The Way It Was Thursday -- In the Beginning History of Delta County -- - In the Beginning were the Utes and Their Ancestors A nomadic tribe of Stone Age food-gathers came for refuge from their more sophisticated and aggressive peers.  No one knows exactly where they originated from, but they were (it is thought) linguistically related to the Aztecs and (possibly) spoke a tongue similar to the Shoshone language. These primitive Indians welcomed the high plateaus the cliff dwellers left after their mass exodus from our area toward the end of the thirteenth century.  No other tribe claimed or wanted these rugged mountainous lands, so the first group of Utes, probably (it is speculated) ancestors of the Tabeguache band, were left to themselves. As time went on they were joined by others and they laid claim to the all of the Rockies of Colorado. These ancestors of today's Ute Indians roamed back and forth keeping the river Anacopogri (later called Uncompahgre) meaning "Red Water."  This river flowed into the westbound Tomiche, (later called Gunnison) River, fed by the mountain snows. The Tabeguache or Uncompahgre band of Utes dominated the valleys of what will become Delta, Colorado.  Their southern relatives laid claim to the Four Corners region, the corners of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.  The Northern Utes roamed along the White and Green Rivers of present day northeastern Utah. The Navahos, to the south and west, and the Shoshone tribes east of their home, posed formidable enemies to