FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL…

The original reach of the ancestral home of the Ute Indian Tribe stretched across the present states of Utah and Colorado, and into sections of Wyoming, New Mexico, and Arizona. The Ute Indians were the first native peoples to make wide use of the horse, obtained from trading with early Spanish explorers and settlers along the old Ute Trail—later called the Spanish Trail and Santa Fe Trail—allowing the Ute people to cover large areas. In the 1860’s and the 1880’s, various bands of Ute Indians were forced from the lands they called home into an area a fraction of the size they once roamed, land that came to be known as the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, centered in Fort Duchesne, Utah.

From the Indian New Deal to the Present

The Ute Indian Tribe adopted their own constitution and created the Tribe’s Business Committee following the mandate of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. In 1944, the Ute Indian Tribe was a founding participant at the first conference of the National Congress of the American Indian (NCAI). The conference was held in Denver, Colorado—on Ute ancestral land—and the Ute Tribe remains a very active member of NCAI. In the 1950’s, the Tribe fought the movement in Congress to terminate the treaty and trust responsibilities of the federal government and since that time, the Tribe has emerged as a very proud and successful sovereign, modern tribe. In the last few decades, the Tribe has been able to develop the oil and natural gas resources of the Uinta Basin, engaging with regional and now global partners to create sustainable development for a healthy future for all.

The Ute Tribe enters the land trust world

In 2017, Chairman Luke Duncan was the featured speaker at the welcome dinner of the Land Trust Alliance (LTA) Rally in Denver, Colorado. The LTA has been doing more and more each year to recognize the diversity of partners in the land trust space. Following the experiences of the Ute Tribe representatives at Rally in Denver, the Business Committee of the Ute Indian Tribe commissioned the founding of the Ute Land Trust for the purpose of reconnecting the Ute Indian Tribe to lost lands in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Arizona, through land acquisitions, land donations, or through conservation easements.

“Peace Pipe and Joining of Two Bands”

This panel in Willow Creek on the Ouray Reservation illustrates the acceptance of the White River Utes by the Uintahs when the White River Utes arrived. Symbol a is a horse whose unusual length represents a long journey, from the White River Agency to the Uintah Basin in Utah. In b, a man and his wife have dismounted. They are placed in front of the horse (a) to indicate that the completed journey was made by the men with their women and families (b). The man is holding a gun and is pushing his chest out to show that he is brave and has been at war.

Symbol d signifies the White Rivers reaching forward to grasp the peace pipe of the Uintah Utes (c). The sitting man is shown with his wife behind him (c) to indicate that their families were also there. Symbol d shows the White River Indians accepting the peace pipe from the Uintahs.   

The panel is read beginning from the right side, with the arrival of the Whiter Rivers and their initial meeting with the Uintahs. Both bands agree to smoke the peace pipe. The progression through time is shown as the smaller characters on the right gradually increase in size as the sequence moves left. The final scene depicts the Uintah with the peace pipe on the left and the White River reaching for the pipe on the right. Both figures are seated but if they were standing they would be twice as tall as the figures in the first sequence. Three episodes are shown: 1, arrival after a long ride; 2, Uintah offer the peace pipe; 3, White Rivers agree to smoke the peace pipe with the Uintah. 

[quoted from Petroglyphs of Western Colorado, by Clifford Duncan, 2016]