Camp Farragut: Daily Life

I wrote a previous blog about Camp Farragut but gave general information.  http://bwardlehistory.blogspot.com/2013/01/wwii-camp-farragut.html
This blog deals with the daily life at the camp.  Quotes are from my father's letters.
Daily life
In a letter to his parents, after being in camp a little more than a week, Dad described his daily activities:
You asked me to tell you what I do.  We are getting up at 4:30.  We have until 8:00 to eat, clean the barracks and wash.  At 8:00 our working day starts.  There is no definite procedure we follow then.  We drill a lot, take physical fitness in the drill hall, run an obstacle course, take tests, see military pictures, and numerous other things.  We don’t do all these things in one day but we are kept busy.  At about 11:15 we go in the barracks and generally by 11:25 we are on our way for dinner.  We have to march from one end of the grinder [parade grounds] to the other to get to ‘chow.’  It is over a quarter of a mile long.  We generally wait in line for 15 minutes before we get our food.  At 1:00 we again start on the grinder [marching drill.]  Until 4:15 we work and from there on, our time is our own.  We eat, shower, do our laundry, got to pictures, or go to Ship’s Services.  At 9:00 the light are put out and there can be no talking after that.
There were some specific things about camp life which he mentioned in his letter.
Food:  Dad didn’t care much for the food.  One particular deprivation was milk.  “I had the first milk tonight that I gave had since I left home [over three weeks.]  It certainly tasted good.  I got three glasses of it.  You were only supposed to get one but I worked it through to get three. 
Haircuts:  Dad got a haircut shortly after arriving.  “It doesn’t take them more the 1 ½ minutes to have all you hair off.”  Dad documented at least three haircuts curing his couple months there.
Cleanup:   Everyone had to clean.  However the platoons alternated between morning and evening clean-up.  “I help in the morning now.  I have to swab the floor between rows of bunks the length of the barracks.”
Clothes: Dad had a lot of laundry, his clothes and his bedding.  However he did not do any ironing.  “We roll our clothes here.  You roll them tight so no wrinkles are in them.  It is pretty effective.  I put all my clothes in a sea-bag.  That way it conserves space.” 
Barracks: Dad described their barracks:  The whole company sleeps in one big room.  There are over 130 of us.  We have beds with a lower and upper bunk.  We have six rows of bunks the length of the barracks.  There are eleven bunks in each row.  We hang our sea bags at the end of each bunk."  Dad had an upper bunk.  "It is a lot cleaner than a lower bunk."
Ship's Service:  Ships services is like a canteen.  A small store and recreation area.  You could everything you needed--laundry soap, ice cream, fountain drinks.  When they first arrived they could go to ship's twice a week, and then after after three weeks, they could go five times a week.  "We get to go over the ship's service five nights a week so it isn't too bad."
Recreation:  Dad indicated they had most evening off after 5:30.  "There was a swimming pool, in one of the drilling buildings.  They play basket in the rest of it."  "They have a bowling alley, table tennis, pool tables, and a library and play room in the recreation building also."  There were boxing bouts to watch.  They showed movies and you could go a couple times a week.  "They were all free."  There was also a U.S.O. stage show, and Dad's company got to go a second time as they were the best in drill.  Dad also played checkers with a friend from Idaho Falls, Rex Kirby.
Liberty:  Liberty was provided on an occasional basis.  Dad's company missed there first liberty.  A sailor had come down with scarlet fever and they were quarantined.  Dad went on his first liberty a couple weeks later.  "Well I had my first liberty yesterday.  I had a pretty good time.  I went into Coeur D' Alene...  About the only place to go was the U.S.O.  They had a dance there and they have a playroom and reading room.  You could buy all the candy and gum there you wanted.  They served cookies and cake...  We went out on the lake [Lake Coeur D' Alene] in a motorboat.  It was a lot of fun.
Duty: Duty was assigned tasks to a company.  On was the clearing of brush.  here was also guard duty.  One week Dad's company was assigned to guard duty all week.  The had irregular shifts, often during the night.
Medical:  They had a 2500 bed hospital at Camp Farragut.  The sailors received numerous vaccinations.  "I have gone through another physical and my arms are a little stiff from vaccinations."  "I hear you spend a bit of your first two or three weeks in the hospital getting vaccinated with everything they have."  Dad took advantage of the medical dispensary a couple of times; once with a bad cold and once with a boil on his toe which they lanced.  They also had facilities for dental work, and everyone was expected to see the dentist and get all their work done.
Training:  Different courses included drill, plane identification, cross-country, shooting, rowing, swimming, putting on you gas mask and other courses.  Everyone had to swim.  The gas mask training was with tear gas, and there were consequences if you didn't get it on fast enough.  There was also a cross country competition while my dad was there.  He competed for his company in a camp wide cross-country race and game in 22nd with a time of 13:25.  The course was a couple of miles, almost all up and down hills.
Testing:  Camp concluded with aptitude and skills tests.  My father certified as a swimmer.  However one of the purposes of the tests was to determine what course work you might be assigned to after basic training.

