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Show 2 The Southern Utes The Indians of Mexico and Central America believed that their ancestors had come from seven caves near the Lake of Copala. Other names for the lake included Lake Timpanogos and Utah Lake.2 The land of Copala, or as it was sometimes called Teguayo, must have included the lands of the Ute Indians. Of the numerous explorers sent from Mexico to find the land and wealth of Copala, Juan de Oiiate was the most important. He left Mexico in February, 1598, and five months later settled at San Juan de los Caballeros, near the present site of the San Juan pueblo. By 1604 Ofiate had organized an expedition to search for the Lake of Copala. He failed to reach the area, but his efforts to settle New Mexico and to send expeditions to the northern areas helped others who came later to identify the land of Copala as the Ute land in Colorado and Utah. The description for going to the Lake of Copala was given by a group of Jemez Indians. They stated: To go straight to the Lake of Copala a guide was not necessary. One must follow the river Chama, and past the tribe of the Navajo Apaches there is a great river which flows to the lake, and with good grass and fields and that in the area between the north and northwest the land was fertile, good and level, and that there are many nations, the province of Quazula, the Qusutas, and further inland another nation settled.3 With these efforts to locate Copala and the trips onto the plains area, better descriptions and more knowledge of the Utes were gained. Vicente de Zaldivar described seeing a group of Ute tents: They were . . . very bright red and white in color and bell shaped, with flags and openings, and built as skillfully as those of Italy and so large that in the most ordinary ones four different mattresses and beds were easily accommodated. The tanning is so fine that although it should rain bucketfulls it will not pass through nor stiffen the hide, but rather upon drying it remains as soft and pliable as before.4 Zaldivar's description of the men and the women of the Utes indicated that: Most of the men were said to go naked, probably with breechcloths, but the women wore sort of trousers of buckskin and 'shoes and leggins, after 2 S. Lyman Tyler, "Before Escalante: An Early History of the Yuta Indians and Area North of New Mexico . . ." (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, University of Utah, 1951), pp. 58-9. 3 Ibid., p. 73. * Ibid., p. 66. |