By THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY the forging furnaces of western expansionism had wrought a tough breed of pioneers who were making their way into the Uintah Basin of eastern Utah. As early as October 3, 1861, the date President Lincoln established the Uintah Indian Reservation in that area, some white settlers were circumscribed by reservation boundaries. Other whites followed to establish trading posts among the Utes and to perform government service in connection with the newly named Indian lands.