Go as a River: A Novel

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism and colonialism.

The Ute people are the oldest inhabitants of Colorado. They are a migratory group of tribes, or bands of family groups, who lived in an expansive territory across the current states of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, and moved through it according to the seasons. According to their creation story, they did not migrate to Colorado but were placed there, made to be strong warriors and protectors of their mountainous lands (“Southern Ute Indian Tribe Chronology.” Southern Ute Indian Tribe). After initial contact with European colonizers in the 1500s, the Ute people traded and raided for horses, eventually becoming skilled riders, which increased their mobility and expanded their trade routes.

However, in the mid-1800s, European expansion encroached on Ute territory as traders, pioneers, and gold seekers were drawn to the abundant landscape of the mountainous terrain. To preserve their land rights, the Ute people were forced into a series of treaties with the US government that ultimately diminished their territory and forced them onto reservations, destroying their traditional relationship with the land and their nomadic way of life. One of the most notorious of these agreements was the Brunot Agreement in 1873, in which the Ute people ceded the territory of the San Juan Mountains to the government for the development of mines.