I. Early Days of the Ute Mountain Utes 5

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Contents

Preface 3

Acknowledgments 4

I. Early Days of the Ute Mountain Utes 5

Dedication (1985) 7

Introduction 8

The People 9

The Land 10

Cycles of the Year 12

Time 12

Seasons 12

The Family 17

Useful Plants 19

Shelter and Tools 23

Shelter 24

Tanning 25

Domestic Tools 26

Hunting Tools 28

Horses 28

Memory 30

Clothing 31

Games 34

Ceremonies 35

Personal Ceremonies 35

The Bear Dance 35

The Sun Dance 38

Conclusion a

Acknowledgments 40

Il. Additional Materials 4]

Dedication (2004) 42

The Early Lives of the Weeminuche - The Circle of Life 43

The Importance of Animals to the Early People 46

The Importance of Plants to the Early People 56

The Legend of Sleeping Ute Mountain 68

Avakoiirni: Cradleboards of Life 70

Wuchichach: Ute Baskets and Basketmaking through Time 74

Nuvach: Moccasins through Time 78

Taaparuv: Shawls from the 19th Century to Today 80

The Bear Dance Yesterday and Today 84

History of the Utes 90

Conclusion 100

References 102

Preface

Dear Tribal Members and Community Members,

As Director of the Ute Mountain Culture and Language Department, I am

pleased and honored to introduce the second edition of the Early Days of the Ute

Mountain Utes to the tribal members and community members of Towaoc and

White Mesa.

With the publication of the Early Lives of the Weeminuche, we have the

opportunity to once again present our amazing culture and language to the People.

As a direct result of the growing interest in Ute Mountain Culture, the Ute Mountain Culture and Language Department intends to bring additional high-quality

educational materials to the community in the future.

Belonging is the foundation of Ute culture. Belonging creates love.

Belonging gives Ute people the fortitude to give up individual preferences for the

good of the community. In return, a Ute person receives security and the rewards

of being a part of the community. For all the Ute people who have shared their

lives, concerns, and delights, I am grateful for your time and openness. I thank

you for the ways your faith has strengthened mine.

The department is extremely grateful to the Ute Mountain Tribal Council

for its support in this project. We also send a special thank you to the individuals

who have willing shared their time, wisdom, and inner reflections.

Yours truly,

Estrella Gallegos, Director

Ute Mountain Culture and Language Department

Note: The first edition of the Early Days of the Ute Mountain Utes was published

in 1985. It was part of a three-year project of research and documentation by a

group of Ute Mountain Tribal members. It has been reprinted here as it was

originally produced. The text has not been changed, and the design reflects the

original layout. All of the illustrations from the first book have been included.

We have added new materials in the second section of The Early Lives of

the Weeminuche, titled Additional Materials. This section reflects current research

and documentation. In most cases, it provides more detail about some of the

subjects that were touched upon in the Early Days of the Ute Mountain Utes. In

all cases, we did our best to include important subjects in this new section that we

could address well. We did not include photographs of our Weeminuche ancestors

because they are extremely hard to find due to common spiritual beliefs, and their

need to be protective.

Acknowledgments

Ute Mountain Culture and Language Department Staff

Estrella Gallegos, Director

Helen Munoz, Language Instructor

Ute Cultural Advisor.............. Janice Colorow

Ute Artists... ce eeeeeeeeeeee Gregory McCook, Stacy Lansing, Russell Lopez

Consultant......eeeeeee sees Theresa Breznau, Living Earth Studios, Bluff, Utah

Copy Editor... eee eeeeeeeeeeee Cathrine M. Monson, Mancos, Colorado

The department thanks the Ute Mountain Tribal Council for its support of

this project. This project was made possible by a grant to the Ute Mountain Ute

Tribe from the Administration for Native Americans (ANA), Washington, D.C.

We also send a special thank you to those individuals who shared their knowledge, wisdom, research, and inner reflections.

We thank the following organizations and individuals that kindly assisted

with some aspect of this project:

Edge of Cedars Museum, Blanding, Utah

Anasazi Heritage Center, Dolores, Colorado

University of Utah, American West Center, Salt Lake City, Utah

Center for Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado

Taylor Museum, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Simpson Family Collection, Twin Rocks Trading Post, Bluff, Utah

Denver Public Library, Western History Department, Denver, Colorado

Colorado Historical Society, Denver, Colorado

Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Pueblo County Historical Society Museum, Pueblo, Colorado

Smithsonian Institution, National Anthropological Archives, Washington, D.C.

