| Before 1500's |
Archeological Map
of the Southwest
Story of the
Creation: The Ute Creator is Senawahu, who made land for the use
of the Indians. Ute
Creation Story
Ute Land Area was about 225,000 square miles (Map)
(3-D Map)
Ute's a Long Time Ago
(Lesson Plan). |
| 1534 |
Alvaro Nuņez
Caveza de Vaca Travel thought the Southwest. He and three more man
where looking for Mexico. One of them was an African slave
called Estebanico (Map) |
| 1538 |
Fray Juan Marcos
de Niza and Estebanico with an small force, returned to the
Southwest, searching for the Seven cities of Cibola. |
| 1539-1543 |
Francisco Vazquez
de Coronado leads and expedition of more than 1,300 man, 4
Franciscan monks and several slaves in search of the Seven
Cities of Cibola. (Map) |
| 1540 |
Lopez de
Cardenas, an officer of Coronado, reach the Colorado River from
the rim of Grand Canyon |
|
1600-1640 |
First contact with Spaniards (Introduction to the Horse)
(Map) |
| 1604 |
An Exploratory
expedition sent by Juan de Oņate met an Indian (Southern Paiute?) |
| 1638 |
First recorded
conflict between the Spaniards and the Utes. 80 "Utacas" were
capture and taken to Santa Fe, New Mexico. |
|
1649, Dec. 30 |
First Treaty with the Utes, "One of Peace and Amity" |
|
1700 |
Achieved ascendancy among the other tribes; great powers
horsemen (Juan Armando Neil said they were: "the bravest Indians
that he had encountered in New Spain." |
|
1749 |
Leaders of three Ute groups, Don Thomas of the "Utas, Barrignton
of the "Chaugaguas" ad Chicito of the "Moaches" agree on "peace"
(alliance) with the Spaniards |
|
1776 |
Escalante's Expedition through the basin.
The Fathers used two Ute guides that they named Silvestre and
Joaquin. (More
Links) (Trails
Map) |
|
1786 |
Spanish Governor Juan Bautista de Anza arranged a a peace
between the Comanche leader Ecueracapa and the Ute leaders Mora
and Pinto |
| 1804-1806 |
Lewis and Clark Expedition
(Map)
Westward Expansion of U.S. - Routes
(Map from1791
to 1912)
Westward Expansion of U.S. -
Regions (Map
of Regions) |
|
1806 |
Captain Zebulon Pike
was sent to explore the Colorado Rockies.
While camped in San Luis Valley, he and his men were arrested by
Spanish soldiers and put in jail. |
|
1822 |
Lechat, a Ute leader came to Santa Fe, New Mexico to propose
trade |
|
1824-1844 |
Trappers seeks fur and trade in Ute Lands.
Peter Skene Ogden from the
Hudson's Bay Company,
Jedediah Smith
and Thomas Fizpatrick from the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company
(owned by William Ashley) and Independent trappers, such as
Etienne Provost and Robidoux
brothers who were traveling from Taos Pueblo. |
|
1824 |
Ashley's expedition of the Uintah Basin |
|
1826-1827 |
Opening of the Old Spain Trail
(Trails
Map) Ute lands of
the Kapotas, Weeminuche, Tumpanawach, and Pah Vant
(Map) |
|
1830-1848 |
Ute levied "tax" on the Spanish Traders. Ute
traded animal pelts of beaver and otter, and tanned hides of
elk, deer, mountain sheep, and buffalo for weapons, ammunition,
blankets, utensils, and trinkets. |
|
1831 |
Antoinne Robidoux opened a trading post in the Northern end of
the Basin (More
Links) |
|
1833 |
Fort Kit Carson established near the present day Ouray Community
|
|
1837 |
Fort Uncomphagre established at confluence of Gunnison and
Uncomphagre rivers, Northwestern Colorado. Also
Fort Robidoux is
established.
