Encyclopedia
The
Utes are an ethnically related group of
American Indians now living primarily in
Utah and
Colorado. There are three Ute tribal
reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah , Southern Ute and Ute Mountain — both in southwestern Colorado. The name of the state of Utah was derived from the name Ute.
Language
The native Ute language belongs to the
Uto-Aztecan family of languages and is a dialect of Southern Numic. However, most current Utes speak only English. Other American Indian groups with native Shoshonean dialects include the Bannocks,
Comanches, Chemehuevi, Goshutes,
Paiutes and
Shoshones.
History
Prior to the arrival of white settlers, the Utes occupied significant portions of what are today eastern Utah, western Colorado and parts of
New Mexico and
Wyoming. The Utes were never a unified group; instead, the Utes consisted of numerous nomadic bands that maintained close associations with other neighboring groups. Some of the larger groups included the Moache, Capote, Uncompahgre, White River, Uintah, Pahvant, Timanogots, San Pitch, Moanumts, Sheberetch and Weeminuche. Unlike many other tribal groups in this region, there is no tradition or evidence of migration to the areas now known as Colorado and Utah — ancestors of the Ute appear to have occupied this area for at least a thousand years.
Ute Ingenuity
The Uncompahgre Ute Indians from Central Colorado are one of the first documented groups of people in the world credited with the discovery of piezoelectricity and the
piezoelectric effect involving the use of quartz crystals to generate both light and electricity. The Ute employed an ingenious invention which allowed the creation of light due to piezoelectricity thousands of years before the modern world learned of the concept. The Ute constructed special ceremonial rattles made from buffalo rawhide which they filled with clear quartz crystals collected from the mountains of Colorado and Utah. When the rattles were shaken at night during ceremonies, the friction and mechanical stress of the quartz crystals impacting together through the translucent buffalo hide produced flashes of electric light. These rattles were believed to call spirits into Ute Ceremonies, and were considered extremely powerful religious objects.
Contact with Spanish Explorers
The Utes' first contact with Europeans was with early Spanish explorers in the 1630s. Horses were eventually obtained through trading with the
Spanish colonists in New Mexico or theft from those settlements. The subsequent increase in mobility made possible by the horses was instrumental in changing aspects of Ute society in ways that paralleled the Plains Indian cultures of the Central U.S. This social upheaval resulted in various degrees of consolidation, political realignment and tension between the various Ute groups. The Utes were for the most part enemies of the Spanish and the conquered Pueblo towns, and engaged in a long series of wars, in some cases three-sided, with the Navajo, various other
Apache tribes, and the Comanche, especially in the plains of eastern Colorado and northeastern New Mexico.
Contact with Other European Settlers
The Ute experience with white American settlers is similar to that of many other Native American groups: competition, confrontation and eventual coerced relocation to reservations. Of particular interest are the Walker War and Black Hawk War in Utah and the
Ute War in Colorado .
Over the years, several other skirmishes and incidents occurred between Utes and white gold-seekers and settlers in Utah and Colorado. These Ute "uprisings" were the result of friction between recently arrived Anglos and local Ute groups. At the same time, the Ute were allies of the United States in its wars with the Navajo and Apache to the south.
A series of treaties established a small reservation in 1864 in NE Utah, and a reservation in 1868 which included the western third of modern Colorado, and included land actually claimed by other tribes, and then whittled that land away until only the modern reservations are left: a large cession of land in 1873 transferred the gold-rich San Juan area, and was followed in 1879 by the loss of most of the remaining land.
Eventually, the various bands of Utes were consolidated onto three reservations. Several of these bands still maintain separate identities as part of the Ute tribal organizations. Although initially large and located in areas that white settlers deemed undesirable , the sizes of these reservations were repeatedly reduced by various government actions, encroachment by white settlers and mining interests. In the 20th century, several U.S. federal court decisions restored portions of the original reservation land to the Ute Tribes' jurisdiction and monetary compensation.
Also see
Chief Ouray, an important leader of the Uncompahgre band of the Ute tribe.
Northern Ute Culture
The Northern Ute, and in particular the Uncompahgre Ute from Colorado, were exceptional artisans and produced extraordinary examples of religious and ceremonial beadwork, unusual art forms, and cunningly designed and decorated weapons of war in their traditional culture. The Ute obtained glass beads and other trade items from early trading contact with Europeans and rapidly incorporated their use into religious, ceremonial, and spartan objects.
Uncompahgre and Northern Ute beadwork and traditional crafts are some of the finest examples of native American art produced in ancient and modern times by any of the Great Basin tribes.
