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Show 86 The Uintah Ute People San Pitch South of Utah Lake and east of the Sevier Desert there is a succession of mountain ranges and valleys which culminate in the divide between the Great Basin and the Colorado River. East of this the country falls away to the Colorado River. There are no large valleys in this country, but along the Sevier River and its tributaries lived the San Pitch Ute People. In contrast to the mounted, bison-hunting, and raiding Uinta-ats, Tumpanawach, and Pah Vant People, the San Pitch had few horses and depended on gathering wild seeds and hunting small game. They were fewer in numbers and were often the victims of the slaving expeditions of Spaniards and Tumpanawach. Estimates are that the San Pitch had originally numbered several hundred persons. By 1860 they were reduced to forty or fifty lodges, having four to ten persons in each.18 The San Pitch People may have been a branch of the Pah Vant. Certainly as they acquired the horse, and as they were disrupted by white settlers, they allied themselves with the Pah Vant People. Autenquer (Black Hawk) The most famous leader of the San Pitch was Autenquer or Black Hawk, although he is also described as a Uinta-ats. He led the final resistance of the Utah Utes to the strangers, the Black Hawk War. The San Pitch living near Manti suffered a smallpox epidemic in the winter of 1864-65. Many died. The survivors were convinced that the settlers were causing the deaths, as indeed smallpox had been brought by them into the area. Autenquer found that many of these Ute People were willing to join him on raids on the Mormon settlements. Autenquer was a very capable leader. When he first started to raid the southern Utah settlements he had only about forty-five men. Although the Mormon militias were able to kill most of these, Autenquer recruited other Ute People and even some Navajos and Paiutes. In 1865-66 his followers numbered over one hundred.19 This was the most costly Indian conflict in Utah. Great numbers of livestock and supplies were seized by the People. Sevier and |