Brazos Cliffs, Tusas Mountains, Rio Arriba County
Language: Shoshonean (the same language family as the Hopi)
Location: San Juan County, Colorado, and Utah
Pre-Contact Territory: The Ute originally lived in the mountains and vast areas of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Eastern Nevada, Northern New Mexico and Arizona.
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Ute Traditional Homelands
The Ute people are the oldest residents of Colorado, inhabiting the mountains and vast areas of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Eastern Nevada, Northern New Mexico and Arizona.
The Utes settled around the lake areas of Utah, some of which became the Paiute, other groups spread north and east and separated into the Shoshone and Comanche people, and some traveled south becoming the Chemehuevi and Kawaiisus. The remaining Ute people became a loose confederation of tribal units called bands. Included in these bands were:
Mouache (Southern Ute) ranged from northern Colorado to Las Vegas NM
Caputa (southern Ute) ranged the San Luis Valley, Chama, and Tierra Amarilla
Weenuchiu (Ute Mountain Ute) ranged the San Juan River valley
They were nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived off the land. They established a unique relationship with the ecosystemm wherein they only took what they needed and would alternate what method was used in a given area to allow for regeneration.
Treaty of Abiquiu
In the mid-1800s it was the wild, wild west. At the time, there was an increased aggression by nomadic tribes (Navajo, Apache, Ute) and the U.S. wanted to created a safe way for white colonists to move to California and Oklahima. The Navajo were forced to walk to a prison in eastern New Mexico; the Fort Sill Apache were prisoners of war in Florida and Oklahoma; the Ute had the The Treaty of Abiquiú. Signed in the Village of Abiquiú in 1849. it included a land alottment that was nearly 1/3 of Colorado. But, the agreement required that they not leave the land or raid villages or travelers and they start to cultivate the land. This was a completely forgeign life to the Ute.
There were many treaties between the Ute and the United States and each time, the Ute lost land. Now, there is a small parcel in northeast Utah and two small pieces in southwest Colorado.
