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Show It should be noted that there is considerable variation in the Ute names associated with particular plant species. Much of this probably indicates dialectical variations among the speakers of the three bands, Uintah, White Rivers, and Uncompahgre, that occupy the Uintah- Ouray Reservation, but some of it may reflect change over time. The orthographies used here come from the sources in which Ute plant names were listed. A. I TREES. SHRUBS. BERRIES. NUTS AND FRUITS Berries were one of the main food sources for the Utes in historic times ( Stewart 1942: 251; Lyman and Denver 1970: 86; Callaway et al. 1986: 337- 8). Utes, who were visited in the mountains in 1826 ( late August), were described as subsisting almost completely on serviceberries ( Janetski 1983: 66). Oral histories ( C. Chapoose 7/ 30/ 1960 No. 1, L. B. Titus 1967 No. 12, and M. Harris 1968 No. 195 and 1969 No. 282, American West Center, U of Utah) gathered in the 1960s confirm the importance of berries, while recent interviews with Ute consultants indicate that berries continue to be a valued food source into modern times. Blueberry, buffaloberry, cedar or juniper berry, chokecherry, currant ( gooseberry), elderberry, raspberry, serviceberry, squawberry, and strawberry are not only identified consistently in ethnographic and historic sources as important to the Ute people, but all of them are noted by the Ute consultants we interviewed as sources of food today. A... 1,1 Blueberry,.. Bilberry,.. Huckleberry,.. Whortelberry ( Vaccinium sp., Ericaceae): There are several varieties of blueberry in the Uinta Basin, common to abundant are the dwarf bilberry ( caespitosum), low bilberry ( myrtillus), western bog blueberry ( occidentale), and grouse whortelberry ( scoparium). Only the grouse whortelberry has bright red fruit ( when ripe), all others are either blue or blue and red. One final variety listed by Goodrich and Neese ( 1986: 138- 9) is the blue huckleberry ( globulare), but they indicate that it is rare in the Uinta Basin. Smith ( 1974a: 269) indicated there were two blackberries and two blueberries described by the Utes in the 1930s, but because her botanical collection was destroyed she did not indicate more than the color of the fruit and the Ute name associated with it. The two blackberries were / puwu= pi/ and / pakia/, and the blueberries / punukwu= pi/, which has a bitter taste and grows on a bush which looks like a willow, and / patu= pi/. Reported Locations: These varieties are usually amid Engelmann spruce, sometimes in lodgepole pine, and vary from wet meadows to non- stream, timber or even above timberline locations. ECOTONE ( 1995: A- 1, A- 8) noted the dwarf blueberry ( cespitosum) and grouse whortleberry 34 |