History Colorado

Explore information about the Ute Bear Dance.

We Are Still Here-Bear Dance

Each of the three Ute tribes has its own seal with images and icons that are important to the Tribes. The government of each tribe is elected by the members of the tribe.

We Are Still Here-Government

The government established two boarding schools for Ute children, including one at Ignacio in 1902 and one at Towaoc in 1906.

Reservation Life-Boarding Schools

By the 1880s, the white settlers had caused the Ute bands to separate and live on three reservations. 

Reservation Life

The Ute Indian Tribe lives on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Fort Duschesne, Utah. It is the second largest Indian reservation in the U.S., and covers over 4.5 million acres. The tribe oversees 1.3 million acres of land. The tribe’s membership is 3,022 people. Over half of the membership lives on the Reservation. The Ute Indian Tribe are descendants of the Tabeguache, Yamparica, Parianuche, Uintah, Cumumba, Tupanawach, San Pitch, Pah Vant and Sheberetch bands.

We Are Still Here-Uintah and Ouray Reservation

Horses were important for trade. Ute bands were connected to each other through a trade network that stretched to the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Southwest, the Great Basin, and the plains.

Hides for Horses

Ute Timeline after European Contact

We Are Still Here-Ute Mountain Ute Tribe

The Ute people have oral traditions going back thousands of years—that explain that their origin was possibly right here in Colorado. 

Ute Creation Story and Origins

Draw and label where the 3 Ute tribes are located.

Many Bands, One People: Ute Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Southern Ute Tribe

Ute people are the longest continuous residents of Colorado and are still here today. Explore the history of the Ute people-CO's oldest inhabitants.

Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation

Utah American Indians: Curriculum and Digital Archive    

Ute Indian Tribe - Uintah & Ouray Reservation

Ute Tribal Paths

Engineering and Technology

Science

Civics and Government

Social Studies

U.S. History

Mormon settlers led by Brigham Young entered the Salt Lake Valley in what is now the state of Utah. As more and more settlers entered Ute homelands, Ute bands were pushed out. Some Utes retaliated with raids against the Mormon settlers.

Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Shows the Little Colorado River as Rio de Lino or Colorado Chiquito Little. Lost county of Greenwood, Colorado is shown. Metalliferous areas and Indian tribes located in New Mexico and Arizona. Colorado counties are those of 1873.

Map, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona

Settlers Arrive

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican-American War. The Ute homeland is now part of the land claimed from Mexico by the United States


The history of the state’s original inhabitants: the Utes. Historians trace their origins from pre-colonial days and early interactions with American trappers and explorers through the escalating friction with new settlers and gold seekers, to their ultimate expulsion to reservations. The first reservations were established in the 1860’s, and the question of land rights remains a topic of dispute.  Full documentary: https://video.rmpbs.org/video/colorado-experience-original-coloradans/


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Westward Expansion Excerpt Clip from The Original Coloradans

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The first official treaty between the Utes and the United States is signed at Abiquiu. Twenty-eight Ute leaders sign the treaty, which gives the United States jurisdiction over the Utes and allows for the building of roads, forts and posts on Ute land. In return, the Utes are to receive gifts and trade goods.

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Excerpt Clip from The Original Coloradans

1st Treaty

Gold was discovered in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado. A trickle of pioneers became a torrent. Within two years, as many as 30,000 people had overrun the Utes’ homeland

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Gold Rush Excerpt Clip from The Original Coloradans

Gold Discovered

Based on advice from leaders in the Utah Territory, President Lincoln sets the Uintah Valley in eastern Utah aside as a Ute Reservation for the Uintah band.


Photograph, Abraham Lincoln

Reservation 

Ute leaders from all seven bands sign the Treaty of 1868, creating a protected reservation covering 20 million acres in western Colorado. In exchange for all the land ceded to the United States (including important hunting grounds in North, Middle, and South Park and the Yampa and San Luis Valleys), the Ute people are to receive food in the form of rations, trade goods, livestock and other supplies. Thirty-year-old Ouray, of the Tabeguache band, is chosen principal chief of the Ute Tribe.

Triptych portraits of the Ute Delegation's visit to Washington, D.C. in 1868

L-R: Ankatosh, Piah (Ute chief, Grand River band), Suriap (Ute chief, Yampah band), Uriah M. Curtis, George M. Chilcott, Sowwachwiche, Col. Albert Boone (grandson of Daniel Boone), Alexander C. Hunt (governor of CO Territory), Nicaagat (Ute chief, Yampah band), Hiram P. Bennett (first delegate to Congress), Lafayette Head (Indian agent), Guero, Daniel Cheeseman Oaks (Indian Agent), Ouray (Chief), Edward H. Kellogg (Indian bureau employee), Severo (Chief of the Caputa), and William G. Godfrey.