The Relutant Immigrants of Utah: The Uncompahgre Utes

http://bwardlehistory.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-uncompagre-ute-indians.html
http://bwardlehistory.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-umpompahgre-utes-leading-to-their.html
This is the third in a series of articles about my father's thesis.  In the first two articles, we saw how the residents of Colorado, and the U.S. government slowly reduced the size of Ute Country.  However they had not gained their ultimate goal of expelling the Utes from Colorado.  The opportunity came with the Meeker Massacre in September 1879.  Nathan Meeker was the BIA superintendent over the White River Utes, and was very intent on forcing the Utes to farm.  He enlisted the help of the army.  The Utes ask that the army hold off and when they came anyway, the ambushed them.  Then a group when and attacked the agency, killing Meeker and others.  Some women and children were captured.  Ouray chastised the White River Utes for their actions, and insisted they return their captives, which they did.
This action however lead to renewed negotiations with regards to land.  The clamour of the population and governor of Colorado was that all Utes must leave.  A party went East, and thought they were giving away the mountains, not the valleys, of their land.  However the government insisted they gave away all their territory, and another place was to be found.  The treat specified the area around Grand Junction, unless not enough land could be found then they could also find land in Utah.  The agents who helped in finding an alternative sight of the Uncompahgre, were all supporters of Colorado.  They insisted there was not enough farm land in this area, and found an alternative location in Utah.  This is an area left alone by Mormon settlers, because the area was so arid and barren.  However the Ouray extension of the Uintah reservation was set aside for them.  The Uncompahgre were ordered to Utah.  "To the Uncompahgres the possibility of their being evicted from their homeland of ages was like a nightmare that surely must pass." (p 125)
After the Meeker incident, the Army was well positioned in Colorado.  They congregated close to the Uncompahgre reservations, six regiments and Calvary and nine of infantry.  Finally, in August of 1881 the order was given that the native population must leave.  They were given one day to decide if  they would leave peacefully or fight.  The reluctantly consented.
Agent Berry that the departure was "cheerful and happy."  However a local paper described the scene, "There can be no doubt that the very heart of the Ute was torn by his giving up and removal from the time-out-of-memory abiding place of their people.  The kissed and seeming endeavored to embrace the ground; they raised their hands and eyes filled with tears; in moaning prayers to the hills and sky; their words and hearts were burdened with sore lamentation and sorrow." (The Gunnison Review, Oct 1, 1881)
By the end of October the Uncompahgre were relocated.  Their new land was very poor, much worse the the White River Utes who instigated the Meeker Massacre.  The only means of survival was to leave the reservation and hunt as it was surrounded by mountain ranger on three sides.
The first treat by the u.s. government was in 1849.  Within a little more than thirty years, they had been removed from Colorado and lost all their land.  During this time they had also lost over half of their population to disease and encroachment.
My only desire with my dad's thesis is that he had talked more of the effects after the removal to Utah.

