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Show Ute Lands The Plains were an area where the Utes hunted in competition with other tribes â€" Cheyenne, Comanche, Arapaho, Pawnee, and others. Before acquiring the horse, the Ute People did not travel great distances on the Plains. However, after the Ute People began using horses, they swept out of their mountains, across the plains of eastern Colorado to western Kansas. Buffalo and salt were the principal items the People sought. Sometimes Ute People went to other tribes as raiding parties. Some tribes raided the Utes. Then the People returned to their mountains where defense was easy and other tribes feared their power to repel them. The Ute Bands Three bands shared the eastern border. The Yamparika Band, later known as the White River, used the grassland valleys of northern Colorado and southern Wyoming along the Yampa and White Rivers. They occasionally used the land eastward onto the plains of eastern Colorado and western Kansas. Along the western slope of Colorado dwelt the group known as Parianuche, most of whom later joined the White River Band. They often crossed on either side of the continental divide, east into the Denver area and west into the Colorado Plateau. They were situated in such a way that high mountain and low desert areas were easily available to them. The band which occupied the southeastern area was and still is called Moache. They pitched their summer camps in the Sangre de Cristo and Culebra Mountains, along the Arkansas River. When hunting they ranged far out onto the plains of Oklahoma and Texas. This band also traded with the people of the pueblos. Their traveling along the Chama River down to the Taos Pueblo was a well-established practice long before the arrival of the Europeans. The Kapota Band lived in south-central Colorado and north-central New Mexico in the region around the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountain ranges. The Abiquiu region was a main gathering spot. Friendly relationships with the Pueblo people were also maintained by this band. Both the Moache and the Kapota Bands now occupy the Southern Ute Reservation with headquarters at Ignacio, Colorado. |