PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Utah and the Arizona Strip: Ethnographic and Historical Background

The Kaibab Indian Reservation in 1922

Compared to earlier times, conditions on the reservation for the Kaibab Paiute seemed considerably improved immediately prior to the establishment of Pipe Spring National Monument.

During late August 1922, John W. Atwater inspected the Kaibab Agency and Schools. (The Kaibab Agency administered a second Indian school for the Shivwits Paiute.) His report indicated that Dr. Farrow's wife, Anna, served as the financial clerk for the Kaibab Agency. Atwater gave the Farrows high marks on their work: "A more efficient couple cannot be found in the Service." The couple had previously lived and worked in the Philippines. Atwater wrote,

Superintendent Farrow is an excellent officer. His education and training, combined with his business qualities and executive ability, equip him to manage successfully any Superintendency in the Service. His invariable kindness and good judgement have secured for him the respect and friendship of his Indian charges. He is not only content to remain in his present position but desires to do so until the indebtedness upon the tribal herd is paid. [305]

A white stockman, Arch Lallard, and white female housekeeper, Julia Perkins, were also employed at Kaibab Agency in 1922, as well as an unidentified teacher. Atwater reported existing conditions at the reservation:

...Perhaps about 50 acres are now under irrigation and for which a meagre [sic] supply of water is obtainable. By the expenditure of two or three thousand dollars, perhaps twenty-five acres additional might be placed under irrigation.

The reservation has no other resources. The Indians seek employment among the White settlers during the summer and autumn months, some of them going to the beet fields. Work is plentiful and fair wages.

The Indians, as a whole, appear healthy, though they have not increased in numbers. Epidemics such as Flu, Whooping cough, etc. account for this.

Outside of the very few acres of valley land, this reservation is of little value. It is mountainous, much of it devoid of any vegetation. It would sustain a small number of cattle, but a fence should surround it before it is used for pasture.... Like the [sic] most of the Indians of the southwest these people wish to remain where they are. By respecting these wishes very little can be done for them.

By day labor on the farms and ranches of the Mormon people, together with the small amount of produce raised on their irrigated tract of land, they can continue to eke out a precarious sort of existence. [306]

The report described the Kaibab School as a frame structure built to accommodate 20 students. The building, noted to be in good repair, contained a classroom, small dining room, wash room and pantry. Outbuildings included a barn, wagon shed, blacksmith shop, and outhouses. Other frame buildings included an office building and employee building. Buildings were heated by wood stoves and lighted by coal oil lamps. Atwater omitted description of the six stone residences known to have been occupied since 1908 by Kaibab Paiute families.

The Kaibab Agency owned three milk cows, a team of workhorses, a saddle horse, and one colt. Atwater recommended getting an additional saddle horse and replacing the team of horses with a truck. Attempts at dry farming by whites and Indians in the area had been abandoned, reported the inspector, who opined that the reservation was suited solely for stock raising. Still, 18 families maintained gardens at Kaibab, growing corn, potatoes, squash, pumpkin, beans, and other vegetables. "No surplus is produced, but full use is made of the products raised," he observed. The gardens, along with 25 acres of alfalfa, were irrigated with water piped from Moccasin to a reservoir near Agency headquarters at Kaibab Village. Another 25-acre field of alfalfa was located a two-mile distance from the Agency; it was irrigated with water originating on the reservation, possibly from Two Mile Spring. (Another 1922 report states that in addition to the one-third interest in Moccasin Spring, the Indians had "two fairly good stock water springs in the Indian pasture" and "two or three small seeps in the Indian pasture that may be developed into stock water springs." [307])

19. Charles C. Heaton, September 1923 (Photograph by Francis P. Farquhar, Courtesy National Archives, Record Group 79).

Inspector Atwater also reported on tribal livestock. The tribal herd consisted of 662 "good quality grade Herefords" in good condition. Atwater estimated that the reservation range could support 1,500 head of cattle if used to capacity. Individually owned cattle numbered 126 head, belonging to 21 owners. Atwater wrote, "About 150 horses are owned by the Kaibab; they are of mixed breed, many of them worthless. The care given the work horses is quite indifferent, many of them lacking sufficient feed in winter time." [308] He reported that the tribal herd was brought into the reservation in the autumn of 1916. At the time Farrow took over the superintendency in 1917 the herd consisted of 178 cows and 22 bulls, Atwater wrote. The sale of 200 head of cattle already had already brought in $3,600. Grazing leases were issued on land not needed by the Tribe for grazing its own herd.

In general, health on the reservation was reported to be good with only three known cases of tuberculosis. In addition to routine medical treatment, Dr. Farrow was usually called when Indian women were in labor and frequently assisted in deliveries. In concluding his report of inspection, Atwater shared Farrow's concern about the Moccasin water source and pending Heaton land claims, making the following recommendation: "Definite arrangements for water protection for the Kaibab Agency and school plant should be made with the Heatons before titles to the land claimed by them as homesteads are patented to them. The loss of this water would completely ruin the project there." [309]

While many area cattle ranchers were hard-hit by the 10-year drought that began in 1922, by 1930 the Kaibab Paiute had reportedly established a fairly successful cooperative cattle business. [310] In addition to farming their garden plots and tending their tribal and individual herds, the Indians of Kaibab Agency maintained their traditional practice of seasonal harvesting of wild food resources and medicinal plants. The impact that the later creation of Pipe Spring National Monument would have on the Kaibab Paiute and the relations between the two entities are interwoven throughout the rest of the monument's history.