page_title: Ute people
section_title: Treaties between the United States and the Utes
hierarchical_section_title: Ute people / History / Treaties between the United States and the Utes
context_page_description: Ute people are Aboriginals of the Ute tribe and culture and are among the Great Basin classification of Indigenous People. They have lived in the regions of present-day Utah and Colorado for centuries. In addition to their home regions within Colorado and Utah, their hunting grounds extended into Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico. They had sacred grounds outside of their home domain that were also visited seasonally.
  There were twelve historic bands of Utes whose culture was influenced by neighboring Native Americans. Although they generally operated in family groups for hunting and gathering, they came together for ceremonies and trading. The Utes also traded with other Native American tribes and Puebloans. When they made contact with early Euro-Americans, such as the Spanish, they also traded with them. After they acquired horses from the Spanish, their lifestyle changed dramatically, affecting their mobility, hunting practices, and tribal organization. Once primarily defensive warriors, they became adept horsemen and warriors, raiding other Native Americans and Puebloans.
context_section_description: Following acquisition of Ute territory from Mexico by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo the United States made a series of treaties with the Ute and executive orders that ultimately culminated with relocation to reservations:
  1849 treaty of peace
  In 1861 land was taken from the Ute by an executive order and without a treaty or purchase. Uintah Reservation in Utah was designated for the Uintah band.
  1863 Treaty of Conejos which reduced their lands to 50% of what it had been, losing all lands east of the Continental Divide that included healing waters at Manitou Springs and the sacred land on Pikes Peak. It guaranteed that they would have the western one third of the state of the Colorado. The Utes agreed that they would allow roads and military forts to be built. As an encouragement to take up farming, they were to be given sheep, cattle, and $10,000 in goods and provisions over ten years. The government generally did not provide the goods, provisions, or livestock mentioned in the treaty, and since game was scarce many Ute continued to hunt on ancestral Ute lands until they were removed to reservations in 1800 and 1881. The Tabeguache were assigned a reservation.
  May 5, 1864 land that has been established as reserves in 1856 and 1859 were ordered vacated and sold.
  March 2, 1868 Treaty with The Ute by which the Ute retained all of Colorado Territory west of longitude 107° west and relinquished all of Colorado Territory east of longitude 107° west. A reservation was established for the Tabeguache, Capote, Moache, Wiminuche, Yampa, Grand River, and Uintah. Part of this land was ceded to the United States government in 1873.
  November 9, 1878 Treaty with the Capote, Muache, and Weeminuche Bands establishing the Southern Ute Reservation and the Mountain Ute Reservation.
  There were a number of changes into 1897 where the boundaries of the reservations changed, turning portions of the former reservations into public domain.
caption: Map of present-day reservations
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