William W. Dunmire, information and plant photographs, Placitas, New Mexico

Gary Hall, photographer, Taylor Museum, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center,

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs, Denver, Colorado

The first edition of the Early Days of the Ute Mountain Utes was made

possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (#ES

20719-83). The Ute Mountain Ute project group worked with faculty and staff

from the Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, and from the American

West Center, University of Utah. Other materials produced under this grant

include: Ute Mountain Ute: A History Text, Ute Mountain Ute Government, Ute

Mountain Ute Stories, Games, and Noisemakers; and The Weeminuche Coloring

Book for Preschool. We sincerely thank the National Endowment for the Humanities and all those who were involved in the early 1980s project.

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Early Days

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Dedication (1985)

We dedicate this to the Ute Mountain Ute veterans

and those presently serving in the armed forces.

Scott Jacket

Phillip Coyote (dec.)

Ben Pavisook (dec.)

Eric Eyetoo

Ronnie Clark. Sr. (dec)

Harold D. Pope (dec)

Arthur Cuthair

Franklin Laner

Rodney Dutchie

Roy Beecher, Sr. (dec.)

Alan Ketchum (dec.)

Robert Dooley

Avery Whiteskunk

Edward Dutchie, Sr.

George Wells, Jr

Rocky Hayes

Bradley Hight

Fred Peabody (dec.)

Alfred Lansing (dec.)

Harold D. Taylor

McDugal Coyote, Sr (dec.)

Miles Mills

Nolan May

Selwyn Whiteskunk

Edward Dutchie, Jr

Russell Lopez (dec.)

Norman Kuebler

Gordon Hammond

Norton Mills, Jr.

James Mills (dec.)

Terry Knight

Glen Hatch (dec.)

and others who might not have been mentioned.

The project was funded by the

National Endowment for the Humanities,

grant no. ES 20719-83.

Printed by the University of Utah Printing Services,

Salt Lake City, Utah

INTRODUCTION

The deserts and mountains of their native lands forced

the Utes to develop unique ways of survival. The Weeminuche

were Utes. The solutions to their problems established the

Weeminuche culture and traditions.

This book has been written to provide a tool by which

some of the traditional life ways of the Weeminuche, now

called the Ute Mountain Utes, can be taught. Traditions have

changed very rapidly in the last century. It is important that the

cultural heritage of the People be remembered.

THE PEOPLE

The people living on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation

are Weeminuche Ute Indians. The Weeminuche were one of the

several Ute bands who lived in what is now Utah, Colorado,

and northern New Mexico. Weeminuche means ‘“‘the true

people.”

Two Ute bands, the Capote and Moache, live on the

Southern Ute Reservation. Three bands, the Uintah, the White

River, and the Uncompahgre, live on the Uintah-Ouray Ute

Reservation in Utah.

Another group of Ute people, the White Mesa Utes, live

in southeastern Utah. The White Mesa Utes have also been

called the Allen Canyon Utes and the Blanding Utes. They

share a government with the Ute Mountain Utes, They send a

member to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council.

Some White Mesa Utes are Weeminuche. Others are

descendants of the Sheberetch band and other bands of Utes

who did not move to the Uintah Reservation in Utah. These

Utes intermarried with Southern Paiutes.

The White Mesa Utes traveled to hunt game and gather

plants west to the Colorado River and north to the LaSal Mountains. Families lived in Montezuma Creek Canyon, Yellowjacket

Canyon, and Allen Canyon.

The Weeminuche lived in the valleys and mountains

north of the San Juan River. Family groups traveled in warmer

months to the mountains. In the winter they moved into the

lower valleys. Sometimes families joined together for hunts or

for social events such as the Bear Dance. Weeminuche and

White Mesa Utes visited friends and relatives in other bands.

THE LAND

The Weeminuche shared the land. As the seasons

changed, each family group traveled to certain areas where they

camped every year. However, the land belonged to all. The

People knew their land very well. They knew where to hunt

animals, catch fish, and gather plants which lived and grew in

different places.

The deep snows forced them out of the mountains in the

winter. The deserts of the region, now called the Four Corners,

were their winter home. These lands were low, flat, and covered

with grasses and sagebrush. The People hunted the antelope,

rabbits, and small animals that lived there.

In the spring the People gathered the plants that grew in

river bottoms and lower mountain canyons. As the snows

melted, the People moved north and east toward the San Juan

Mountains. Because of the heat and lack of water in the lowlands during the summer, the People lived high in the mountains. They hunted the deer and elk that roamed there. They

caught fish in the mountain streams.

