CHAPTER 2
UTE LANDS AND PEOPLE Early Ute History The Ute people traditionally have claimed large portions of the states of Utah and Colorado as their native homeland. The Utes' territorial claim by the middle of the sixteenth century included the territory west of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado to the territory surrounding Utah and Sevier lakes in present-day Utah. The n o r t h e r n b o u n d a r y of Ute territory was at about the Wyoming border and the southern boundary in Colorado was in the region of the New Mexico border. From the Four Corners region, the southern boundary of Ute territory in Utah extended northwest to Sevier Lake. In this two-state region, the Ute people occupied as diversified a geographical region as any Indian tribe in N o r t h America. The larger Ute tribe was divided into smaller tribes, bands, and family groupings in the two-state region. Adaptation to various regions and the natural resources there led to different lifestyles of many Ute bands. Europeans were quick to recognize differences of 39
