Ute Mountain Ute Tribe

A nation today

Delicate Arch, a freestanding sandstone arch about 52 feet tall, lit orange at sunset with the La Sal Mountains behind it.
Ymaup, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Background

The Weenuche lived along the western flank of the Rockies across present-day Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, with the Continental Divide bounding their range to the east. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe is the Weenuche band of the Ute Nation of Indians. The Ute Mountain Ute Reservation sits in the Four Corners region and covers about 553,008 acres, all held in trust by the United States. The land lies in Montezuma and La Plata Counties, Colorado, and San Juan County, New Mexico. The tribe organized its government six years after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, and a seven-member Tribal Council governs it.

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Visit and learn

Ute Mountain Ute Tribe's own site

Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.

Parks on its homelands

Painted Wall in Black Canyon of the Gunnison, a sheer dark cliff streaked with pink pegmatite veins dropping to the river far below.Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Six years after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the Weenuche Band organized a tribal government and enacted a constitution, and the Weenuche Band became the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Its Tribal Council has seven members, elected by popular vote of the membership. Source

Mesa Arch on the canyon rim at Island in the Sky, Canyonlands National Park, framing the drop to the White Rim country below.Canyonlands National Park

About 553,008 acres of reservation in Montezuma and La Plata counties in Colorado and San Juan County in New Mexico belong to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, which is the Weenuche band of the Ute Nation of Indians. Source

Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in North America, set in a sandstone alcove with multistory masonry rooms and round kivas.Mesa Verde National Park

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe manages the Ute Mountain Tribal Park, which protects Ancestral Pueblo and Ute history on land adjoining the park, and NPS says much of the Mesa Verde area remains part of Ute Mountain Ute tribal lands. The Ute people call themselves Nuuchiu, and Mesa Verde was one of their hunting and gathering grounds. Source

Bear Lake at 9,475 feet, ringed by conifers under the high peaks of the Continental Divide in Rocky Mountain National Park.Rocky Mountain National Park

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe's reservation is the only one of the three Ute reservations the park lists that spans three states, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The park notes that the three modern Ute tribes represent 13 original bands and each has its own way of spelling the Ute name. Source

Programs

  • Culture and Language Department

    Teaches Ute language to Head Start and toddler classes three days a week and to adults in evening classes, and runs evening culture classes in bead work, cradle board making, and moccasin making. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe worked together on a Ute curriculum for fourth grade.

    https://www.utemountainutetribe.com/Cultural_Language%20Program.html·language

Sources

Checked September 2026.

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