The Seuvarits Utes (also known as Shai-var-its, Sheberetch, Sayhehpeech, Squawbush Water People,Elk Mountain Utes, or Green River Utes) are a band of the Northern Ute tribe of Native Americans that traditionally inhabited the area surrounding present-day Moab, Utah, near the Grand River (present-day Colorado River) and the Green River. The Seuvarits were among the Ute bands that were involved in the Black Hawk War. [1] The Seuvarits and other Ute bands were eventually relocated onto reservations by the United States government after their population severely declined after exposure to disease and war during the latter half of the 19th century. [2] [3]
The Seuvarits lived in dry, arid, and desert-like biomes, which greatly influenced their traditions and culture. [4] They roamed the areas east and west of the La Sal Mountains, drawing upon the resources of the nearby Grand River (present-day Colorado River) and its tributary, the Green River. Contact with Mormons, otherwise known as Latter-day Saints (LDS) or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, exposed the Seuvarits people to disease. Due to this disease and the effects of war, the Seuvarits band decreased in population and eventually combined with other Native American tribes (Moanunt, San Pitch, Timpanogos, Koosharem, and others) to become known as Uintah Utes by government officials after 1873. [2] These combined peoples were relocated to the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in Eastern Utah, where they reside to the present day. Because the Seuvarits lived on dry, arid lands, they did not use horses or rear them to any notable number until after the 1860s. The Seuvarits band of Utes is classified as part of the Northern Ute people. [5]
The shared language between the Seuvarits and the rest of the Ute Indian tribe is Shoshonean. Shoshonean is a dialect of Uto-Aztecan. The peoples who speak Shoshonean previously separated from tribes who speak Uto-Aztecan. [4]
To more easily travel the broad region of the Great Basin, larger bands would break into smaller family units in order to move more quickly and efficiently. Food, being an essential component for survival, was broken up into hunting and gathering sites by the Ute bands. After a period of time, the bands would move on to the next site, giving the environment time to naturally replenish its resources. The men of the band hunted elk, deer, and antelope. All parts of the animal were used, for example hides for clothing and tipi covers and antlers and bones for tools or beads. [4] [6] Specifically, the Seuvarits Utes would hunt antelope during the fall and winter months. The Seuvarits people tended to avoid the nearby Book Cliffs due to their desolate nature and relied on the Green River and Grand River (present-day Colorado River) for food and resources. [7]
Women took on the role of trapping smaller game and gathering plant life such as amaranth, wild onion, and ricegrass native to the Great Basin. It is unknown what plant life the Seuvarits band picked specifically due to their more desert-oriented lifestyle. The women's beautiful quillwork-decorated clothing and cradleboards became well known. [4] [3]
Prior to the introduction of the horse and contact with white settlers, Ute bands including the Seuvarits used tools made of wood and stone. These included bows and arrows, baskets, throwing sticks, etc. The Seuvarits people traded with surrounding tribes and bands for various other items like pottery. [4]
In the winter, the Seuvarits and other Ute bands gathered around campfires and told stories. During this time, members of the tribe also repaired tools and created new clothes for the coming spring and summer. Additionally, around these campfires, chiefs announced major events such as the Bear Dance, a traditional dance that took place in the springtime meant to represent new life and rejuvenation. The Seuvarits people strived to live in harmony with their surroundings and the environment. [4]
During the April 1855 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, about 40 men were called to carry out the Elk Mountain Mission to the area of present-day Moab, Utah. The mission was led by the Alfred N. Billings, who was appointed as the mission president by Latter-day Saint prophet Brigham Young. Billings appointed Oliver B. Huntington as mission clerk and Joseph Rawlins as wagon master and later first counselor to Billings. William R. Holden was appointed as second counselor. On June 10, 1855, the missionaries reached the valley of the Grand River and made first contact with the Seuvarits people there. [8]
Initial relations with the Seuvarits people and their chief, St. John, were peaceful, and the missionaries felt a sense of security around the native people. [8] Tensions began to grow as the missionaries began to construct a stone fort. The Seuvarits people began to steal from the missionaries. Complaints of the Seuvarits Utes arose that claimed the natives were collecting and hoarding supplies. [9] By this time, animosity and tension had built up between the local Mormons and the Seuvarits. [2] On September 3, 1855, a member of the Seuvarits band named Charles, the son of Chief St. John, shot one of the missionaries. [8] In following weeks, the Seuvarits in Grass Valley raided settlements, killing Mormon settlers in the process. [2] [10] The Seuvarits, led by Charles, burned the missionaries' stockpiles of hay and corn and turned water away from their fort. In October of 1855, the missionaries made the decision to abandon the Elk Mountain Mission and return to northern Utah. [8] [11]
Though the Seuvarits people were described as being unmounted according to historical documents during the time of the Elk Mountain Mission in the 1850s, later reports in the 1860s later described the Seuvarits people as mounted and "well-armed." [12]
