservoir (200 feet square, 3.5 feet deep) near the school. [273]

Dietz described farming activities on reservation lands as practiced both by the "Agency farmer" (Superintendent Ward) and by the Indians. Ward maintained 1 acre of alfalfa and 1 acre of potatoes on irrigated land, and dry farmed 17 acres of barley and wheat, 28 acres of corn, and 25 acres of "Soudan grass." The Indians farmed 15 acres of alfalfa and 5 acres of corn on irrigated lands. They dry farmed 10 acres of alfalfa and 15 acres of corn.Thus,a total of 22 acres were irrigated and 95 acres dry farmed. [274] The report by Dietz also evaluated available water storage options. It concluded that diverting and storing water from Kanab Creek was impractical and should not be considered, even though some Kanab citizens had offered to "trade" a supply of water to the Indians for part of the reservation land. Dietz stated, "All of the flow of this creek is used by farmers at Upper Kanab, Kanab, and Fredonia, in all about 1,500 acres being irrigated." Dietz made the following observation:

There seems no other way of obtaining water from any source other than that already being used and my recommendation is that every effort be put forth to utilize the present supply to obtain a maximum benefit. To accomplish this I believe the culture should be confined to garden truck and such crops as can be used by the Indians in their homes. I do not think that an attempt should be made [to] raise alfalfa since this requires a great deal of water and can benefit a very limited number of Indians only. [275]

Dietz then offered a recommendation that had been suggested by several before him:

It would be very desirable to obtain from Jonathan Heaton his interests in the Moccasin Springs and the land to which he claims ownership. This would give the Indians water sufficient to irrigate seventy-five acres in addition to that now irrigated by them and would also give them undisputed title to till the land in the vicinity of the School. Heaton is endeavoring to obtain title to six homesteads and this will occupy all the best land in this vicinity. There is no question but what he has a moral, and perhaps a legal right to a certain amount of land but I do not believe he should be given title to any land to which he did not have a just claim at the time the reservation was established. I was unable to obtain any committal from Mr. Heaton relative to a consideration for which he would be willing to relinquish his claims but believe he would consider a proposition were it tendered him. [276]

Dietz thought the Indians needed complete control of Moccasin Spring for a number of reasons. He observed, "...there is a constant feeling on both sides of unfair division of water." It was pointed out to Dietz that Heaton was diverting spring water into a small reservoir prior to its flow to the division weir. At the same time Heaton accused the Indians of battering down the edge of the weir in order to obtain more than their share. In addition to putting an end to such arguments, Dietz thought Indian control of Moccasin Spring would enable additional development of the springs, thereby increasing the water supply; it would also make it easier to ensure sanitary conditions. [277] Dietz's report recommended that test wells be drilled on the reservation in an attempt to locate additional sources of water.

In his report, Dietz made only a curt reference to Pipe Spring: "These springs are located on the southwestern portion of the reservation and are used only for stock watering. They are claimed by Jonathan Heaton." [278] The controversy over water between white residents of Moccasin and the reservation's Superintendent Ward centered squarely on Moccasin Spring. No attempts were made by him or by the Office of Indian Affairs to claim or utilize water from Pipe Spring, nor does any documentation suggest the idea was ever brought up during the reservation's early years.

By Executive Order of January 13, 1915, all land within one-quarter mile of Canaan Reservoir was set aside as public water reserve No. 24. The following year, an Executive Order of April 17, 1916, set aside all land within one-quarter mile of Two Mile Spring and all land within one-quarter mile of Pipe Spring as public water reserve No. 34, open to all livestock and travelers. [279]

16. GLO survey map, approved in 1916
(Courtesy NPS, Water Resources Division).

On July 9, 1917, Commissioner Tallman submitted to the Secretary of the Interior a draft of an executive order that would withdraw 125,000 acres of Arizona land "for the Kaibab and other Indians residing thereon" along with a letter recommending his approval of the order. Secretary Lane forwarded the order and Tallman's recommendation to President Wilson on July 12, saying he concurred with Tallman's opinion. On July 17, 1917, President Wilson issued Executive Order No. 2667 creating a permanent reservation for the Kaibab Paiute. At the time of this order, the Kaibab population was 95 persons of which 54 were adults and 41 of minor age. [280] About 87,000 acres were under lease to stockmen for grazing purposes, with the remaining grazing lands utilized for tribal stock. [281] The Indians had individual stock valued at $18,600 and tribal stock valued at $23,400. The total value of all individual and private property on the reservation in July 1917 was $221,578. [282]

On June 16, 1917, Commissioner Cato Sells, Office of Indian Affairs, wrote to Secretary Lane requesting yet another modification to the reservation. Sells informed the Secretary that the GLO had abstained from surveying the reservation boundaries in response to First Assistant Secretary A. A. Jones' request of July 10, 1914 (referenced earlier). Since then, portions of townships 39, 40, and 41 north, ranges 4 and 5 west, had been surveyed without regard to the boundary lines of the reservation. The filing of plats of these townships was being withheld by the Commissioner of the GLO pending adjustment of the reservation boundary lines. Sells transmitted a blueprint map requesting the revision of the reservation boundaries, eliminating sections along the western border and adding sections on the east. He explained, "This has been done in order that the boundaries may fall on section lines and also for the purpose of removing conflicts along the western line with settlers who have established themselves within the lines of the reservation but outside of the fence.... The effect of these changes will reduce the total area by more than five thousand acres." [283] The boundaries were revised in accordance with Sells' request. By the time the final boundaries were established, the land base of the reservation was 120,413 acres.