2002-05-13_PERMIT FILE - C1980004A

Home Browse Search

• The Utes were semi-nomadic and were grouped into bands organized around family units, seasonally hunting and gather- ing in roughly defined territories. Interband contacts (dur- ing the spring months) and marriages helped to maintain lin- guistic unity. The Utes utilized rockshelters, wickiups, and later, four-pole center support tipis. Associated with the Ute culture are small corner- and side-notched projectile points, crude grey ware and brown ware ceramics fired at low temperatures, basketry and other woven materials (usually matting), grinding and milling stones, wickiups and other brush structures, and later, glass beads, metal projectile points, and other metal objects for personal adornment (Buckles 1971; Reed and Scott 1980; Smith 1974). Ute rock art is pre- valent in west central Colorado and usually depicts horses, mounted riders, mountain sheep, deer, elk, and bear (Conner and Ott 1979). The acquisition of the horse effected a demonstrative change in the economic and social lives of the Utes because firearms usually accompanied the acquisition of the horse (Smith 1974: 19). The Moache and Capote bands of Ute ac- quired the horsy possibly as early as 1640 in the Santa Fe - Taos area by trading slaves or stealing (ibid: 19, 30). Use of the horse soon spread northward to the Tabeguache (Uncom- pahgre) and the Sabuagana (Yampa-White River) bands. • For more than two centuries, the Colorado Utes enjoyed a relatively prosperous and secure existence. After acquir- ing horses and weapons from the Spanish, they parlayed their increased mobility and power into a formidable control of their lands. Numerous skirmishes with the Spaniards, Mexi- cans, and later, Americans, occurred during this period, but the effects of these were relatively insignificant compared to those of intertribal battles and raiding. Schroeder (1965: 75) suggests that "shifts~in raiding patterns and territorial gains, as well as aboriginal alliances, were triggered by aboriginal causes and seem to have had little relation to Spanish, Mexican, and American period occupations". Indeed, had it not been for the constant internal conflict that weak- ened and divided aboriginal peoples, white occupation of Ute territory might have been significantly postponed. As white encroachment upon Ute lands increased in the 1800s, the incidence of white/Ute conflicts rose accordingly. A series of treaties between the United States and the Utes ensued, finally culminating in the Treaty of 1880 by which mast of the Utes were expelled from Colorado. Specifically, the Treaty of 1880 stipulated the relocation of the 4lhite River bands to the Uintah Reservation in northeastern Utah. • The Uncompahgre band was to be given a small reservation in the vicinity of the confluence of the Colorado and Gunnison 2