Seuvarits Utes were involved in the 1865-1872 Black Hawk War (not to be confused with the 1832 Black Hawk War in Illinois and Wisconsin). They were considered to be a major force in Timpanogos Chief Antonga Black Hawk's bands of raiders. Their allies during the war included Timpanogos and San Pitch raiders, as well as members of the Yampa and White River bands. The relationship between Mormon settlers and Seuvarits Utes started peacefully, but tensions arose when Black Hawk lead both Seuvarits and San Pitch raiders in a bid to resist expanding Mormon settlements, which were encroaching on their western lands. The raiders targeted livestock, crops, and mills in an attempt to force settlers to flee from impoverishment. [1] [2] Oppositely, Paiute bands would often ally themselves with white settlers as they were considered to bring a reprieve from Ute dominion over the area. [1]
The Seuvarits people declined in population by the 1870s, as war and disease brought by Mormon missionaries greatly affected the band, which had not had much contact with white people in the past. Many Ute bands suffered from measles. [1] The survivors joined with the Northern Ute groups of the Uncompahgre and the Weeminuche, as well as the Uintah Tribe. [13] Remaining members of the Seuvarits band currently reside on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in eastern Utah. [2]
The Seuvarits band of Utes traditionally inhabited the area of present-day Grand County in eastern Utah, east and west of the La Sal Mountains and along the Colorado River and the Green River. The Elk Mountain Mission was established in this area. [4] The territories of the Seuvarits people also included the area of the Book Cliffs in western Colorado and eastern Utah, but the Seuvarits people tended to avoid these lands because of the lack of resources and the ruggedness of the terrain. [7] Historically, the geography of their territories did not require the Seuvarits people to use horses, and they were described as unmounted, per reports as late as the 1850s, the time of the Elk Mountain Mission. [12] After contact with white settlers from the time of the Elk Mountain Mission and beyond, the Seuvarits began to breed and make use of horses in their lifestyle. [12]
Through United States federal intervention and involvement through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (an agency of the Department of the Interior), the remnants of the Seuvarits Ute band were relocated from their ancestral lands onto reservations. A number of members of the Seuvarits band refused to move. The main reservation that the Seuvarits were relocated to was the Uintah and Ouray Reservation located in the Uintah Basin. The Seuvarits were relocated there along with various other Ute bands and tribes such as the Timpanogos, Santaquin-Goshen, Moanunt, San Pitch, Koosharem, and Piede. Some individual bands of Ute Native Americans were destroyed by disease and war, and Ute populations shrank by as much as 20%. The tribes and bands relocated to the Uintah and Ouray Reservation were grouped into one band under federal direction known as the Uintah Utes. [2] One of the effects of being relocated onto reservations included a loss of traditional tribal language and traditions as tribal elders passed away. [4]
Ouray was a Native American chief of the Tabeguache (Uncompahgre) band of the Ute tribe, then located in western Colorado. Because of his leadership ability, Ouray was acknowledged by the United States government as a chief of the Ute and he traveled to Washington, D.C. to negotiate for the welfare of the Utes. Raised in the culturally diverse town of Taos, Ouray learned to speak many languages that helped him in the negotiations, which were complicated by the manipulation of his grief over his five-year-old son abducted during an attack by the Sioux. Ouray met with Presidents Lincoln, Grant, and Hayes and was called the man of peace because he sought to make treaties with settlers and the government.
The Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin are Native Americans of the northern Great Basin, Snake River Plain, and upper Colorado River basin. The "Great Basin" is a cultural classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas and a cultural region located between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, in what is now Nevada, and parts of Oregon, California, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. The Great Basin region at the time of European contact was ~400,000 sq mi (1,000,000 km2). There is very little precipitation in the Great Basin area which affects the lifestyles and cultures of the inhabitants.
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.
Ute are the indigenous people of the Ute tribe and culture among the indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. They have lived in the regions of present-day Utah and Colorado in the Southwestern United States for many centuries. The state of Utah is named after the Ute tribe.
Chief Walkara was a Shoshone leader of the Utah Indians known as the Timpanogo and Sanpete Band. It is not completely clear what cultural group the Utah or Timpanogo Indians belonged to, but they are listed as Shoshone. He had a reputation as a diplomat, horseman and warrior, and a military leader of raiding parties, and in the Wakara War.
The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe is one of three federally recognized tribes of the Ute Nation, and are mostly descendants of the historic Weeminuche Band who moved to the Southern Ute reservation in 1897. Their reservation is headquartered at Towaoc, Colorado on the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation in southwestern Colorado, northwestern New Mexico and small sections of Utah.
