Tapestry of a Tribe: The Story of the Ute Indians

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“You think you own whatever land you land on

The earth is just a dead thing you can claim

But I know every rock and tree and creature

Has a life, has a spirit, has a name.”

~Disney's Pocohontas

And so it is with the Ute Indians, a people whose great respect and admiration for the land and its inhabitants weaves in and out of their culturally rich heritage like threads in a tapestry. Not unlike other Native American tribes, the Utes feel a deep connection to the land that is their home. Everything they believe and all they do is a direct result of this connection. The story of the Utes is one that spans over a thousand years. It is a mystery, an action adventure, a love story, a drama, and a tragedy all rolled into one. Theirs is the story of a people who believe that a great spirit made the world for them, who love the land and work in cooperation with nature rather than against it, and who have learned to adapt to meet the challenges they have encountered. When first the Spanish and then the Europeans set foot on Ute territory; however, everything changed for the Utes, making the story of the modern day Utes one of tragedy, injustice, and the strength of a people determined to persevere.

1. Origin – The Great Mystery

No one can really say when the Utes first came to the Colorado Plateau area of the Great basin or exactly where they came from. Their nomadic nature left little in the way of anthropological evidence to support an exact time of arrival and there have been many theories surrounding their origin. It seems to be agreed; however, that the Utes most likely entered the area of the Colorado Plateau sometime around 1200 AD and migrated here from the South based upon linguistics. Prior to the Utes occupation o...

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...America: Colorado Plateau. Web. http://cpluhna.nau.edu/People/fremont.htm

Misc:

Lewis, David Rich. Neither Wolf Nor Dog: American Indians, Environment, and Agrarian Change. 1994. Google Books. Web. http://books.google.com/books?id=P7UakZd-7boC&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=ute+cosmology&source=bl&ots=5_0s_TT4y8&sig=BSdu9GekkFh5u_et9c0yzbOgzTU&hl=en&ei=DkXNTrfHIo--tgevkolj&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=ute%20cosmology&f=false

Cosmology:

Utah American Indian Digital Archives. "Early Peoples: The White Mesa Utes". 2008. Web. http://www.utahindians.org/archives/whiteMesa/earlyPeoples.html

Social and Political:

Burns, Sam. “The Ute relationships to the lands of West Central Colorado: An ethnographic overview prepared for the U.S. Forest Service”. Rev. 2004. Web. 2 November 2011.

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