In the fall the People gathered chokecherries and other

berries growing along river banks and by springs. The People

traveled to mesas, such as Mesa Verde, and to the foothills of

the San Juan Mountains. There they gathered nuts from the

pinyon forests.

The Weeminuche found in their land all that they needed.

The red sandstone cliffs of the canyons and buttes offered shelter from winter winds and storms. In the mountains were deer

and other animals that the People ate. They made the furs,

skins, and bones of animals into clothing and utensils. The

mesas and the lowlands supported plants to eat and to use in

making clothing and utensils.

The People knew how to use the land. They knew where

to find water, how to hunt and trap animals, how to grind seeds.

They knew how to store pine nuts, sew clothing, and build

shelters.

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CYCLES OF THE YEAR

Time

The idea of time has changed in the modern world. Before clocks and schedules for work and school, people thought

of time in a much different way. Minutes and hours had little or

no meaning. What was important was the length of daylight, the

movement of the sun and the stars, and the cycles of the moon.

These were connected to the seasons of the year, the most important of all time measurements.

Seasons

To use all their land’s resources, the Utes had to move

from place to place. They were not tied down to houses and

gardens. They moved when the seasons told them to move. The

seasons were not measured by a calendar. The seasons were

when the weather changed and the plants and the animals

changed.

The People divided and named the changes of the seasons. The time of year near what we now call March was

“Spring Come” or “Melting Side, Snow on One Side of the

Trail, Bear Rolls Over in This Time.” Around April was “Spring

Moon, Bear Goes Out.” About August came a time that was

“Part Summer, Part Fall, Cricket Sings.” October was ““When

Trees Turn Yellow” or “Leaves, Everything Dry, Go Hunting

Then.” The short days in what is called December were known

as “Cold Weather Here.”

These names do not fit exactly the months that we know

today. They only describe the type of weather that is usually

found at that time of the year. The weather, rather than the

specific date, set the People’s activities.

Spring

As the snow began to melt, Ute families knew that it was

time to move from winter camp. They had used most of the

food stored from the past summer. Families took down their

tepees and moved all their belongings to the mountains. It was

time to gradually follow the melting snow toward their summer

camps in the high mountains. It was time to harvest the fresh

green plants that grew in the new season.

Summer

Summer was a busy time of year. Family groups usually

returned each summer to the same campsite. They found the

tools, such as heavy metates and manos (stones for grinding

food), that they had stored. Often they stored tools in pits dug

under overhangs where not much snow would fall. After covering them the People burned fires over these caches. This destroyed the scent so that animals would not dig up what was

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During the summer the women tended the camp and

cared for the young children. With the help of older children

they gathered food. Strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries

were eaten fresh. Other berries were mashed and dried in the

sun for later use. Women dug up roots with digging sticks and

cooked them in pit ovens.

The People made brush shelters at the campsites. Family

members lived in them until they had gathered all the ripe

plants, nuts, and seeds. The family then moved to another place

and built another shelter. During the summer the men hunted.

Sometimes men from several families hunted together, but more

often they hunted alone. They hunted buffalo, deer, and other

large animals.

When the men brought deer back from their hunts, the

women dried the meat and crushed the bones to make storage

food for the winter. The women also tanned the hides. With the

hides they made their clothing and tepee coverings. They also

used hides for bags and bedding.

Autumn

As the first snows of the new season dusted the high

peaks of the San Juan Mountains, the Weeminuche people

prepared for their return to the desert. Autumn was the time to

move the camp to the lower areas. There the cold and the snows

were less severe.

The women dried meat and berries and made bone mush.

The family ate these foods in the winter. As family groups

moved from the mountains, they camped in the pinyon forests.

If it had been a good year for pinyon pine nuts, the families

camped and gathered the nuts. In dry years, however, there

were few nuts.

Autumn was also trading time. Hides and furs were

major trade items for the Utes. They traded hides and furs for

pottery, food, and horses. They traded with the Pueblo peoples

of New Mexico and the Jicarilla Apaches and later with Spaniards and Anglo-Americans.

Pinyon Pine

Winter

In the winter the People set up camps in low river bottoms and desert washes. Women gathered wood along the rivers

and washes. They burned the wood to heat their tepees and to

cook their food.

During the winter the women made baskets. Earlier, they

had gathered and stored willows and other materials. They also

made and mended clothes, bags, and moccasins. They made

saddles and horse gear from hides and moccasins from sagebrush or juniper bark.