The Uncompahgre Utes: Leading to Their Forced Removal

This the second of three posts I am writing, using my Dad's thesis for material.  http://bwardlehistory.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-uncompagre-ute-indians.html
The Tabaguache (Uncompahgre) had very little contact with the American culture before 1858.  Kit Carson, who was Indian Agent for the Southern Utes, wrote this description:  They are by far the largest band of the Utahs.  Their main hunting grounds are within the limits of this territory [New Mexico].  They range from the Grand [Colorado] River [on the] West to the headwaters of the Del Norte [Rio Grande] [on the] East....They have never joined any of the bands of the Utahs that have waged war against the citizens of this territory.  I would respectfully suggest that and agent or sub-agent be appointed to reside among them.   They are by far the most noble of the Utah tribes.  They have not, as yet, been contaminated by intercourse with civilized man.
However in 1859 gold was discovered on Pikes Peak, and the Whites began to move into their area.  This resulted in an outbreak of hostilities on both sides.  "With this outbreak of hostilities Kit Carson changed his opinion of the Tabeguache, described them as 'wild and warlike,' recommended they be punished, and withheld supplies he was to deliver them."
In 1861 the Colorado Territory was formed.  In New Mexico the settlers encouraged trade with the Indians.  The attitude of Colorado was they had to be tolerated, and forced onto smaller and smaller parcels of land.
The original Ute territory covered all of the mountainous area of Colorado.  They also frequently left this area, to travel out into the plains to hunt buffalo.  However the same pattern happened over and over.  The Utes, usually through Chief Ouray, negotiated a treaty to cede land to the U.S. with promises of money and promises of protection from White incursion onto the property.  Whites would find some value to the property, agricultural or mineral, move onto the land.  The U.S. Army would threaten eviction if the settlers or miners didn't leave.  The encroachers would not leave, and so another negotiating round would take place.  Often times the agreed upon money would not be given, just enough subsistence to keep the Indians from starving.  Other ways of getting property from the Native Americans would be through surveying, and also by having other tribes cede property which didn't even pertain to them.  It didn't matter, once land was ceded it was never given back.
The last parcel, prime farm land, five mile square, called Uncompahre Park was promised to the Tabeguache.  At first it was surveyed smaller than it was originally.  Then White farmers moved in, as it was a prime place to raise crops for the mines, and finally a negotiation ceding the land for money which was never paid.  Eventually the cry changed from moving the Native population to smaller and smaller poor pieces of land, to "The Utes Must Go!"

The Vanishing Indian

This is a footnote from my Dad's Thesis.
The "Vanishing Indian" is a prominent motif in American folklore.  There are many works of art which graphically portray this theme.  Perhaps the most famous of these is "The End of the Trail," a sculpture by James E. Fraser.  Displayed originally at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco in 1915, it is no enshrined in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  Dean Krakel, End of the Trail: The Odyssey of a Statue (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1973).  It depicts an Indian warrior weighed down in deep despair, the point of his was lance touching the ground in defeat, astride a weary horse so exhausted it can hardly stand.  This work has been widely reproduced as paper weights and objects d'art.  I some of these forms the miniature reproduction is encased in a fluid filled glass ball which when shaken causes a white mica substance to move in the fluid adding the vivid appearance of the Indian and his horse perishing in a swirling snowstorm.

The Uncompagre Ute Indians

I am using for my information the first three chapters of my Dad's thesis: Reluctant Immigrants of Utah: The Uncompahgre Utes.  My father is James W. Wardle and his thesis is available at the library at Utah State University.  These chapters talk about the history of the Utes, from their first beginning to their territory becoming part of the United States.  The traditional territory of the Uncompahgre was on the Utah, Colorado border and centrally located from North to South.  This area was close to the area of the Anasazi, and then the Fremont.  These groups coexisted for a time, and then ceased to exist about the same time, about 1300 A.D.  A lingering question for archeologist is to determine the cause of this extinction.
The first historical mention of the Utes was 1540 A.D. when they came in contact with Coronado's expedition to find the lost gold cities.  They were fist known as the Tabeguaches and later as the Uncompahgre.  Escalante documented them as being in the are of the confluence of the Dolores and Colorado rivers.  They were a desert nomadic people.  The Spaniards improved the lifestyle of the Tabeguache as they were introduced to the horse, and became more a Plains type Indian, hunting buffalo and living in teepees.  It also brought increased opportunities for trade.  They traded for horses, guns, needles and brandy.
No one is sure when they name of this group changed to Uncompahgre, nor the reason for the change.  During the early 1800s this area pertained to Spain, and then Mexico.  Early American explorations visited the area.  Lieutenant Zebulon Pike in 1806 visited the area, but was escorted by the Spanish to Chihuahua where he and his men were permitted to return to the United States.  American interest waned during the War of 1812.  However it picked up, and early explorers often met the same fate as Pike.  Over the years an American presence was allowed in the area with fur trappers and trading posts.  However it wasn't until the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that the relationship between this group of Native Americans and European settlers began to change.  This treaty signed in 1847, concluded the Mexican American War and this area became a part of the United States.