(Ute
Lands in Utah Territory, 1847-1861 Map) |
| 1840's |
The Oregon Trail
(2,170 miles long) is started to be
used. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman were the first Euroamericans
to cross the Oregon Trail in covered wagon during 1836. The "Great
Migration" started in 1843. Over the next 25 years, more than a
half of million of people went West on the Trail
(Trail
Map) |
|
1843 |
Lieutenant
John Charles Freemont traveled
trough Utah Ute lands, leading the first scientific exploration
of the area |
|
1844 |
Fort Robidoux is burned by Ute Indians |
|
1848 |
The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ends the Mexican War and
enlarges the U.S. territory to include Ute Lands.
(More
Links)
(Ute
Lands in Utah Territory, 1847-1861 Map) |
|
1849 |
Agent Calhoun negotiates a treaty with the
Ute people at Abiqui,
New Mexico
(United
States Control of Ute Lands Map) |
|
1849 |
Captain Howard Stansbury
of the U.S. Topographical Engineers was sent to begin a survey
for a military post on the edge of the desert |
|
1850 |
Mormon militia attacks a Ute group near Fort Utah.
They laid seige to s a group of about seventy people lead
by Big Elk and Ope-Carry. |
|
1851 |
The Utah territorial Indian Agency was established by Congress.
|
|
1853-1854 |
Wakara (Walker) leads the Utah Utes in a series of raids on
Mormon settlements, known as the
Walker War |
|
1854 |
Peace was arranged by
Brigham Young and
Wakara at Chicken Creek in May
1854. Wakara died in January 1855 |
|
1855 |
Kapota and Moache were force to sign peace treaties (never
ratified) |
|
1856 |
Indian Agent Gallard Hurt established Indian farms at the Corn
Creek, Tewlve Mile Creek, and Spanish Fork. (More
Links) |
|
1857 |
Mountain Meadows Massacre |
|
1858 |
Federal Troops arrive in Utah to resolve rising tensions between
Mormons and the United States government. Indian Agent Jacob
Forney accompanies the troops. |
|
1859 |
Gold is discovered in Pikes Peak area |
|
1860 |
Brigham Young sent a survey
party to the Uinta Basin to see if it could support a Mormon
settlement. According to a report, it 'was entirely unsuitable
for farming purposes"...and it was..."one vast contiguity of
waste and measurable valueless, excepting for nomadic
purposes...hunting ground for Indians." |
|
1860's |
Major John Wesley Powell
began a survey of
Ute lands which would becom part of the U.S. Geological Survey. |
|
1861 |
President Lincoln
sets
Uintah Valley aside as a Ute Reservation
(Utah
Ute Reservations, 1861-1898 Map)
(Satellite Map) |
|
1863 |
Tumpanawach, Pah-vant, Parianuche, and Yamparika Utes meet in
central Utah, Black Hawk leads series of raids known as the
Black Hawk Wars of Utah. |
|
1863 |
John Nicolay, secretary to President Lincoln was sent west to
head a commission to deal with the Utes. One tribe got its
territory described in the process. |
|
1863 |
The Taviwach leaders signed a treaty relinquishing the Colorado
territory and with its mineral rights (ratified March 25, 1864).
This followed skirmishes between the Taviwach band and intruding
prospectors in the Middle Park area. (Ute
Land Cessions in Colorado Territory, 1863-1868 Map) |
|
1864 Feb. 1 |
Indian commissioners ordered to collect and remove Indians. |
|
1864 May 5 |
Congress ratifies an executive order which set aside the Uintah
Valley Reservation as proposed (1861). |
|
1864 |
Mormons ask for
the removal of the Utes to the Sanpete and Uintah Valley. |
|
1865-1868 |
Black Hawk War. |
|
1866 |
Circleville residents arrest and kill all the adult Utes at a
Ute camp near Circleville. |
|
1867 |
Most of Uintah
Utes were removed to Uintah Valley. |
|
1868, Mar 2 |
A
treaty was signed by the Uncompahgre. |
|
1868 |
Whiterocks Agency was established on the Uintah Reservation.
