White Mesa Ute
A people
Background
White Mesa is one of the two Ute Mountain Ute Tribe communities: the other is Towaoc, Colorado, where the tribal administration sits. The Tribe runs a White Mesa Administration alongside the Towaoc Administration, and the vice-chair also serves as its White Mesa council representative. The Tribe's own history names the ancestors of the Allen Canyon White Mesa Utes and Paiutes as living in the western part of Weenuche territory, in what is now eastern Utah and Arizona. The Abajo Mountains in Utah marked the western edge of that territory, and the Tribe records that the lines between neighbouring bands were vague rather than fixed. It describes the Ute language as Shoshonean, a branch of the Uto-Aztecan stock, and notes that the Paiute, Goshute, Shoshone and several California tribes share that branch.
Visit and learn
Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.
Parks on its homelands
Sources
Checked September 2026.