The men spent time hunting. They often hunted antelope

in groups. Their success depended on the antelope’s natural

curiosity. Hunters used flags or other lures to attract the animals. Boys hunted rabbits and other small mammals.

During the winter the men made bows, arrows, and stone

knives. They always needed a good supply of those tools for

their hunts.

Leather bag to hang on belt.

THE FAMILY

The Weeminuche lived in family groups. Each member

of the family had jobs to do. They worked together on hunts

and on gathering trips. They shared the rewards of their efforts.

The People did not use money. They traded with other

tribes or groups for things they did not make or find. Other

people wanted the deer hides the Utes had tanned. The People

could use them to “buy” such things as corn and pottery.

The People needed enough to eat, shelter from the elements, and clothes to keep them warm and dry. They got those

things by their daily work and their yearly travels. They enjoyed the beauty of nature at the same time.

Within the family, people did different tasks. The men

had their work and so did the women. They learned their jobs

from their grandparents, parents, and older children in the family.

The men were in charge of hunting. Young boys began

learning to hunt rabbits with sticks and slings. Older boys

learned to handle a bow and arrows. Boys developed these

skills as they grew and later joined the adults in the hunt for big

game.

Men’s work involved more dangerous and perhaps

heavier tasks, but it did not take as much time as the women’s

work did. Men made tools for hunting and weapons for warfare.

They cut poles for shelters. Men usually did not gather foods,

although they may have gathered wild honey. Men helped build

brush shelters and made their own horse equipment.

All other domestic jobs were done by women. Women

made their own saddles and the tepee coverings. They built or

helped build brush shelters.

Women gathered wild plants for food. They prepared

whatever they collected for eating or for storage. Great amounts

could not be stored. However, women tried to keep enough

food stored to carry them over any short periods when fresh

food was not available.

The People usually ate two meals during the day. One

meal was eaten in the morning and one at night. Women pre-

pared all the meals. Some Weeminuche still eat only two meals

each day.

Usually everyone in a group that traveled and worked

together was related by birth or by marriage. But outsiders

could join the group if all agreed.

After a couple chose to marry, they usually lived with the

woman’s family. However, the couple could choose to live with

the man’s family or go off on their own.

Children born into the group were raised by brothers and

sisters, cousins, grandparents, and parents. Older children

taught younger ones until they reached six to eight years of age.

Then children learned from adults. Boys learned how to hunt

and trade. Girls learned to gather and prepare food, tan hides,

and make baskets.

During the changing seasons, families moved to different

campsites. One location could not support many people. Once

the resources were used, the family moved to the next location.

Family groups usually traveled each year to the same campsites.

Often, many family groups gathered together for hunts

and for social occasions, such as the Bear Dance. At these

events people made new friends.

The People did not choose leaders by voting. Instead,

they agreed who should be leader because of his or her good

advice or special skills. One person might be a leader of a hunt

or food gathering trip. Another person could be the leader when

trading. Older people were honored for their experience and

wisdom.

USEFUL PLANTS

There were no grocery stores in earlier times. When the

Weeminuche wanted to eat, they had to find their food. Plants

were the main sources of foods and medicines. The People had

to know very much about many types of plants to live well.

They knew that some plants were poisonous or not edible

for other reasons. For example, the puffball mushroom was not

eaten. The paint inside it is said to be from a ghost and would

cause harm.

The People did use the yucca. They ate the fruit, made

the roots into soap, and used the leaves for weaving baskets.

The leaves also could be used for needles, if the points were

separated carefully.

The People ate wild onions and wild potatoes. They ate

fresh or preserved chokecherries. Wild strawberries were eaten

fresh; they are still a delicacy.

The People took the berries (eesh) and bark of the young

squawberry (see-aph) as a medicine for diarrhea. They boiled

the bark and roots to make the medicine. Squawberry stems or

branches were woven into baskets.

Sweet anise (bee-dum-ma-nup) roots served as cough

drops. The People dried the roots and then chewed them when

they had a cough or sore throat. For drinking straws the People

sipped through hollow anise stems.

Sagebrush played an important role in the People’s lives.

Regular sage (so-wauf) was sometimes mixed with juniper ghost

berries. A mixture of regular sage and juniper berries cured

headaches. Sage was rubbed on the joints to relieve pain. Also,

breathing sage smoke relieved head and chest colds. Mountain

sage is sweeter than regular sage. It was used for massages and

other health purposes. It also had a part in some religious ceremonies.