Also a treaty established two other agencies, the Colorado Ute
People had one at Whiteriver, and another at Rio de Los Pinos
(ratified July 25, 1868). |
|
1870 |
Chief Black Hawk died. |
|
1871-1875 |
The Photographs of
John Hillers, who
accompanied Powell during 1871-75 are important primary sources
of the area at that time |
|
1872 |
The Secretary of the Interior convinces Congress to draw up a
new treaty that had no discussion with Indians before hand.
The Indians defeated it. |
|
1873 |
The Brunot Agreement deprives the Ute people of San Juan
Mountain land and gold deposits (ratified April 29, 1894).
(Ute
Land Cessions in Colorado Territory, 1873-1876
Map) |
|
1873 |
U.S. government officials appoint
Ouray as Head Chief of the Utes. |
|
1878 |
Meeker became agent at Whiteriver agency. |
|
1879 |
Agent Nathan Meeker is killed by Yamparika Utes. |
|
1879 |
As
a result of the Meeker incident, officials force the Colorado
Utes to sign an agreement which removes the Yamparika and
Taviwach Utes to Utah (ratified June 15, 1880). |
|
1880, Mar 6 |
Treaty signed by the Indians. |
|
1880, June 15 |
Treaty signed by
congress for Indian removal from Colorado. |
|
1880, Aug 24 |
Death of Ouray. |
|
1880-1891 |
Ghost Dance Movement |
|
1881 |
Yamparika Utes are moved to the Uintah Reservation in Utah. |
|
1882 |
Act of January 5, 1882--Uncompahgre Reservation |
|
1885 |
Miners found Gilsonite--significance--only deposit in U.S. |
|
1886 |
Uintah and Ouray agencies consolidate. |
|
1887 |
President Cleveland establishes the
Fort Duchesne Military
reservation near the Agency. (More
Links) |
|
1887 |
Congress passes
the
Dawes Act, or the Allotment Act.
(More
Links) |
|
1887 |
Act provides for surveys and allotments on the reservations. |
|
1890 |
Ouray
Boarding School opens at Randlett, then called Leland.
(Boarding
School Pictures) |
|
1897 |
A
small group of Uncompahgre, Uintah, and Whiteriver (Yamparika)
Utes received Allotments. (Opening
of Utah Ute Reservations, 1888-1898 Map) |
|
1897 |
Posse attacks Utes camped on the Snake River in Colorado |
|
1898 |
Uintah and Whiteriver Utes sell land to the Uncompahgre Utes. |
|
1898 |
Allotments made on
the Uintah Reservation as Mormon settlers rush into area.
(More
Links) |
|
1902 |
Congressional hearings on Uintah reservation allotments. |
|
1905 |
President
Theodore Roosevelt withdrew 1,100,000 acres from the Utes to create the Uinta National Forest Reserve.
(Opening
of Uintah reservation, 1905 Map) |
|
1909 |
By
right of "Eminent Domain" the
Strawberry Valley Reclamation
Project appropriate 56,000 acres of land. |
|
1924 |
Indian Citizenship
Act passed. |
|
1931 |
Ration system stopped. |
|
1933-1934 |
Taylor Grazing Act:
Agency withdrew 429,000 acres from the Uncompahgre
Reservation and placed in the public domain. |
|
1937-1938 |
Utah Utes adopted
the
Wheeler-Howard Reorganization Act of 1934; wrote a
Constitution and By-laws; established a Tribal Business
Committee. |
|
1939 |
Utes of Colorado
and Utah brought suits against the government payment on
4,404,000 acres of surface and subsurface land, including the
territory embraced within the Rangely Oil Field.
(Satellite
Map) |
|
2006 |
Uintah and Ouray Indian
Reservation Map |
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