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Show resource, and social values. There are a few places, however, where valued resources have grown up around constructed waterways, and these need to handled with care. Even when the development of a site was not seen as problematic, most of the consultants asked the question: whose interests does it ultimately serve? Are Ute lands and waterways going to be employed largely for the benefit of non- tribal members, or is there going to be a concrete and recognizable gain for the tribe ( 1.3; 2.1; 3.1; 4.3)? These questions are clearly understandable given the real and substantial losses the Utes continue to sustain from the Strawberry Reclamation Project and other water projects on the reservation and in the adjoining Uinta Mountains ( Conetah 1982: 128- 130; 148- 150; Jones and MacKay 1980; MacKay 1982). B. Historic Context It is now important to assess some of these cultural considerations in the light of Ute historical movements and change. Until the late nineteenth century, the Uinta Basin was primarily an area of travel and settlement for Uintah- ats division of the Uintah Ute ( Steward n. d.; 1938: 223- 229; Conetah 1982: 77- 79). It is also clear, however, from various historic and ethnographic writings that Ute families and bands ranged widely throughout the territorial range they occupied in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico during historic times, that the boundaries separating local groups were not clear- cut, and that the identities of people who used specific locales were fluid over time. As Julian Steward ( n. d.) clearly argues in his unpublished report on the White River Utes, some of the groups who came to be identified with this band not only lived and traveled in Utah but also included within their ranks Uintah who stayed for brief or extended periods in Colorado. Much of the flexibility in Northern Ute identities resulted from members of various Ute bands intermarrying, covering large distances for hunting and trade ( especially after the acquisition of horses), frequently shifting their places of residence, and sharing important resource sites over wide areas ( Steward n. d.: 40- 46). In fact, Julian Steward ( n. d.: 47- 48) argued quite pervasively that the rigid divisions between the Uintah, Uncompaghre and White River Ute arose primarily from their dealings with the U. S. government. Several consultants, however, stressed the importance of querying Uintah about areas of the reservation most likely a part of their oral traditions rather than of White River and Uncompaghre who were removed to this reservation from Colorado in the late nineteenth century. Notwithstanding the different lengths of time that various Northern Ute bands have been associated with the Uinta Basin, both before and after the 7 |
