bands of Ute in 1855, 1865, and 1866, which the Senate failed to ratify. Initially given the whole of western Colorado for a reservation, the discovery of gold there in the 1860s brought a quick reduction in territory. The treaty with the Ute in 1865 provided for the cession of land in exchange for the entire valley of the Uintah River in Utah, plus $25,000 per year for ten years, then $20,000 for 20 years, and thereafter $15,000 per year, based on an estimated population of 5,000 Ute. The treaty also banned liquor and provided for the establishment and maintenance of a manual labor school for ten years. Reservation The Southern Ute Indian Reservation was opened in southwestern Colorado. The eastern part of the reservation is forest with elevations of more than 9000 feet. The western portion is mostly arid mesa. The actual land lies in the southwestern corner of the state of Colorado and consists of a strip 15 miles north to south and 110 miles east to west. In 1895 The Hunter Act distributed the land in the reservation in plots to the heads of households in the Mouache and Capote tribes. The Weeminuche tribe had approved an 1888 congressional bill relocating them to San Juan County, Utah, however this bill did not pass so the Weeminuche were brought back to Colorado. They refused to go back to the old grounds of the agency so they established camps on the western end of the Southern Ute Reservation. With the three tribes given their land the final provisions of the Hunter Act were implemented opening over 500,000 acres of the Reservation to non-native settlers. Established in 1873, it is the reservation of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, a federally recognized Ute tribe. The southern Utes are made up of two bands, the Mouache and the Capote. Government is organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and is led by a tribal council with a chairman as head of the executive. For decades at the end of the 20th century, Leonard C. Burch had been the tribes' chairman. In 2008 a new chairman, Matthew Box, was elected. Census Census population in Southern Ute Reservation in 1980 and 20 years later, 2000. Southern Ute Reservation 1980 2000 Archuleta County 2,257 4,796 La Plata County 259 695 Montezuma County 1,998 4,101 Tribal chairman Matthew Box resigned as Tribal Chairman in 2011.