North American Indians living mostly in Colorado and Utah, U.S. Their language belongs to the Numic branch of the
" Their traditional homeland included western Colorado, eastern Utah (whose name derives from Ute), and parts of New Mexico. They eventually joined into a loose confederation of seven bands. Until the 19th century, the Ute had no horses and lived in small family clusters, subsisting by food collecting. They were virtually indistinguishable from the Southern {{link=Paiute">Paiute . When the Ute acquired horses in the early 1800s, they became organized as loose bands of hunters, often targeting livestock. After the Indian wars of 1864–70, most Ute were settled on reservations. At the turn of the 21st century, they numbered more than 5,000.