Society and culture
The lands of the Ute were mostly dry and desertlike. Few edible plants grew there and no large game animals lived there. The only foods available were roots, seeds, lizards, insects, rodents, and some other small animals. By traveling to the forested slopes of the Rocky Mountains, however, the Ute could find animals to hunt and fish to catch.
The Ute acquired horses earlier than most other tribes, probably in the late 1600s from the Pueblo Indians. On horseback they became swift raiders, taking livestock or human captives from other tribes. Sometimes the Ute rode east to hunt the large buffalo (bison) herds that roamed the Great Plains.
The Ute lived in cone-shaped houses made of poles covered with brush or grass. They spent much of the year traveling in small bands. The band leader was usually a skilled raider and horseman who had won the confidence of the others.
History
Spanish traders began arriving in Ute territory in the 16th century. The Ute occasionally fought the Spaniards but usually traded with them.
Few other non-Indians came to the region until 1847, when U.S. settlers of the Mormons religion started settling near the Ute. The next year, the Ute's territory became a United States possession. Soon U.S. settlers and miners began to enter the Ute homeland in large numbers.
By the 1860s the United States government pressured the Ute to give up most of their territory and move onto reservations. On the reservations, government representatives called Indian agents tried to make the Ute stop raiding and hunting and take up farming.
Angry that the Ute would not obey him, one agent, Nathan Meeker, called in federal troops. His action sparked the Ute War of 1879. The Ute killed Meeker and took his wife captive before their leader, Chief Ouray, negotiated an end to the conflict.
At the end of the 20th century more than 7,000 Ute lived in the United States. They are organized into three tribes: the Uintah-Ouray Ute, the Southern Ute, and the Ute Mountain Ute.