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Issue 1 THE LA PLATA RIVER COMPACT 105 established their early communities on top of the local mesas, the Anasazi are most notably associated with the exquisite masonry dwellings constrl1cted in cliff alcoves throughout the region, including present-day Mesa Verde National Park. Subsequent native inhabitants of the region were the nomadic Ute Tribes. The Utes organized their society in loosely defined groups that coalesced into social units comprised of ten to forty extended family members.' Their range of travel extended from the protected canyon valleys during the inclement winter months to the high country during the summer, where they sought new hunting opportunities and cooler 4 temperatures, Upon introduction of the horse with the arrival of the Spanish in New Mexico, the Utes began to exchange food and animal skins for these marvelous new animals. Soon they were able to amass their own large herds of horses. This allowed the once pedestrian Utes to greatly expand their mobility and allowed their hunting parties to search a much larger area for game animals. The horse helped to transform this once family dominated culture into large bands that were able to hunt buffalo on the Great Plains and trade with other cultures.' Trade with the Spanish began sometime in the early eighteenth century. The earliest forms of commerce were not recorded since the Spanish traders entering southwest Colorado were legally barred from trading with the patives. In 1712, the Spanish governor reiterated the royal order that outlawed trade among the New Mexican Spanish and the native people.' Juan Maria de Rivera led the first documented Spanish trade expedition into southwestern Colorado in 1765.' The account of this trading expedition lacks detail, but evidence suggests that Rivera and his forces followed the La Plata River valley and the Dolores River toward its confluence with the San Miguel River near the present locale of Naturita, Colorado. They traveled northeast and crossed the Uncompahgre Plateau before descending into the lower Gunnison River valley west of the present day town of Delta, Colorado. The return trip retraced the route back to its origin,' One of the earliest explorations sponsored by the United States government into the new western frontier was the 1859 Macomb expedition.' One of its members, geologist]. S. Newberry, became so enamored with the La Plata valley that he devoted an entire page to it in his diary: 3. Id. at 225-33. 4. [d. Since the: Utes were nomadic, they established many trails throughout the La Plata River Basin ~nd the southwest that have been replaced with modern highways. See id. at 226. 5. Id. 6. Blair, supra note 1, at 216. 7 Id. 8 Id. at 216-17. 9. C. GREGORY CRAMPTON & STEVEN K. MADSEN, IN SEARCH OF THE SPANISH TRAIL: SANTA FE TO Los ANGELES, 1829-1848, at 29-31 (1994) [hereinafter CRAMPTON].