Utes

ouray ute chief portrait c1880.jpg (57547 bytes)

The Ute Native Americans inhabited much of the territory in Colorado, and parts of Utah and northern New Mexico, for thousands of years before the European’s settled the area. Although there was plenty of fights between the Utes and the new settlers into the region, for the most part the Utes were friendly to the newcomers and many times helped the early development of the area.

There were originally seven Ute tribes called Capote, Mouache, Parianucs, Tabeguache, Unitah, Weeminuche, and Yampa. These were forest dwellers and nomadic tribes, encompassing an area of about 150 square miles. The word Ute, for which the state of Utah was named, means “land of the sun”.

The Utes lived in wickiups, which were like teepees, except they were covered with juniper bark, which made them bulkier and harder to move than the teepee. Later, the Utes converted to teepees, like those of the Plains Indians. The Utes used bows made from cedar and sheep horn, knives made from flint, and clothing made from deerskin and the fur of smaller animals.

Religious practices were structured around nature. Animals were honored and worshipped, especially the bear, whom the Utes believed they were closest to. They tried to live in harmony with nature, not against it. They never exploited the natural resources of the land, and never killed more game than they could eat.

Utes traveled on foot, following the changing seasons. The men would hunt and the women would gather, as they roamed their vast territory. Each of the seven tribes had it’s own territory, but often went into territory controlled by other Ute tribes.

Because of their lifestyle, the Utes were one of the first tribes to establish a relationship with both Spanish and later Americans. They wanted to make life easier, and when the Spanish gave them horses, and the Mormon settlers taught them how to farm, it gave them a taste of the “good life”. Thus, the Utes were soon raising livestock, exploiting the land, and hunting buffalo by horseback. Because of this advantage, they almost completely destroyed the buffalo population in the Ute territory.

As Mormon settlers arrived in the region, the Southern Utes began to adapt a lifestyle where farming the land was central, but the Northern Utes resisted the change the Mormons tried to impose on them. As the Mormons continued to settle in Ute territory, the Northern Utes began to raid their settlements. The Utes were eventually defeated by the settlers, and in 1869 the Northern Utes were ordered into a reservation in the Uintah Valley by President Lincoln.

The last of the great Ute chiefs, Chief Ouray, knew that the whites outnumbered his people, so around 1870 he traveled to Washington D. C. to try to arrange a treaty to stop the relocation of his tribe. He did arrange a treaty between the Utes and the US Government to hold onto his land, and because of his diplomacy, he had also won the respect of the whites. In the treaty, the Utes agreed to allow the whites to take possession of the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, while they lived a few miles north of Ouray, a city named in honor of Chief Ouray. But in 1881, after the death of Cheif Ouray, the remaining Utes were moved to a small reservation along the southwest boundary of Colorado.

Chipeta, also known as “queen of the Utes”, was the wife of the Ute Chief Ouray (they were married when she was 16 and he was 26). She became confidant and advisor to Chief Ouray, who was fluent in many languages, including English and Spanish, and who was considered by the U. S. government to be “Chief of all Utes”. In 1880, the year Ouray passed away, respect for Chipeta as a diplomat had grown so much that when she would accompany Ouray to Washington, she was considered a “member of the delegation” in her own right, and not just the wife of Chief Ouray. On January 7, 1880, she and ten Ute chiefs traveled to Washington to try and work out reservation relocation matters. When they tried to board a train in Alamosa, Colorado, which was headed for Washington, Chipeta was nearly hung by a lynch mob. Early Colorado settlers were irate at the Utes for the killing of eleven cavalrymen and the wounding of forty three others in the massacre at Meeker, Colorado.

The last years of Chipeta’s life were spent on a relocated reservation in northeast Utah. On the reservation, she was highly valued, and always sat in on the chief’s meetings, which was very unusual for a woman. She passed away in 1924.

Today there are about 3500 Ute Indians living on the 1,300,000 acres of land included in the Uintah and Ouray Reservations in Utah. Farming, raising cattle, and petroleum production provide a good lifestyle in the area while much of the original Native American heritage is still practiced.