American Indian Utah Tribes

Ute Indian Tribe (Uintah and Ouray Reservation)

About the Tribe

The Ute People are called Noochewoo, which means "The People." The State of Utah was named after the Ute people. The Uintah and Ouray Reservation is located 150 miles east of Salt Lake City, Utah. The Utes own 1.5 million acres of trust land. They call the land their "Mother Earth," because everything comes from the earth. It is said that Ute lands were smooth until Senavahf (the creator) shot an arrow and it made the valleys, deep gorges and canyons. It plowed through the mountains, making them into hills.

Resources about the Ute Indian Tribe:

The Native American Indian Literacy Project

The Native American Indian Literacy Project was the work of USOE Indian Education Specialist in 2006, Shirlee Silversmith, and a partnership between the Utah State Office of Education (currently the Utah State Board of Education) and the San Juan School District Media Center. The project included a series of books, lesson plans and histories that were created with the help of tribal elders and cultural consultants and are based on the oral traditional stories and history of their specific tribes. Funds for the original project came from the Utah State Office of Education.

The original booklets were designed for printability (Print Instructions), and have been reformatted here for digital use. A big thank you to Brenda Beyal (Dine) and Lorna Loy (Dine) for updating these lesson plans and aligning them to current core standards. This update was funded by a partnership grant from the Utah Division of State History and Utah Humanities.