Like their Southern neighbors, the Dine' , a large percentage of Northern Ute are members of the Native American Church and are active in
peyote ceremonies. It was a Ute Medicine Man who first introduced Quannah Parker, founder of the Native American Church, to the use of peyote as a sacrament and healing medicine in the mid 1800's. Traditional Ute healers still use peyote to treat infections, and a variety of other plants, including Elk Root , Bear Root , and tobacco sage . The Ute have integrated peyote religion into their culture, with the resulting artistic and expressive influences pervading their art and rich cultural and ceremonial objects. There is evidence the Ute have used peyote obtained through trade and other potent ceremonial plants used as ethnogens since ancient times, such as the dried leaves of
Larb , Tobacco Sage collected from the Escalante area , and the potent and narcotic White Uinta Water Lily. Tobacco Sage was also brewed into a tea with Elk Root , and the root of the Yellow Unita Water Lily and used to treat tumors and cancer '. This preparation as been shown to reduce the effects of angiogenesis with certain cancers when administered as an admixture of these plants.
Ute religious beliefs borrowed much from the Plains Indians after the arrival of the horse. The Northern and Uncompahgre Ute were the only group if Indians known to create ceremonial pipes out of salmon alabaster, as well as a rare black pipestone found only in the creeks that border the Southeastern slopes of the Uinta Mountains in Utah and Colorado. Although Ute pipe styles are unique, they resemble more closely the styles of their Eastern neighbors from the Great Plains. The Black Pipestone is used not only to make ceremonial pipes, but also lethal war clubs that were used very efficiently from the back of a horse. The Ute have a religious aversion to handling thunderwood and believe that the thunder beings would strike down any Ute Indian that touched or handled such wood. This is also a Dine' belief. There is extensive evidence that contact between the two groups existed since ancient times.
Modern History
Present-day Utes occupy a small fraction of their former territories.
The largest tribe, the Northern Ute, lives on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in northeastern Utah. It is the largest reservation in Utah. The Northern Ute Tribe began repurchasing former tribal lands following the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. The 726,000 acre Hill Creek Extension was returned to the tribe by the federal government in 1948. Court decisions in the 1980s granted the Northern Utes "legal jurisdiction" over three million acres of alienated reservation lands. Oil and gas discoveries on Ute land in Utah hold promise of increase living standards.
Several groups of Ute and Shoshone Indians were relocated to the Northern Ute reservation during the late 1800's and early 1900's, including the Northern Shoshone, Uinta, Uncompahgre Ute, Northern Ute, and Ouray Ute. The Northern Ute disfranchised the other Ute groups when they reorganized the Northern Ute Tribe during the mid 1900's, and gained control of the Unita-Ouray Reservation as a result. Lawsuits and litigation have been commonplace between the mixed blood Utes and the Northern Ute Tribe for rights to tribal enrollment and privileges. The Northern Ute Tribe has a 5/8 blood quantum requirement for tribal membership, and have been accused by the mixed blood Utes of disfrancising their rights to tribal lands and equal treatement. Most of the mixed blood Utes live on the reservation and have lived on land holdings owned by particular families since the Federal Government forced relocations in the late 1800's. The Mixed blood Utes have recently applied for Federal Recognition and are involved in litigation with the United States and the Northern Ute tribe.
The Southern Ute live on a reservation in southwestern Colorado, with its capital at Ignacio. Today, the Southern Ute are the wealthiest of the tribes and claim financial assets approaching $2 billion. Gambling, tourism, oil & gas, real estate leases, plus various off-reservation financial and business investments have contributed to their success. The Sky Ute Casino and its associated entertainment and tourist facilities, together with tribally-operated Lake Capote, draw tourists and host the Four Corners Motorcycle Rally each year. The Ute operate KSUT, the major public radio station serving southwestern Colorado and the Four Corners.
The Ute Mountain Ute are descendants of the Weminuche band who moved to the western end of the Southern Ute Reservation in 1897 . Their reservation is located near Towaoc, Colorado, and includes small sections of Utah and New Mexico, and one of the Four Corners. The Ute Mountain Tribal Park abuts
Mesa Verde National Park and includes many
Anasazi ruins. The White Mesa Community of Utah is part of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, but is largely autonomous.
Gradual assimilation into American culture has presented both challenges and opportunities for the Utes. The current conditions of the Utes are similar to those of many Native Americans living on reservations. Cultural differences between the Utes and the rest of America have contributed to pockets of poverty, educational difficulties and societal marginalization, although the Southern Ute Tribe, as mentioned above, is financially successful.
Each spring the Utes hold their traditional Bear Dances. Origin of the Bear Dance can be traced back several centuries. Each year, a mid-summer fasting ceremony known as The
Sun Dance is held; this ceremony has important spiritual significance to the Utes.
References
See also
External links
