The Ute People

Before we begin the story of the Ute people, the writer invites the reader into the contrasting worlds of the first nations of North America and the European conquerors. The writer starts this short story in a fitting way with the first track taken from a CD by XIT entitled ‘The Plight of the Redman’. It contrasts, in song/ chant, the mentality of the native first nations and what they held sacred with the ‘Whitemans’ opposite understanding and materialistic value systems. It is a good way to start as it epitomises the difference between the Native American first nations, of which there were some 500 number of tribes, with a spiritual connectedness with the land contrasting with the ethos of the European invader/ conquerors. The Ute were just one of these 500 nations.