The Native Americans

12,000 Years of History

Photographed By William Fischer, Jr., October 14, 2020

1. The Native Americans Marker

For more than 12,000 years, Native American people have inhabited this area. As the Ice Age ended, these nomadic people hunted bison and mastodons in the valleys, and gathered plants along the edges of glacial lakes and wetlands. These first Americans traveled great distances in search of big game. Today they are referred to as Paleo-Indians and Archaic Hunters.

About 1500 BC, the Ancestral Puebloan People began to settle the Four Corners. The Basketmaker Period marks the transition from a nomadic existance to a more sedentary life-style with cultivated crops. During this period, they built pithouses in small villages and wove intricate baskets to gather and store food. The Ancestral Puebloans depended on native plants and wildlife but supplemented their diet with crops of corn and amaranth.

As the population grew, the Ancestral Puebloans built above-ground villages (Pueblo I and Pueblo II) and produced pottery. In addition to corn and amaranth they grew beans, squash, and melons and were skilled hunters of deer, elk, bear, turkey and rabbits.

At its peak, as many as 30,000 Ancestral Puebloan People lived in what is now Montezuma County. During this time (Pueblo III) they developed multi-storied villages and built cliff dwellings in sandstone

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About AD 1300, the Ancestral Puebloans migrated from this area to the mesas of northeastern Arizona and along the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. Their descendents are the Pueblo People living in modern communities in New Mexico and Arizona. The Pueblo People consider the Four Corners their traditional homelands.

[Bottom left three photo captions read]
• Tower site in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.

• Far View village and tower in Mesa Verde National Park.

• Hopi dancers at Chimney Rock Archeological Area.

The Navajo, or Diné, believe they have always been a part of the Southwest. Accoring to the Diné, the world in which we now live, [is] the "earth surface world." In this world the universe is an orderly system of elements that contains both good and evil. When this world began, the First People created the four cardinal mountains.

To the east, Tsisnaasjiní — white mountain (Mt. Blanca)
To the south, Tsoodzil — blue mountain (Mt. Taylor)
To the west, Doko'ooslííd — yellow mountain (San Francisco Peaks)
To the north, Dibé Ntsaa — black mountain (Mt. Hesperus).

[Navajo photo/illustration captions read]
• Navajo riders near Shiprock, circa 1900.

• Navajo weavers using traditional designs to create exquisite rugs.

• Diné Bikéyah

Photographed By William Fischer, Jr., October 14, 2020

2. The Native Americans Marker

At the Colorado Welcome Center kiosk.

The Ute call themselves the "People of the Shining Mountains." At one time the nomadic Ute inhabited all of Colorado. They moved seasonally between the mountains and valleys to hunt and gather food, or to rendevous with other Ute bands. With the discovery of gold, Euro-American prospectors trespassed on Ute land. Seeing the wave of settlers, Chief Ouray negotiated the Brunot Treaty with the United States in 1873 that allowed miners and settlers to occupy Ute land.

In 1879, a confrontation between the Ute and Indian Agent, Nathan Meeker, at the White River Indian Agency, led to the death of Meeker. As a result, the Utes were forced to accept reservation land in southern Colorado and central Utah.

[Ute illustration captions read]
• [Map] The original Ute homeland included traditional hunting grounds in what is now Colorado, Utah, southern Wyoming, and northern New Mexico.

• [Map] The Ute reservation was established under the Ute Treaty of 1863. When silver was discovered in the San Juan Mountains, the 1873 Brunot Agreement removed this area.

• [Map] Under pressure from white settlers, the federal government and the tribe negotiated a series of agreements resulting in the current reservation boundaries.

• Traditional Ute dance presented at the CU Center in Cortez.
 
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