Indigenous Groups of Utah

The Northern Ute

    The Ute tribe believed in animal-people that were here before humans were created. Once humans were created, they kept the stories alive of their predecessors and how these animal-people kept the world balanced. Because of these stories that have been passed down for generations, the Ute people have a very close connection to the Earth and everything on and around it. The Ute people believe that they were created by Sinauf, who was half man and half wolf, and their God. They told the story of how they became his beloved people by remaining in his bag for the entire journey to their homeland, while other people jumped out and formed other tribes. Because they had been patient and had waited, he gave them the beautiful high mountains to live in. They made the eastern Great Basin and the western Rocky Mountains their home for many generations.

    The Ute territory went from Fillmore in Utah to Colorado Springs in Colorado and from Baggs in Wyoming to Abiquiu in New Mexico. They would usually erect their villages close to the waterways so that they could fish and have water to drink. The mountains are where they could hide from enemies, as they were very knowledgeable of the area and could easily disappear. Ute families were very independent and took care of themselves. There could be a village leader of some sort, but most families just took care of their own needs. Men were the hunters and made weapons and everything they needed to survive. Women were the gatherers and would take care of the shelter and food needs of their family. Ute families traveled depending on the seasons and would live in the mountains in the summer and in the valleys in the winter. Many families would gather together while the men would hunt for large game to prepare for wintertime. After the hunt, they would gather socially, as that was very important for their way of life. They would also gather together socially for marriages or other celebrations, and some would travel quite a way to make it to those social gatherings. While there was not one leader among the Ute people, they all believed they originated from the same God, and so they all shared a similar language, lifestyle, and traditions. They would form smaller bands of families, again without a leader, and would usually stick closer together to that group than to other groups. The Uintah group should sound familiar, as they lived mainly East of Utah Lake and by the Green and Colorado River systems. Another group close to Utah Lake is the Tumpanawach band, who would later be called the Timpanogos Utes by the settlers. This was a large band of Utes, as they had plenty of food in the area because of the lake and the mountains.

    The Ute people believed in healing and usually had a medicine man who would be available when someone became ill. They believed that whatever was possessing the person was making them sick and that they could cure the person with singing, dancing, spiritual objects, and medicine created by the medicine man. Each generation before them had used these same methods, and so they just passed on what they had learned, and the next generation would continue their traditions and would consult a medicine man when necessary.

    In the early 1600s, they acquired horses from the Europeans, and that was a game-changer for them as they could now travel further, longer, and faster. With the horses also came the Spanish, who were looking for the city of gold. As more Europeans came and invaded the land, there soon began to be skirmishes between the Natives and the invaders, which led to a treaty in 1670. Since the Ute tribes were now suspicious of any newcomers, they would not welcome anyone and be friendly, but instead they would steal from them and take whatever supplies they wanted. Skirmishes between other Native tribes were now also common as they were all fighting for land, opportunities to plunder from the newcomers, horses, and power. The Ute and Spanish formed another treaty in 1749, as the Ute were threatened by the Comanche tribes in the area, and so they figured they could help each other out by being allies. The Utes helped the Spanish travel more inland to explore and map the area. 

    In 1820, with the Mexican revolt, the Utes became excellent fur traders, which would be very profitable for them. One Ute native stood out at this time, Wakara, as he would make many trips on horseback to trade for fur and horses. He became very wealthy from this adventure. This new influx of European goods would prove to be disastrous for the natives, as they would become very dependent on this and abandon their way of living on the land and taking care of themselves. More settlers came and built homes on their lands, and they were driven away from the fertile parts to the areas where it would be harder to survive. The government started to give its land away and create reservations where they could live without interfering with the new influx of white settlers coming West. As the fur trade died down, the natives found themselves driven from their homes, unable to sustain themselves the way they had before, and white men living on their land telling them what to do. They tried to fight back by stealing cattle and horses, but by now they were outnumbered and outgunned. The government assigned them reservations to live on and demanded that they give up their homes. Another Ute leader rose up, named Black Hawk, who would try to fight against this injustice once again, but also failed, as the influx of Mormons in Utah was too great for them to handle. In 1850, they decided to live on the reservations with the promise that the Federal Government would provide them with teachings on how to adapt to this new lifestyle. After lots of negotiations and false promises by the government, the remaining Ute people would move onto a reservation with other Native Americans and would be labeled the Uintah Band. They found themselves far away from their beloved mountains, as their reservation was in the middle of nowhere. This was land that settlers had not wanted because they could not plant anything there.

    The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, hopefully, would right a lot of wrongs that had happened to the native population over the years. The Ute leaders at the time accepted the act and were happy that they once again could be in control of their own destiny. Many more challenges would come their way as they moved forward with hope. The great depression and World War II would throw a lot of kinks into their plans for a long time. Today, the Native Americans who still live on the reservation have schools their kids can attend, they have social gatherings just like their ancestors did with dances and spiritual rituals, and they have established a Native American church in their midst. Each tribe is represented in a council that helps make sure the people have what they need. They get to govern themselves and even though they are now fully acclimated to the American way of life with modern conveniences they still feel like they are a chosen people who were put on this earth by the God Sinauf and they make sure to keep telling the next generations about where the Ute people came from and what an incredible connection they have to the Earth and everything on it.

[Written for GEOG 3200 class UVU Summer 2023]
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