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Show 28 The Intruders, 1550-1882 Indians. The Jemez people called these Indians Guaguatu or Guaputa (Kapota?). Fray Geronomo called them Quasuatas, a form of the word "Yutas" by which he and later Spanish writers called all Indians who spoke the Shoshonean dialect.2 Thus, the People came to be called the Utes. Spaniards effected many changes on the Ute People. Ute children were placed in Spanish houses as servants, sometimes returned to their own people as adults in order to be friendly contacts for Spaniards. Some Ute People were forced to work for Spaniards as weavers and tanners. Thus, the People acquired new skills and techniques. The most important effect Spaniards had on Ute life was to introduce to them the horse about 1600-40. The Ute bands in southern Colorado and southeastern Utah were the first to obtain the Spanish horses. The more northern Ute groups acquired them later in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Some Ute bands, like the San Pitch and Sheberetch, who lived on fragile desert lands, never kept horses in any numbers. Ute groups who had access to Spanish horses and pasture lands to support them became good riders. Their hunting skill and range increased. Their lives changed. With the more efficient hunting, band organization strengthened and expanded. More People stayed together for longer periods of time. There was a new emphasis on raiding, although they did not develop aggressive warrior societies as did Plains Indians. With the horse and the resources it made available, the Ute People grew more powerful. They traveled far out onto the eastern and southern plains. That brought them into greater contact and competition with the Cheyenne, Comanche, Arapaho, Pawnee, Sioux, and Apache. It also made them a greater threat to the Spanish settlements to the south. In 1638 the first recorded conflict occurred between the Spaniards and the Ute People. Spaniards under the governor of New Mexico waged an unjust war and captured about eighty "Utacas" (Moaches?). They were then forced to labor in work shops in Santa Fe.3 In 1670 Governor Antonio de Otermin arranged the first treaty with the Utes. However, the Pueblo peoples revolted in 1680 and ousted the Spaniards from the area for twelve years. Ute People may have |