Common Sagebrush

Utes treated colds with the broth of boiled juniper berries

(wop). Sometimes they mashed and dried the berries for food.

Juniper tree bark placed in moccasins added warmth. Sometimes it was woven into moccasins or clothing. Pounded and

mashed juniper stems cured kidney and bladder problems.

Rocky Mountain Juniper

Weeminuche ate pinyon pine nuts fresh, mashed, or dried.

If dried, the nut flour was baked as bread. Pine gum helped heal

sores or wounds. Rabbit brush (scoop) is a common plant in

the Four Corners area. To control stomach aches, the People

boiled and strained it, then drank the broth.

Service berry (que-es) and mature squawberry (to-aph)

were also Ute health foods. Many other plants benefited the

People. Wealth to the People was knowledge of what was good

for them and where to find it.

Service Berry

SHELTER AND TOOLS

Shelter is anything which protects people, whether from

the weather, animals, or other things. Housing and clothing

provide kinds of shelter. The People used different housing for

shelter from the weather during different parts of the year.

A tool is anything that helps people perform a task. Tools

include cutting and sewing supplies, hunting gear, cooking and

eating utensils, storage containers, and carrying packs.

The People got some tools by trade, but they made most

of their tools. The older members of families taught the young

people how to make and use tools. Memory and practice developed the toolmaker’s skills.

Shelter

The tepee was the main shelter in the winter. First, the

tepee owner set up a four-pole foundation and then leaned six

or seven more poles against it to create a frame. A cover of deer

or elk hides was wrapped around the frame, and two more poles

controlled adjustments to smoke flaps. Later, canvas or muslin

replaced hides as tepee material.

The tepee was about twelve to fourteen feet in diameter

and about ten feet high. Its door was usually a deerskin. A fire

was built in the center or just outside the door. The tepee had a

hard ground floor that was swept with long rabbit brush stems.

Bed spaces lined the walls. If more spaces were needed,

the beds fanned out from the center with the feet toward the fire

and the heads toward the wall. Bed spaces could be softened

with a layer of bark or needles.

The bed covers were usually some kind of hide. The

warmest were buffalo hides tanned only on the inside with hair

left on the outside. The Utes also made rabbit skin blankets by

sewing or weaving strips of fur together.

In the summer the People built brush lodges. They piled

brush against a four-pole foundation. The brush lodge provided

fresh air and protection during the summer.

Families built brush shades to shield from the sun those

who worked around the camp. They set up two pairs of poles

and placed a framework between them. Then, they piled on

brush.

The People put up small, earth-covered versions of the

brush lodges for use as sweat houses. They used sweathouses to

help cure illnesses. Healthy people used them to keep themselves well. Four or five families shared one sweathouse.

Tanning

The People were famous for their tanned animal skins.

Ute women used the tanned hides or buckskins for clothing,

tepees, containers, moccasins, and baby carriers. The People

often used the hides as trade goods with other Indians.

Ute women skinned animals such as deer, antelope, elk,

and buffalo. The women fleshed the skins; that is, they scraped

off the flesh and hair. Ute women used animal bone tools to

flesh the skins. The hair of buffalo hides was usually left on.

After the women had fleshed the hides, they washed

them and left them to soak overnight in a hole lined with rawhide. After this soaking, the women rinsed the hides in clean

water and twisted them to wring out the water.

The women then rubbed animal brains into the hides and

left them to dry in the sun for a few days. Next the women

washed the hides and Jeft them again in the sun.

Women then stretched the hides. This was long, hard

work. After the women had completely stretched the hides, they

hung them over poles until they were dry.

The next process was smoking the hides. The women

placed the hides over pole frames built over holes. They built a

fire in the hole with chips of wood. Greasewood turned the hide

yellow. Willow colored it brown and pine made it a little yellow. After hides were smoked, the women rubbed white clay

into them.

Beaded Horse

Bandoleer

Domestic Tools

An open fire usually served for cooking and drying food.

Sometimes the People put heated rocks in a pit and lined it with

wet grasses. They placed food on the grass and covered it with

grass and then with more heated rocks and dirt. The food was

then steam cooked.

Women used flat or dished rocks for grinding or mashing

foods. These were metates. Smaller rocks called manos crushed

and ground the food.

Women had various tools for sewing. They used animal

bones or yucca leaf points as needles. They used animal sinew

and yucca fibers as thread.

Baskets were made for storage. Women created baskets

by coiling certain plants. The coiled baskets were sturdy. Basket

weavers waterproofed some baskets by adding hot pine gum to

the inside. Sometimes they added small pebbles to the mix to

strengthen and help spread the gum. Different shaped baskets

were for different purposes. Those water-proofed to carry water

usually had a narrower neck than the others.

