Utah Indian tribes include eight federally recognized tribes, each with deep ancestral ties to the deserts, mountains, and canyons of the region. The Ute, Paiute, Goshute, Navajo (Diné), and Shoshone peoples have lived in the area for thousands of years, adapting to its harsh terrain with sophisticated knowledge of the land and spiritual traditions in place.
Tribes like the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation and the Navajo Nation continue to assert their sovereignty and cultural identity despite generations of forced assimilation, land loss, and broken promises. Today, Utah’s tribes remain vital voices in issues of water rights, land stewardship, education, and cultural preservation.
FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED TRIBES IN UTAH
(Federal list last updated 5/16)
Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation (Nevada and Utah)
Navajo Nation (Arizona, New Mexico and Utah)
Northwestern Band of Shoshoni Nation of Utah (Washakie)
Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians of Utah
Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation
Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (Colorado, New Mexico and Utah)
None
N.E. Band of Shoshone Indians
White Mesa Ute Council
Cedar City Band of Paiutes
Mexicans and Spaniards were the first known non-Indians to enter what is now the state of Utah. The discovery and translation of the journals of Juan Maria Antonia Rivera tell that he led at least two expeditions into the area of present-day Utah in 1765.
He and his companions were the first non-Indians to see the Utah portion of the Rio del Tizon (Colorado River). Twelve years later, in July 1776, just as the American Revolution was beginning in the east, a 10 man exploration team left Santa Fe, New Mexico.
It was under the leadership of two Franciscan priests, Fathers Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante and known today as the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition.
By the early 1800s trade between Santa Fe and American Indians in Utah was well established. From 1807 to 1840 mountain men explored vast areas of the American West. In the 1820s trappers explored most of Utah’s rivers and valleys and some of the desert land.
Jedediah Smith made several significant journeys through Utah. It was his rediscovery of South Pass in Wyoming that allowed thousands of immigrants to travel west by wagon.
Trapper Jim Bridger reported his sighting of the Great Salt Lake in 1824. Miles Goodyear established Fort Buenaventura on the Ogden River in 1844-1845.
The explorations of other trappers included Peter Skene Ogden, Etienne Provost, John H. Weber, William H. Ashley, James P. Beckwourth, the Robidoux brothers, and Joseph R. Walker.
The Bartleson-Bidwell party crossed Utah in 1841 on the first wagon train, and the famous Donner party which got trapped up in the mountains, and whose survivors canibalized their dead, blazed a trail into the Salt Lake Valley in 1846.
Utah has five historic Indian tribes including the Ute, Paiute, Navajo, Goshute, and Northern and Eastern Shoshone. They all had different ways of living successfully in Utah, but they also had similarities in some ways.
Food: Gathered plants and seeds, fished. Hunted deer, buffalo and antelope.
Shelter: Teepee made from buffalo hides and tall poles; could carry like a tent.
Clothing: Wore long dresses, skirts, trousers, and moccasins made from buffalo hides.
Way of Life: Groups of 200 divided into smaller family groups. Women made clothes from animal skins. Men spent most of their time hunting.
Food: Gathered seeds, plants, and roots. Farmed corn, squash, beans, sunflowers, wheat, and melons. Fished, hunted small animals.
Shelter: Wicki-up in the winter and nothing in the summer.
Clothing: Wore little clothing.
Way of Life: Family groups of 15-30. Woven baskets used for storage, carrying water, hats, trays, and bowls.
Food: Dug for roots, gathered berries, seeds from grasses and pine trees. Used a bunch of different plants. Caught birds, crickets, mice, rabbits, insects, and lizards.
Shelter: Wicki-ups in the summer, caves and rock shelters in the winter.
Clothing: Wore little clothing and had rabbit-skin blankets.
Way of Life: Small family groups. Spent most of their time gathering food.
Food: Gathered roots, seeds, and pinyon nuts. Fished, hunted small animals. Raised corn, squash, and beans.
Shelter: Pit houses, Wicki-ups.
Clothing: Animal skins for clothes and blankets.
Way of Life: Small family bands. Made baskets and some pottery.
Food: Planted corn, beans, and squash. Hunted rabbits, prairie dogs, deer, and antelope.
Shelter: Hogans
Clothing: Animal skins and wool.
Way of Life: Close family group organized around the mother or grandmother. Weaved, farmed, silversmithed, and raised sheep and goats.
The Ute, Paiute, Gosiute, and Shoshone speak different but related languages from a family known as the Numic Language Family.
The Navajo speak a language that is in the Athapaskan Language Family.
The Ute, Goisute, Southern Paiute and Shoshone lived similar lifestyles by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plant foods. The pinyon nut was especially important to all of them.
These groups now live on reservations in Utah, Colorado, Nevada and Idaho, although prior to white settlement, they ranged all across the Great Basin and Intermountain West.
The state of Utah is named after the Ute tribe. The Ute once held claim to much of Utah and all of western Colorado. They ranged well onto the Great Plains of eastern Colorado into Nebraska and south into New Mexico.
In historic times, there were at least 11 different bands of the Ute tribe.
Each band claimed their own territory but membership in a band was fluid. The Ute lived by hunting, fishing, gathering and trading with other Native American groups in the area.
Housing consisted of brush structures and cone-shaped tipis made from animal skins. During the late 1800s, the Ute lost most of their lands and were restricted to reservations in southern Colorado and northeastern Utah.