Photograph, Ute Delegation

Treaty of 1868

The Utes cede the San Juan Mountain mining area and traditional homelands under the Brunot Agreement.

The history of the state’s original inhabitants: the Utes. Historians trace their origins from pre-colonial days and early interactions with American trappers and explorers through the escalating friction with new settlers and gold seekers, to their ultimate expulsion to reservations. The first reservations were established in the 1860’s, and the question of land rights remains a topic of dispute.  Full documentary: https://video.rmpbs.org/video/colorado-experience-original-coloradans/

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Brunot Agreement

President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Brunot Agreement, and thousands of Ute lands are now appropriated by the U.S. government


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Land Excerpt Clip from The Original Coloradans

Land

Miners demand access to gold and silver deposits in the San Juan Mountains. U.S. representatives force the Utes to sell about one-fourth of the 1868 reservation for an annual payment of $500,000. In addition, Ouray receives an annual stipend of $1,000 a year, which angers many Ute people.


Gold Panning

Gold in San Juan Mountains

Nathan Meeker requests military reinforcements at the White River Agency. Major Thomas T. Thornburgh and a party of officers traveling to Ute territory are killed on their way.


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White River Agency

"The Utes Must Go!” becomes the public outcry over the events at White River, and the Ute people are removed from more of their homeland.

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Reservation and Land Use Excerpt Clip from The Original Coloradans

Removal

Nathan Meeker is killed at the White River Agency. Meeker showed little respect for the Ute people, treating them with contempt and trying to change their lifestyle. Meeker destroyed a valued racetrack and killed the Ute people’s most prized horses, which led to the attack.

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Land Rights Excerpt Clip from The Original Coloradans

Meeker

Ouray travels to Washington, D.C., for treaty negotiations. The three Northern Ute bands—the Yampa, Uncompahgre and Grand River—are forced to leave Colorado for a reservation in the desert of Utah. The three remaining Ute bands are confined to a small strip of land along the La Plata River in southwestern Colorado. The southern bands receive no compensation for the lands they cede.

Panorama taken in Washington DC when Ute delegation visited for treaty discussions.  Photo includes Oho Blanco, William H. Berry, Tapuch, Captain Jack, Tim Johnson, Chief Ouray, Chipeta, Ignacio, Buckskin Charley, Henry Jim, Alhandra, Sowerwick, William Burns, Honarable C. Schurz, Gen. Adams, and William H. Berry.

Photograph, Ute Delegation in Washington DC 2

Photograph, Ute Delegation in Washington DC 3

Photograph, Ute Delegation in Washington DC 1

Photograph, Ute Delegation in Washington DC

Ute Delegation in Washington

Chief Ouray dies. In the last sixteen years of his life, the Utes had lost nearly all of their once-vast Colorado territory.

Studio portrait of Chief Ouray, a Native American (Ute) man. He wears beaded moccasins, leggings, bandolier, hair-pipe necklace, and kerchiefs in his braids. He holds a cane.

Photograph, Chief Ouray

Chief Ouray

United States Army sends troops to move the Yamparica, Tabeguache and Parianuche Ute bands from Colorado to the reservation in Utah

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Land Removal Excerpt Clip from The Original Coloradans

Utah Reservation

The Dawes Act passed. It allowed the federal government to survey American Indian tribal land and break it up into individual pieces, or allotments, for individuals


Outdoor portrait of a group of Ute and non-native men and one woman on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation, photographed by Charles L. Gillingham 1888. Dick Charley is the man on the first horse from the left and Scott Hays is the 7th man standing from the left. Ute men wear a mix of traditional and non-traditional clothing including blankets, bone breastplates, and hats. One man wears an Indian reservation police badge.

Photograph, On the Reservation Ignacio

Dawes Act

Fort Lewis in Alamosa, originally a military post, becomes an Indian school.


Students on steps of Fort Lewis Indian School

Fort Lewis Indian School

The portion of the Dawes Act specific to the Ute People, known as The Hunter Act, was presented to Congress. The Dawes Act changed the way Ute people owned the land.

Hunter Act

Ute allotment enforced by the U.S. Government. Reservations that were once owned by the whole tribe were broken up into small pieces that were owned by individual families.

Nanise and his family, Native American Southern Utes, pose at (probably) Ignacio (La Plata County), Colorado; costume includes a feather headdress, blankets, embroidery, and a doll papoose. Tipis are in the background.

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Ute Tribal Paths

Ute Timeline after European Contact

Guiding Question

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