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rights. Several fights between the Ute and Arapaho occurred in the Steamboat Springs region. The Ute Yahmonite described a battle ca. 1815 in the area now occupied by the hot springs pool. Large numbers of arrowheads were found just west of town, indicating a similar fight took place there, too. "The Arapahoe Indians were the traditional enemies of The Yampatika Utes" (Powell 1972). Shoshoni also frequented Brown's Park in the winter. These were Wind River Shoshoni, who are similar to Ute linguistically, and there was rarely trouble between them (Farnham 1841). "The Ute shared with the Shoshoni the reputation of being the strongest and most warlike of the Plateau people" (Swanton 1°53:375). Powell (1961) noted that the Ute were organized into small bands -- Uintah, Wimonuntic, Mowatavi-WaTSIU, Mowatri, Kopata, and others, with Uintah predomi- nating (Athearn 1976). Emmitt (1954) states shot the White P.iver Utes called themselves Nupartka. The Ute had the horse by the 1680s and ranged from SaIT Lake City to Pikes Peak, from Taos to the Green River. They used the river valleys for shelter in the winter and summered in high mountain parks. They were not hostile to whites aT first contact, though in the late 17th and 18th centuries they were continually at war with Arapaho, Commanche, and other plains tribes (Athearn 1976:6). • J. W. Powell, in a study of linguistics published in 1891, noted, regarding the Shoshonean fartiily: The Washaki occupied southwest Wyoming. Nearly the entire mountainous part of Colorado was held by the several banks of the Ute, the east and southeast parts of the state being held respectively by the Arapaho and Cheyenne, and the Kaiowe. To the southeast the Ute country included the northern drainage of the San Juan, extending east a short distonce into new Mexico. The Commanche division of the family extended farther east than any other. According to Crow tradition, the Commanche formerly lived northward in the Snake River region. Omaha tradition avers that the Com- manche were on the Poliddle Loup River, probably within the present century. According to Pike, the Commanche territory bordered the Kaiowe, on the north, the former occupying the heodwaters of the Upper Red River, Arkansas, and Rio Grande (Powel I 1966:85). Explorer John C. Fremont also encountered evidence of numerous tribes, among them Ute, Shoshoni, Crosv, Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Gros Ventres (also known • as Minataree or Hidatsa) (Fremont 1387:383-410). A smoll howitzer served Fremont's 2.8-9