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Show Economy During the 17th Century, the Utes acquired the horse. Because the horse allowed the Utes to gather in larger bands, their economic, social, and political structure changed. Before, each family group had spent most of the year alone, hunting and gathering food. With the horse, the Utes could hunt buffalo on a large scale, ranging far into the plains and transporting the animals back to central camps, where not only the meat but the hides, the sinews, and even the bones were used. The horse also allowed the Utes to increase their trade with other Indian groups. By 1670 horses themselves were a major trade item with the Shoshonean tribes to the northwest. The Utes had traded before with the Pueblo tribes to the south, but this trade in buckskins, buffalo hides and surplus food increased as transportation became easier. The Utes also captured Indians of other tribes in raids and sold them to the Spanish. For two hundred years, the Utes hunted and traded with little interference from the Spanish. But in 1848, their lands were transferred to the United States, and in 1859, gold was discovered in Colorado. Thousands of settlers rushed westward. Everyone wanted to get rich, but upon arrival in Colorado, most found nothing. Although many settlers went back to where they came from, enough stayed and tried to start farms that the Utes were put on a reduced land base with fixed boundaries. For twenty years the Utes' lands were gradually reduced and hunting became harder as more of the old hunting grounds were put off limits to the Utes or settled and farmed by the encroaching whites. The Utes became poorer and poorer. Seeing this, the government started to give them food and supplies at Abiquiu, Tierra Amarilla, Taos, and Cimarron before each winter season and in the spring. During the other seasons, the Indians were expected to shift for themselves. The Utes came to depend heavily on these "presents" from Washington because they could not support themselves on the reduced land base. This state, however, satisfied no one, so the whites began a second major change in the economy of the Utes. The Utes were gathering and hunting their food when the white man first saw them, so in the eyes of the white man, they were primitive savages and uncivilized. The white man saw himself freeing these |
