OCR Text |
Show establishment of a reservation in 1861, it is clear that the Ute who are now members of the Northern Ute Tribe and residents of the Uintah- Ouray Reservation have significant and compelling attachments to its various resources and geographic sites. For most of today's tribal members, their own stories and experiences and those of their parents and even grandparents are now situated primarily in the Uinta Basin. And even though some of the eldest tribal members still know the places and histories of the Northern Ute when they lived further east in Colorado, further west on the shores of Utah Lake or further south beyond the Tavaputs Plateau, many of their own stories come from lives lived in the Uinta Basin. Differences in the knowledge of the Utes interviewed came not so much from the stories of the nineteenth century, but rather from their own and their families different knowledges of living at various locales on the reservation in the present century. Until World War II, Northern Utes followed many different paths in accommodating themselves to life on the reservation. Some families took up agriculture early and continued to practice farming into the twentieth century. Many adopted a life oriented towards stock- raising, and in the 1920s and 1930s, Ute families owned several thousand head of cattle, horses, and sheep. Others attempted to make a livelihood through more traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering pursuits which they combined with other pursuits. But even those who took to farming and stock- raising still relied on wild game, fish, berries, and roots in their diet ( 1.1; 1.2; 1.3; 2.1; 3.1; 4.1; 4.2; Garner and Hawley 1950: 325; Sloane 1950: 323; O'Neil 1971; Chapoose 1960 No. 4,7, and 10, Brock 1967 No. 14, Curry 1967 No. 48, Daniels 1967 No. 66, Harris 1967 No. 54, Johnson 1967 No. 55, Ouray 1967 No. 49, Walkup 1969 No. 270, Oral Histories, American West Center). Since hunting, fishing, and gathering continue as an important and valued part of life for many Utes, even to the present, all of the consultants are knowledgeable about some of the locales used for these purposes. And even though the consultants came from two different bands and were raised in various parts of the reservation, there was a considerable degree of consistency in their reporting on the location and importance of various sites. It must be emphasized, however, that their knowledge is situated in the memories and experiences of White Rivers and Uncompaghres, and this is not to be construed as representative of the entire Northern Ute Tribe. Nonetheless, this knowledge, at the very least, documents some of the locations which require protection and preservation under federal mandates. It also suggests serious fault lines where tensions might develop and move among the Northern Utes over water development at specific locations on and off the reservation. Basically, the two water development units, the UPALCO and the UINTAH, follow geographic divisions that were recognized and defined 8 |