The San Juan River is a major tributary of the Colorado River in the Southwestern United States, providing the chief drainage for the Four Corners region of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona. Originating as snowmelt in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, it flows 383 miles (616 km) through the deserts of northern New Mexico and southeastern Utah to join the Colorado River at Glen Canyon.
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
The Goshutes are a tribe of Western Shoshone Native Americans. There are two federally recognized Goshute tribes today:
The Indigenous peoples of Arizona are the Native American people of the state of Arizona. These include people that have lived in the region since time immemorial; tribes who entered the region centuries ago, such as the Southern Athabascan peoples; and the Pascua Yaqui who settled Arizona in mass in the early 20th century, though small communities had been in the region for hundreds of years prior.
Antonga, or Black Hawk, was a nineteenth-century war chief of the Timpanogos Tribe in what is the present-day state of Utah. He led the Timpanogos against Mormon settlers and gained alliances with Paiute and Navajo bands in the territory against them during what became known as the Black Hawk War in Utah (1865–1872). Although Black Hawk made peace in 1867, other bands continued raiding until the US intervened with about 200 troops in 1872. Black Hawk died in 1870 from a gunshot wound he received while trying to rescue a fallen warrior, White Horse, at Gravely Ford Richfield, Utah, June 10, 1866. The wound never healed and complications set in.
The Southern Paiute people are a tribe of Native Americans who have lived in the Colorado River basin of southern Nevada, northern Arizona, and southern Utah. Bands of Southern Paiute live in scattered locations throughout this territory and have been granted federal recognition on several reservations.
Ute are the Indigenous people of the Ute tribe and culture among the Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. They had lived in sovereignty in the regions of present-day Utah and Colorado in the Southwestern United States for many centuries until European settlers stole their lands. The state of Utah is named after the Ute tribe.
The Ute Wars were a series of conflicts between the Ute people and the United States which began in 1849 and ended in 1923.
The Black Hawk War, or Black Hawk's War, is the name of the estimated 150 battles, skirmishes, raids, and military engagements taking place from 1865 to 1872, primarily between Mormon settlers in Sanpete County, Sevier County and other parts of central and southern Utah, and members of 16 Ute, Southern Paiute, Apache and Navajo tribes, led by a local Ute war chief, Antonga Black Hawk. The conflict resulted in the abandonment of some settlements and hindered Mormon expansion in the region.
The Timpanogos are a tribe of Native Americans who inhabited a large part of central Utah, in particular, the area from Utah Lake east to the Uinta Mountains and south into present-day Sanpete County.
The Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah is a federally recognized tribe of Southern Paiute and Ute Indians in southwestern Utah.
Pahvant was a band of Ute people that lived in present-day Utah. Called the "Water People", they fished and hunted waterfowl. They were also farmers and hunter-gatherers. In the 18th century they were known to be friendly and attentive, but after a chief's father was killed by emigrating white settlers, a group of Pahvant Utes killed John Williams Gunnison and seven of his men during his exploration of the area. The bodies of water of their homeland were dried up after Mormons had diverted the water for irrigation. Having intermarried with the Paiutes, they were absorbed into the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah and relocated to reservations.
The Posey War was a small, brief conflict with American Indians in Utah. Though it was a minor conflict, it involved a mass exodus of Ute and Paiute native Americans from their land around Bluff, Utah to the deserts of Navajo Mountain. The natives were led by a chief named Posey, who took his people into the mountains to try to escape his pursuers. Unlike previous conflicts, posses played a major role while the United States Army played a minor one. The war ended after a skirmish at Comb Ridge. Posey was badly wounded and his band was taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Blanding. When Posey's death was confirmed by the authorities, the prisoners were released and given land allotments to farm and raise livestock. According to the Utah Encyclopedia, "for the Indians it was not a war and never was intended to be such ... a few shots fired as a delaying action, and a very rapid surrender do not justify elevating an exodus to a war."
Bears Ears National Monument is a United States national monument located in San Juan County in southeastern Utah, established by President Barack Obama by presidential proclamation on December 28, 2016. The monument protects 1,351,849 acres of public land surrounding the Bears Ears—a pair of buttes—and the Indian Creek corridor rock climbing area. The Native American names for the buttes have the same meaning in each of the languages represented in the region. The names are listed in the presidential proclamation as "Hoon’Naqvut, Shash Jáa [sic], Kwiyaghatʉ Nükavachi/Kwiyagatu Nukavachi, Ansh An Lashokdiwe"—all four mean "Bears Ears".
Indigenous peoples have lived in the area now known as the state of Utah for thousands of years. Today they are divided into five main groups: Utes, Goshutes, Paiutes, Shoshone, and Navajo. Each occupies a different region within the state, many of which regions extend across borders into other states. In the 2010 census, there were a total of 32,927 American Indian and Alaska Natives living within the state, which totaled to 1.19% of the total population of Utah.
Louisa Wade Wetherill lived with her husband and children in remote trading posts among the Navajo people in New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona for more than 25 years and became an authority on Navajo culture. She spoke the Navajo language and became expert in medicinal herbs and plants known to the Navajo, art, especially sandpainting, traditional stories, and weaving. She was known by the Navajo as Asthon Sosi or "Slim Woman."
The Pinhook Draw fight took place 15–16 June 1881 near Moab, Utah. The combatants were 30 to 65 Ute and Paiute Native Americans (Indians) and about three dozen white settlers, mostly Anglo cowboys and miners from southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. The settlers were attempting to punish the Utes for their depredations in the region and to recover stolen livestock. They were in pursuit of an encampment of Utes when the Utes ambushed them in Pinhook Draw. Ten whites were killed and between two and 22 Utes.
Navajo trading posts flourished on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah from 1868 until about 1970. Trading posts, usually owned by non-Navajos, were the origin of many populated places on the reservation. They were often the center of commercial, cultural, and social life for the Navajos. At their peak in the first half of the 20th century about 100 trading posts were scattered around the reservation. The most important items and items traded and sold by the Navajo to the traders were wool, sheep and goat skins, and woven textiles. The most important items purchased by the Navajo at the trading posts were flour, sugar, coffee, tobacco, cloth, and canned goods. In the late 20th century, most trading posts were replaced by Navajo-owned businesses, shopping centers, and convenience stores.
United States 