The Southern Ute Indian Reservation is a Native American reservation in southwestern Colorado near the northern New Mexico state line. Its territory consists of land from three counties; in descending order of surface area they are La Plata, Archuleta, and Montezuma Counties. The reservation has a land area of 1,058.785 sq mi (2,742.24 km²). Its largest communities are Ignacio and Arboles. The only other community that is recognized as a separate place by the Census Bureau is the CDP of Southern Ute, which lies just southeast of Ignacio.
The Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation is located in northeastern Utah, United States. It is the homeland of the Ute Indian Tribe, and is the largest of three Indian reservations inhabited by members of the Ute Tribe of Native Americans.
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 Ute Indian Tribe of the Uinta and Ouray Reservation is a Federally Recognized Tribe of Indians in northeastern Utah, United States. Three bands of Utes comprise the Ute Indian Tribe: the Whiteriver Band, the Uncompahgre Band and the Uintah Band. The Tribe has a membership of more than three thousand individuals, with over half living on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation. The Ute Indian Tribe operates its own tribal government and oversees approximately 1.3 million acres of trust land which contains significant oil and gas deposits.
The Timpanogos were a tribe of Native Americans who inhabited a large part of central Utah—particularly, the area from Utah Lake eastward to the Uinta Mountains and south into present-day Sanpete County. In some accounts they were called the Timpiavat, Timpanogot, Timpanogotzi, Timpannah, Tempenny and other names. During the mid-19th century, when Mormon pioneers entered the territory, the Timpanogos were one of the principal tribes in Utah based on population, area occupied and influence. Scholars have had difficulty identifying their language; most communication was carried out in Spanish or English, and many of their leaders spoke several native dialects of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.
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.
White River Utes are a Native American band, made of two earlier bands, the Yampa from the Yampa River Valley and the Parianuche Utes who lived along the Grand Valley in Colorado and Utah.
Chipeta or White Singing Bird was a Native American woman, and the second wife of Chief Ouray of the Uncompahgre Ute tribe. Born a Kiowa Apache, she was raised by the Utes in what is now Conejos, Colorado. An advisor and confidant of her husband, Chipeta continued as a leader of her people after his death in 1880.
The Uintah tribe, once a small band of the Ute people, and now is a tribe of multiple bands of Utes that were classified as Uintahs by the U.S. government when they were relocated to the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. The bands included the San Pitch, Pahvant, Seuvartis, Timpanogos and Cumumba Utes.
Sanpitch was a leader of the Sanpits tribe of Native Americans who lived in what is now the Sanpete Valley, before and during settlement by Mormon immigrants. The Sanpits are generally considered to be part of the Timpanogos or Utah Indians
The Battle at Fort Utah was a battle between the Timpanogos Tribe and remnants of the Nauvoo Legion at Fort Utah in modern-day Provo, Utah. The Timpanogos people initially tolerated the presence of the settlers, and the two groups enjoyed some moments of mutual friendship. However, after three Mormons murdered a Timpanogos man called Old Bishop and a hard winter where Timpanogos took around 50 Mormon cattle, settlers in Fort Utah petitioned to go to war with the Timpanogos. Isaac Higbee, Parley P. Pratt and Willard Richards convinced Brigham Young to exterminate any Timpanogos hostile to the Mormon settlement. Young sent the Nauvoo Legion down with Captain George D. Grant and later sent General Daniel H. Wells to lead the army. After the Timpanogos defended themselves from their village and an abandoned cabin, they fled their camp. The Mormons pursued the Timpanogos from Chief Old Elk's tribe and any other Timpanogos they found in the valley, killing Timpanogos from Chief Pareyarts or Para-yah 's tribe and other tribes even if they had no history of attacking the Mormons. The Nauvoo Legion killed around 100 Timpanogos.
Chief Tabby-To-Kwanah was the leader of Timpanogos when they were displaced to the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation. He rose to power as a young man and was sub-chief under his cousin Chief Walkara when the Mormon pioneers first arrived in Timpanogos territory. He was one of the principal clan leaders over a band in southern Utah Valley, along with Chief Peteetneet and Grospene. He was a grandson of Turunianchi, who was the leader when the Timpanogos first contacted the Europeans during the Dominguez–Escalante Expedition. Turunianchi's grandsons made up the royal line of "brothers" referred to by Brigham Young. Tabby-To-Kwanah means "Child of the Sun." Tabiona, Utah is named after him.
The San Pitch Utes were members of a band of Ute people that lived in the Sanpete Valley and Sevier River Valley and along the San Pitch River. They may have originally been Shoshonean, and were generally considered as part of the Timpanogos.
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.