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the Spanish, they parlayed their increased mobility and power into a formidable <br />control of their lands. Numerous skirmishes with the Spaniards, Mexicans, and <br />later, Americans, occurred during this period, but the effects of these were <br />relatively insignificant compared to those of intertribal battles and raiding. <br />Schroeder (1965: 75) suggests that "shifts in raiding patterns and territorial <br />gains, as well as aboriginal alliances, were triggered by aboriginal causes <br />and seem to have had little relation to Spanish, Mexican, and American period <br />occupations". Indeed, had it not been for the constant internal conflict that <br />weakened and divided aboriginal peoples, white occupation of Ute territory <br />might have been significantly postponed. <br />As white encroachment upon Ute lands increased in the 1800s, the incidence <br />of white/Ute conflicts rose accordingly. A series of treaties between the <br />United States and the Utes ensued, finally culminating in the Treaty of 1880 <br />by which most of the Utes were expelled from Colorado. Specifically, the <br />Treaty of 1880 stipulated the relocation of the White~River bands to the Uintah <br />Reservation in northeastern Utah. The Uncompahgre band was to be.given a <br />• small reservation in the vicinity of the confluence of the Colorado and Gunnison <br />Rivers; aware of the value of these agricultural lands, however, the commission <br />charged with enforcing the terms of the treaty (under the direction of Otto <br />Mears) manipulated the location process using a loophole in the treaty language, <br />and the Uncompahgres were given lands in Utah near the Uintah Reservation. <br />The Southern Ute bands were left on the small reservation in southwestern Colo- <br />rado that had been given them by the Treaty of 1873. On 1 September 1881, the <br />last of the Utes were moved to their new reservations in Utah, and western <br />Colorado was completely opened to white settlers. <br />Fur Trappers/Explorers/Settlers <br />Aside from the few Spanish expeditions of the 1600s and 1700s, western <br />Colorado had not been penetrated by whites prior to 1800. However, a boom in <br />prices for beaver pelts in the 1820s precipitated an influx of trappers and <br />traders in western Colorado, most of whom gravitated to the White and Yampa <br />River drainages. In the vicinity of Grand Junction, Mary Rait points out that <br />• <br />19 <br />