Colorado Mountain College

A History to be continued

Jeny Russek
English composition 2
Joyce Mosher PH.D.
October 27th, 2015

The southern Utes were once a large and thriving people. Before the Europeans
came overseas, [Pre-contact] the Utes lived among what is now many modern states

including, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada. The Ute people are a strong
people; much like other tribes among the modern United States the Utes hunted and
gathered for food, built shelter from the land around them, and celebrated life with song
and dance. The Utes were considered one of the five civilized tribes. This means that
they had some resemblance of a government, and they created their own language.
Over time many tribes and bands adapted this style of living until they were
forced to break their sacred traditions for the ways of the white man. Once they came in
contact [post-contact] with the Europeans, they got the best and the worst of what new
immigrants brought overseas. Before things got really bad the Europeans gave the Utes
the horse that proved to be useful for hunting, hauling large animals and their skins, and
migrating as they did seasonally.
Unfortunately they also got the worst, meaning they got diseased. The plague,
influenza, measles, and more. The Utes never saw this kind of death, they never had to
build an immunity to what the white man brought to them. This killed thousands of tribe
members. The more that the white man came over, the more death they brought. Soon
they were pushed from their sacred lands to what the Europeans called Indian
reservation land.
Through all the pain and strife, they still understood that no good can come from
giving up on their traditions and ways. Even when forced to become someone else they
still held true to one another and to their belief system. That's one quality That should
never be looked over when looking at the culture of the Utes.
Going back hundreds possibly thousands of years, the Utes went through most
of their life recording their most important stories and interactions through song, dance

and art. One major event that marks the beginning of spring is called the Bear Dance.
This specific dance is a time of rejuvenation for the tribe. Just as the flowers begin to
bloom and earth begins a new cycle, the Utes awaken into essentially a new year. The
dance was given to the tribe by the bear. The origin of the bear dance comes from two
hunting brothers who noticed a bear who seemed to be dancing and singing against a
tree. One brother stayed to observe the bear, and it taught him the dance and the song.
the bear then told him to go and share the dance with your people. The bear in Ute
culture is recognized as a strong spirit, and this was a way to release the tribes
tensions. Men and women would wear plumes where at the final and fourth day of the
ceremony they would leave on the eastern most cedar tree as a way to leave your
troubles behind and start your life anew (History of).
Today it is the most ancient dance and is recognized and practiced by all Ute
bands. During the time of the bear dance, all bands came together and socialized all
while allowing an opportunity for the young ones to meet and for marriages to be
negotiated. On the last day of the bear dance, the sundance chief would announce the
dates for the Sundance which is held during summer preserves a tradition known as
tagu-wuni or standing thirsty. A sundancer must spiritually and physically connect with
the great spirit to gain the medicine power. With his family supporting him, the
sundance thus becomes the instrument via which the entire Ute community attempt to
achieve spiritual rejuvenation and reinforce the common spiritual power which has
traditionally served to bind them together (History of).
Through years of being a nomadic people, the Utes traveled all over utah and
colorado. Many tribes split into bands that roamed by themselves amongst their fellow

utes. The Uncompahgre (Tabeguache) were located near the Uncompahgre and
Gunnison, and Elk Rivers near Montrose and Grand Junction, Colorado.The White
River Ute (Parianuche and Yamparika) lived in the alleys of the White and Yampa river
systems, and in the North and middle park regions of the Colorado Mountains,
extending west to Eastern Utah. The Uintah lived east of Utah Lake to the Uinta Basin
of the Tavaputs plateau near the Grand and Colorado River systems.The Pahvant
occupied the desert area in the Sevier Lake region and west of the Wasatch Mountains
near the Nevada boundary. They inter-married with the Goshute and Paiute in Southern
Utah and Nevada. The Timonogots lived in the south and eastern area of Utah Lake, to
North Central Utah. The Sanpits (San Pitch) lived in the Sapete Valley, Central Utah
and Sevier River Valley. The Moanumts lived in the upper Sapete Valley, Central Utah,
in the Otter Creek region of Salum, Utah and Fish Lake area; they also intermarried with
the Southern Paiutes. The Sheberetch lived in the area now known as Moab, Utah, and
were more desert oriented.(History of) See fig. 1.

Fig. 1 original lands of the ute people Arches national Park, Moab, Utah
The image shows just how large, and expansive, the land that the Utes and all
the many bands used was, from hunting grounds to their winter and summer
homelands. For comparison, they show just how small the national park is among what
used to be the Ute peoples land.
Today the Utes face many hardships in their home land of Ignacio, Colorado.
They live in poverty, and many are struggling to make ends meet, or send their children
to college, causing an alarming amount of labor for very little money. They are currently
fighting for a better housing situation among the ute people. Almost 95 percent of
accounted native american indians living on a reservation have no electricity and nearly

80 percent have little or no running water. In 1988 the Colorado Ute Indian Water
Rights Settlement Act was approved by the United States government. Its primary
objective was to supply irrigation, municipal and industrial water to the Ute Mountain Ute
and Southern Ute Tribes of Colorado from the Animas La Plata water project. The
downsized project known as Animas Plata light was completed in 2009 and water filled
Nighthorse Reservoir. The 1988 Act resolved water rights claims of the Colorado Ute
Tribes to water they considered inherently theirs. (History of) However the Utes have
not specified usage for the water therefore there will be no federal funding that is
needed to construct the pipeline from the reservoir to the reservation.
On a lighter note, the Utes have been preserving the culture through various
ways in Ignacio, CO. A few ways they are preserving their ancestral roots are hosting
the sundance and bear dance every year and even inviting outsiders so to speak, to
come and watch how these rituals are prepared for and celebrated. Paying tribute to a
chief, the Ute tribe has resurrected a monument in his honor. See fig. 2.

Fig 2. Ute Chieftains Memorial | Dana Kopf, Southern Ute MIS Dept.
On September 24, 1939, the Ute Chieftains Memorial Monument was dedicated
in honor of four Ute Chiefs, Ouray, Buckskin Charley, Severo and Ignacio. The
Southern Ute tribe which is comprised of the Caputa and Mouache bands progressed
under the auspices of Chief Ouray and Buckskin Charley. (History of) Today the
southern Ute tribe has approximately 1,400 members, with half the population under the
age of 30. Although the tribe strives to provide strong social welfare and education
programs, they emphasise the importance of traditional ways, like hosting the bear
dance and the sundance. Every member of the tribe also participates in pow-wows. The
southern Ute tribal academy opened in August 2000, it is a private school dedicated to

education and day-care to children of 6 months to the 6th grade, with the curriculum
including a comprehensive Ute language program. The Ute tribe is efficiently and
successfully living through and teaching their culture to others around them. It isnt the
wrong way to live but another way of living.

History of the Southern Ute." Southern Ute Indian Tribe. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
<https://www.southernute-nsn.gov/history/>.
Treaty with the ute in 1868
"CMC Online Library Collections Login." CMC Online Library Collections Login. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. <http://americanindian2.abcclio.com.cmclibraries.coloradomtn.edu/Search/Display/1674815?terms=Ute>.
The ute creation story
"CMC Online Library Collections Login." CMC Online Library Collections Login. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. <http://americanindian2.abcclio.com.cmclibraries.coloradomtn.edu/Search/Display/1550378?terms=Ute>.

"The Historic Period: Late A.D. 1700s to Mid-1900s." Historic: Ute History & Culture.
N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.crowcanyon.org/EducationProducts/peoples_mesa_verde/historic_ute.asp>
.
Decker, Peter R. "The Utes Must Go!": American Expansion and the Removal of a
People. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Pub., 2004. Print.