Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico

August 9, 2000
For the Ute Indians, who have occupied parts of the present-day Four Corners area of the United States since 1000 C.E., the traditional lifestyle was that of mobile hunter-gatherers, environmentally and seasonally sensitive to their world. Simmons (The San Luis Valley: Land of the Six-Armed Cross) carefully researched and here documents how their culture was severely disrupted with the arrival of the Spanish in the late 1500s. During the following four centuries, there were further intrusions, primarily from the mostly white population that moved in and through the area, bringing firearms, alcohol, and disease, along with entrepreneurial and exploitative land-use proposals and policies. Denied access to forest and pastureland, rebelling at the forced abandonment of their lifestyle, embroiled in dissension, the Utes saw their quality of life deteriorate. Only within the last century have some Ute Indians begun to re-experience self-sufficient lives and reinvigorate valued elements of their traditional heritage. Recommended for public and academic libraries.--Suzanne W. Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology at Alfred

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