UTE

Shoshonean-speaking group of Indians of western Colorado and eastern Utah; their name was given to the latter state. When the Spanish Father Silvestre Vlez de Escalante traversed their territory in 1776, while seeking a route from Santa Fe (now in New Mexico) to California missions, the Ute had no horses and lived in small family clusters subsisting by food collecting. At that time there was no clear distinction between the Ute and the Southern Paiute, both of whom spoke Ute, which belongs to the Southern Numic branch of the Numic (formerly Plateau Shoshonean) languages. After acquiring horses in the early 19th century, however, the Ute of western Colorado and later of northern Utah became organized in loose bands of hunters. As the area was settled by Europeans, these bands became predators on livestock. In the southern regions of Utah, Nevada, and California, however, the Ute and Chemehuevi remained afoot, and the Ute came to be called Southern Paiute (see Paiute). After the Indian wars (186470) most of the Colorado Ute were settled on a reservation in southwestern Colorado; those of Utah were placed on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, where most of them remain. They numbered about 1,700 in Colorado and 2,660 in Utah in the late 20th century.