Ute Mountain Ute Tribe

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, comprised of the Weenuche band of Utes, historically occupied the La Plata and San Miguel mountain regions along the various northern tributaries of the San Juan River. The Weenuche were a hunter-gatherer society that moved with the seasons. In the spring and summer months, the Weenuche would follow wild game and seek additional water sources in the mountains. In the fall, they would travel from the higher mountain elevations to the warmer regions of southwest Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah for the duration of winter.

West of the Colorado portion of the Reservation, a separate group of the Tribe settled in Montezuma Creek, Allen Canyon, and other drainages of the Abajo Mountains in southeastern Utah. These smaller bands intermarried with Paiute Indians and some eventually took up farming on individual and tribal allotments. Like their Colorado counterpart, without adequate irrigation, these Utah lands were not well-suited for cultivation. Today, most of those tribal members have settled in the community of White Mesa, Utah. With the challenges posed by scarce water resources and non-fertile lands, many of the tribal members in each state largely took up ranching and stock raising of sheep, cattle and horses. Seasonal movements of the Tribe were then dictated by the need to find suitable grazing land in the high mesas and water, usually in canyons and nearby springs, washes or wells. The UMUT and individual tribal members still continue to raise livestock, including bison, within the rugged terrain of their Reservation and their off-Reservation Ranches.