The oldest continuous residents of Colorado are the Ute Indians. It is not
known exactly when the Utes came from the north and west and inhabited the
mountainous areas of the present-day states of Colorado , Utah (which name
comes from the Ute people), and New Mexico. We do know that the earliest Utes
came into the present day United States along the eastern slope of the Rocky
Mountains. It is possible that the coming of the Utes was the reason for the
Anasazis to move into sandstone caves of the area. Possibly, too, the Utes
displaced or replaced those earlier peoples who had developed in the region
from the early Basketmaker stage through the Developmental Pueblo stage and
into the classic Mesa Verde period.
Ruins of the ancient culture of the Anasazi
are to be found throughout the present reservation of the Southern Utes.
If the Utes tried to leave their mountainous area and go other places to get
food, they found other Indian groups already there who would fight them to
drive them out. To the east and northeast of the Utes were the Arapaho, Cheyennes,
Kiowa, Apaches, Comanches, Sioux, and Pawnees. To the south were the Navajos
and Apaches and only the Jicarilla band of Apaches were generally friendly
to the Utes. To the west and northwest were the Shoshones, Snakes, Bannocks,
Paiutes, and Goshutes.
The language of the Utes is Shoshonean which is a branch or a dialect of the
Uto-Aztecan language. It is believed that the people who speak Shoshonean separated
from other Uto-Aztecan speaking groups about the time of the birth of Christ.
Other Indian groups of the U.S. who speak Shoshonean are the Paiutes, Goshutes,
Shoshones, Bannocks, Comanches, Chemehuevi and some tribes in California.
Eventually, the Utes became concentrated into a loose confederation of seven
bands. The names of the seven bands and the areas they
lived in before the coming of the Europeans are as follows:
1. The Mouache band lived on the eastern slopes of the Rockies, from Denver,
south to near Las Vegas, New Mexico.
2. The Capote band inhabited the San Luis Valley in Colorado near the headwaters
of the Rio Grande and in New Mexico especially around the region where the
towns of Chama and Tierra Amarilla are now located.
3. The Weeminuche occupied the valley of the San Juan River and its northern
tributaries in Colorado and northwestern New Mexico.
4. The Tabeguache (also called Uncompahgre) lived in the valleys of the Gunnison
and Uncompahgre Rivers in Colorado.
5. The Grand River Utes (also called Parianuche) lived along that river in
Colorado and Utah.
6. The Yamparicas (also called White River) band inhabited the Yampa River
Valley and adjacent land.
7. The Uintah Utes inhabited the Uintah Basin, including the Great Salt Lake
Basin.
Of the bands mentioned above, the first two (Mouache and Capote) make up the
present day Southern Utes with headquarters at Ignacio, Colorado. The Weeminuches
are now called the Ute Mountain Utes with headquarters at Towaoc, Colorado.
The last four mentioned (Tabeguache, Grand, Yampa, and Uintah) now comprise
the Northern Utes on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation with headquarters at the
town of Fort Duchesne, Utah.
A long time ago, these seven groups of Utes were broken up into small family
units for a large portion of each year. It was necessary to do this because
food was scarce and it took a large area in the mountains to support a small
number of people. Each family unit had to have a great deal of room since food-gathering
couldn't be done so well in large groups. From early spring until late in the
fall, these family units of Utes would hunt for deer, elk, antelope, and other
animals; they would gather seeds of grasses, wild berries and fruits; occasionally
they would plant corn, beans, and squash in mountain meadows and harvest them
in the autumn. At that time, they did not have horses which would have made
the hunting easier, nor did they have any tools except those made of stone.
Each family unit used to follow a regular circuit during most of the year,
going to places where they knew they could gather food for the winter.
Late in the fall, the family units would begin to move out of the mountains
into sheltered areas for the winter months. Generally, the family units of
a particular band of Utes would live close together during the winter. The
Capote, Mouache, and Weeminuche would each live through the winter some place
in northwestern New Mexico or northeastern Arizona. The Tabeguache or Uncompahgre
would select some place between Montrose and Grand Junction. The Northern Utes
would live at some place along the White, the Green, or the Colorado rivers.
The winters were great social occasions for the different bands. There would
be much visiting and many festivities. This was also the time when marriages
would be contracted. For four days in early spring, the band would hold the
Bear Dance, the most ancient and typical of all the Ute dances. Then each family
unit would prepare to go its separate way until the next winter time. They
would follow the migrating deer, antelope, and elk for food until seeds and
berries began to ripen in the mountains.
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This way of life was to change for the Utes when the Spaniards colonized and
occupied New Mexico at the end of the sixteenth century. The reason for this
change is that although the Europeans didn't have many of the plants of the
Americas, they had livestock and it is livestock, especially the horse, which
changed the life style. The Southern Utes made contact with the Spanish in
New Mexico in the 1630s and 40s. At first there were peaceful relations between
the two peoples and some trade was carried on. The Utes had dried meat and
hides which they traded for knives and other metal utensils and agricultural
products raised by the Pueblo Indians and the Spanish. Much of this trading
was done at the annual fairs held at Pecos and Taos.
The Utes, however, became
much more interested in trading for horses. Horses were very expensive in
those days and the Utes would trade even children to the Spanish for horses.
(The Spanish generally trained those children to be excellent herders.) Possession
of horses allowed the Utes to begin buffalo hunting on the eastern slope
of the Rocky Mountains and the buffalo soon became one of their main resources,
because it would provide them with many useful products: e.g., meat for food
(one wouldn't have to work so hard gathering food); hides for tipi covers,
blankets, clothing, moccasins, and bags of all kinds; sinew thread for sewing
and for bowstrings; horn and hoof glue for many purposes. And with the horse,
the Utes could more easily evade their enemies, transport their goods to
a central camp where the women and children were protected, and range farther
to hunt for food.
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So the Utes no longer needed to spread out thinly in family units. They could
live in larger numbers under a more powerful leader. The family unit continued
to be the basic unit of society but the leader directed camp movements, hunts,
raids, and war parties. In hunting the buffalo, the Utes came into frequent
contact with the Arapahos, Kiowas, Cheyennes, Sioux, and Comanche who had many
more horses than the Utes. The Utes needed more horses. So they became aggressive
and warlike. Also, it was much easier to raid for livestock (sheep, goats,
cattle) in New Mexico than to hunt deer and other animals, or to buy livestock.
So the Utes became raiders, moving out of their mountain fortresses to raid
other Indian groups or towns and villages to the south.