The Paiute are divided into two groups: the Northern Paiute and the Southern Paiute. The Northern Paiute lived in what is now Oregon, California and Nevada.
The Southern Paiute lived in southern Utah, southern Nevada, and northern Arizona. Hunting and gathering with some fishing was the main source of food.
A Southern Paiute house might be made of brush and poles stacked in a cone-shape. These are known as wickiups. Basketry was made by the Southern Paiute, as was pottery.
There are Paiute reservations in southern Utah and in Nevada. The western deserts of Utah were the home of the Gosiute. They are related to the western Shoshone groups and, through intermarriage, to the Ute.
The Gosiute lived in the Great Basin as hunters and gatherers. They built cone-shaped wickiups and similar structures.
Two reservations in western Utah are now the home of the Gosiute. Idaho, eastern Oregon and northern Utah was the home of the Northern Shoshoni.
The Eastern Shoshoni lived across western Wyoming, northeastern Utah, and northwestern Colorado. Shoshoni livelihood revolved around hunting, gathering and fishing. Bison hunting was especially important.
Herding sheep and goats was, and still is, the mainstay of many Navajo families. Southern Utah, northern Arizona, and northern New Mexico is the land of the Navajo, who are the largest Native American tribe in the United States.
Some people believe the Navajo migrated south into their current homeland sometime after 1300 C.E. (Common Era) where they lived as hunters and gatherers.
At some point, the Navajo acquired sheep from the Spanish and they learned to weave from the Hopi. The Hogan is the traditional Navajo house.
9,000 BC to about 5,500 BC Paleoindian – Clovis, Folsom, Great Basin Stemmed, Foothill-Mountain and various late Paleoindian styles. Big and small game hunters, collectors, foragers.
5,500 BC to about 1000 BC Archaic – Foragers and collectors, Increased use of plants; diversity of site and tool types; desert and marsh adaptations; use of pit houses; use of caves like Danger Cave, Cowboy Cave, Hogup Cave, grinding stones and seed processing. Split-twig figurines.
Small family bands of hunters and gathers, very complex social and religious organization. Well adapted to live in harsh environment. Gate Cliff Series Projectile Points, Elko Series Projectile Points, Pinto, Northern Side Notched Points.
1000 BC to about 1300 AD Formative Late Prehistoric – Anasazi, Fremont Pit house Villages, Cliff Dwellings, Elaborate Architecture variety of ceramic styles, Farming: corn, beans, and squash.
1300 AD to Present – Proto-Historic and Historic Tribes
Utah’s intriguing history dates back to the Messozoic Era (230 to 65 million years ago), when many types of dinosaurs lived in the eastern and southern parts of what is now known as Utah. Their fossilized remnants are still being discovered and unearthed.
Utah’s prehistory is as diverse as its scenic landscape, covering 10,000-12,000 years. Archaeological sites have been identified in all corners of the state.
This shows that the ancient people of Utah adapt well to deserts, high mountains, badlands, and marshes.
Archaeologists call the first people living in Utah “Paleoindians.” The Paleoindians were hunters and gatherers who sometimes hunted now-extinct mammals like the mammoth.
All across Utah, Paleoindian sites are found. These sites are very old and rare. Some Paleoindian camps identified along the shoreline of ancient Lake Bonneville reflect Paleoindians use of marsh environments.
Changes started in weapons and lifeways around 8,000 years ago. This marked the beginning of the Archaic period.
During the Archaic period, people were hunters and gatherers. They were nomadic (no-mad-ik), but sometimes they settled in small villages and caves for short periods.
During the Archaic period, people made a variety of baskets for collecting plants. They made many types of stone spear and dart tips. They used these to hunt animals.
From 8,000 to 2,000 years ago the atlatl, or spear thrower, helped the people hunt successfully. Danger Cave and Juke Box Cave near Wendover, Utah are two famous sites used during the Paleoindian and Archaic time periods.
Lifestyles began to slowly change around 2,500 years ago. Corn, beans and squash were introduced into Utah, possibly from the south. Archaeologists used the clues they found in caves and other places to identify two groups of Native Americans in Utah.
They call them the Anasazi and Fremont Indians. Farming changed the way Anasazi and Fremont Indians made a living.
Across much of northern Utah, the Fremont adopted a farming lifestyle. They still relied on hunting and gathering for much of their food. Further to the south, in the Four Corners area and across the southern portion of Utah, the Anasazi relied heavily on corn, beans and squash.
The Anasazi had domesticated the turkey and used it as an important source of food and raw material.
Around 1300 B.C.E. (Before the Common Era), the people we call Fremont and Anasazi were no longer visible in the archaeological record. Some areas were abandoned and new cultures moved into the area.
In many ways, people went back to a hunter and gatherer lifestyle or the same type of lifestyle that the people in the Arachic period lived.
RESOURCES
Genealogy:Sources of records on US Indian tribes
Tap a state name below to explore Native American tribes by State.
Utah is among 19 states in which the American Indian population exceeds the U.S. proportion of 1.5 percent, and among four Southwestern states in which American Indians make up the majority of the population in certain counties, according to U.S.…
Here is a list of places to visit in Utah USA to learn about native american culture. Anasazi State Park 460 North Hwy. 12 Boulder, UT 84716 mailing address:P.O. BOX 1429, Boulder, UT 84716 tel (801) 335-7308 fax (801) 335-7352…