Bowls were made of wood. The Weeminuche favored

cottonwood and oak for these. Each person had his own bowl

and a straight, pointed stick for a fork. Small gourds or shaped

animal horns worked as spoons. Cups were made from juniper

or cottonwood knots. Craftsmen cut and fashioned the knot by

burning out the center with hot coals and scraping away the

charred wood.

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Women made bags of various shapes and sizes from

buckskin. Some they beaded and some they did not decorate.

During their travels the People also used large bags called

parfleches to store items then to be used again in the next camp.

People carried tobacco in small bags. People carried medicines

or protected fire-starting flint and steel in other small, beaded

pouches.

The Weeminuche gathered roots, bulbs, and tubers such

as wild onions, carrots, sego bulbs, and wild potato with a

digging stick. The stick was a chisel-bladed tool that was up to

three feet long and one to two inches wide. The People usually

cut green limbs and sharpened the digging end after hardening

it by burning.

Ute women made baby carriers to hold infants. They

stretched soft deerskin on a frame of a single board or woven

reeds. The skin was decorated with paint or beads. There were

different designs for girls and for boys. The baby was held in

place with his or her arms inside by a buckskin strap, often

decorated with beads. There was often a willow shade at the top

of the board to protect the child from the sun.

The mother could put the baby carrier on her back by its

straps. The baby carrier could also be hung on a tree. Then the

mother or grandmother could gently swing it to comfort the

baby.

Cradleboards

Hunting Tools

Hunters killed game with bows and arrows, knives, or

slings. Boys hunted rabbits with slings or sticks. Hunters also

used traps or snares. Fishermen sometimes caught fish by hand

or with a funnel trap. Men and boys used knives to clean and

skin their catch.

Hunting was both an individual and a group activity.

Sometimes deer were caught with funnel fences and pits. Several hunters drove the deer into the trap, then they killed the

animals with arrows. Hunters also used funnel fences to force

antelope over cliffs.

Hunters made their bows from juniper, chokecherry, or

service berry wood. A bowmaker shaped and smoothed the

wood by rubbing it on stone. He then bound strips of sinews

from a deer leg to its back, giving it strength. He rolled sinew

for the bowstring.

Hunters or older men who no longer hunted made arrows. The older men traded arrows for food or hides. The arrows were about two feet long, which is about half the length of

the bows. They were feathered with the wing feathers of any

large bird.

Flint, obsidian, jasper, or some similar type of rock was

sharpened for the arrowheads. Knives were of flint or obsidian

with one end wrapped in rawhide. The People later traded for

steel knives from Europeans.

Horses

When they first got horses the People learned how to

make saddles, bridles, and such gear. Both men and women

rode, and they made their own saddles. The People copied the

Spanish saddle with its high pommel and cantle. Women’s

saddles had higher cantles and pommels.

The stirrups were made of oak and bound by cowhide.

The bridle was a rawhide thong that went through the mouth of

the horse and around the lower jaw. The reins went back to the

rider, and there was no head strap. Later the Utes used a metal

bit.

To haul possessions, the People tied a travois to their

horses. They attached tepee poles to the back of the horse,

which dragged them along. On some poles, they made a platform by lashing crossing poles behind the horse. Then they tied

their goods to the platform. The Weeminuche borrowed this

method from the Plains Indians.

Horses became both important tools and signs of wealth.

The People packed, rode, and played on them. With the horse,

the People traveled over a wider area. The horse made it possible to go farther to hunt buffalo for meat and hides. The

People also met sometimes hostile tribes such as Arapahoes.

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Travois to be harnessed to horses to carry materials.

Memory

One of the most important tools was each person’s

memory. The People did not have textbooks or instruction

manuals. Everything was done using knowledge the People

remembered. The older people told to.the younger people the

methods of making tools and the methods of using the tools.

Traditions, habits, stories, and campsite locations were all

memorized. If forgotten, they were lost. The collective memory

of a group was very important.

When the People got something new such as horses or

metal tools or rifles, they had to learn how to use and care for

these things. Then by example and explanation they passed that

information to the next generation.

Today, memory is not as important. There are computers,

maps, books, instruction manuals, radio, television, newspapers,

and magazines. Our memories probably could not store all the

information necessary. Now people need to learn where and

how to find the information. But remembering the old ways, the

old stories, is still important.

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This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.