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The animal hide was a very valuable piece of the animal, it was used to cover shelters and also for clothing. Along with fully using an animal, the Utes also only hunted what they needed; they did not hunt for sport or pleasure. Food acquisition did not solely fall on the men, Ute women also played an important role in ensuring that there was enough to eat.

Typically it was the women who gathered and would also trap small animals to eat. They would gather berries, edible plants, and roots. Some plants, like berries, would be eaten raw, while others were cooked.

To get the roots more easily a digging stick was used. Those that gathered were careful to never take too much and rotated between what they gathered to ensure that there was food in the future. Additionally, hunters would rotate what they killed, as a way to ensure that they would not over hunt.

The following list of reservations has been compiled from the National Atlas of the United States of America [7] , the Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America [8] , and other sources. Those reservations named in bold are current federally-recognized reservations, with their associated agency and tribe s.

Others have historically been associated with the state or are not currently recognized by the federal government. Federal Lands and Indian Reservations. Department of Interior and U. Geological Survey. Family History Library. From FamilySearch Wiki. American Indian Research. Indigenous Peoples of Colorado. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Washington D. The site dates to roughly 1, years ago and is one of the finest archeo-astronomy sites in North America, where building alignments correspond with astronomical phenomena such as the equinoxes and solstices.

Mesa Verde National Park is one of the most famous archeological sites in the world from the Ancestral Puebloan period. The park contains over 5, archeological sites, of which are cliff dwellings. The mesa was occupied for around years, between about to years ago, and you can see the progression over time from a lifestyle of below-ground pit houses and scattered fields to crowded cliff-towns with three-story high buildings.

Canyon of the Ancients and Hovenweep national monuments are other sites nearby that also illustrate more about the Ancestral Puebloans of southwestern Colorado, showcasing additional ancient ruins. The region was abandoned over time due probably to a massive drought. When people left the region they moved south, where their descendants still live in the pueblos along the Rio Grande River and elsewhere in New Mexico. Southwestern Colorado was then settled by Numic-speaking Ute people around years ago.

The Utes are related to the Southern Paiute, Shoshone, and some of the Colorado River tribes interestingly enough, also the Hopi Indians of Arizona, who speak a completely different language from other Puebloan tribes. It is believed the Utes originally came from southern Nevada along the California border and entered southwestern Colorado not long after the Ancestral Puebloans had gone. From there, the Utes spread throughout Colorado. The Utes lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle and did much more hunting and gathering than the Puebloans.

Some groups ranged as far as Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Texas for hunting and seasonal gathering. By the time Europeans entered Colorado, several historic tribes had moved into and inhabited the state: the Ute, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Apache, and Shoshone were the most numerous, although Comanche, Kiowa, and Navajo also wandered into Colorado as part of their hunting range. All of these people were semi-nomadic to nomadic buffalo hunters and needed large territories throughout their year.

The healing trees are evidence of the Utes early presence in the land and their close relationship to their ecosystem. When the Ute people were forcibly placed reservations they could no longer travel on their familiar trails, to gather or hunt for food. As more and more elders pass they take traditional knowledge about plants and their uses with them. In the past the Ute vocabulary included many words and their uses for plants.

Unfortunately, these ancient words have been lost. A medicinal plant used by the Utes is Bear root Ligusticum portieri also commonly known as osha. Bear root grows throughout the Rocky Mountains, in elevations over 7, feet. The plant has antibacterial and antiviral powers and continues to be used to treat colds and upper respiratory ailments. It can be chewed or brewed into teas. It can be used topically, in baths, compresses, and ointments to treat indigestion, infections, wounds and arthritis.

Some southwest tribes use it before going into the desert areas to deter rattlesnakes. The Utes have a special relationship with the plant and treat it with great respect, harvesting only what they need and always giving prayers before they harvest.

Ute elders knew which plants should be gathered and which plants were dangerous. One has to be very careful when harvesting wild plants as many toxic plants can be mistaken for wild onion or bear root.

Poison hemlock Conium macalatum appears much the same as the bear root but is dangerous. Peppermint and wild tobacco were collected and used in many important ceremonies. The routes the Utes established were used by other Native American tribes and Europeans. The Ute Trail became known as the Spanish Trail used by Spanish explorers as early as the fifteenth century when Alvar Nunez Caveza de Vaca and Juan de Onate were sent from Spain to explore the uninhabited areas of Texas and New Mexico, claiming vast lands for their Spanish rulers.

During the sixteenth century Spaniards began to colonize New Mexico, establishing their domination wherever possible. These changes were to have far reaching impacts upon the Ute people. Not only did the European bring livestock and tools, they also brought small pox, cholera and other diseases that would decimate the population of the Ute people.

Contact with the European was to end a way of life the people had known for centuries. Contact between the Southern Utes and the Spanish continued, with trade soon developing.

Utes were known for their tanned elk and deer hides which they traded along with dried meat tools and weapons. However, as the Spanish became more aggressive conflicts began to arise. When Santa Fe was established as the northern capital of the Spanish colonists they captured Utes and other Native Americans as slave laborers to work in their fields and homes.

Around Ute captives escaping from the Spanish in Santa Fe fled, taking with them Spanish horses, thus making the Utes one of the first Native American tribes to acquire the horse.

However, tribal historians tell of the Utes acquiring the horse as early as the s. Already skilled hunters, the Utes used the horse to become expert big game hunters.

They began to roam further away from their home camps to hunt buffalo that migrated over the vast prairies east of their mountain homes, and explore the distant lands. The Utes began to depend upon the buffalo as a source for much of their items. It took only one buffalo to feed several families, and fewer hides were required to make structures and clothing. The Utes already had a reputation as defenders of their territories now became even fiercer warriors.

Women and children were also fierce and were known to pick up a lance and defend their camps from attacking enemies. Ute men were described by the Spanish as having fine physiques, able to withstand the harsh climate, and live off the land in sharp contrast to the European who often had to depend upon Native Americans and their knowledge about plants, animals and the environment.

They became adept raiders preying upon neighboring tribes such as the Apache, Pueblos and Navajo. In , Governor John Hickenlooper signed an Executive Order creating a commission to study American Indian representations in public schools, resulting in a report on the topic.

The Commission visited several schools throughout the state that used American Indian mascots and names, held community meetings, and ultimately wrote a series of concrete recommendations for community groups and institutions to implement.

 
 

 

What native american tribes lived in southern colorado. DISCOVER / TIMELINE OF BOULDER / The Indigenous Period of Colorado

 
Like the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Comanche, the Kiowa formerly hunted and warred across parts of eastern Colorado. Kiowa Apache Indians. This tribe always accompanied the Kiowa. . Native American Tribes of Colorado The original inhabitants of the area that is now Colorado included: The Apache nation The Arapaho nation The Cheyenne nation The Pueblo tribes . Jun 07,  · Ute Indian Museum. The Ute Indian Museum, off U.S. Highway in Montrose, Colorado, celebrates American Indians who now live in Colorado and those who inhabited .