White River Utes are a Native American band, made of two earlier bands, the Yampa from the Yampa River Valley and the Parianuche Utes who lived along the Grand Valley in Colorado and Utah.

Historic bands

Yampa

The Yampa (''Yapudttka'', ''Yampadttka'', ''Yamparka'', ''Yamparika'') lived in the

Yampa River The Yampa River flows through northwestern Colorado in the United States. Rising in the Rocky Mountains, it is a tributary of the Green River (Colorado River), Green River and a major part of the Colorado River system. The Yampa is one of the f ...

Valley area and north of White River of the present-day state of Colorado near the Parianuche who lived to the south. They were called "

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

eaters". The tribe was relocated to the

Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation The Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation (, ) is located in northeastern Utah, United States. It is the homeland of the Ute Indian Tribe (Ute dialect: Núuchi-u), and is the largest of three Indian reservations inhabited by members of the Ute Tribe ...

Parianuche

The Parianuche (''Pahdteeahnooch'', ''Pahdteechnooch'', ''Parianuc'') lived in the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

valley (or Grand Valley) in western Colorado and eastern Utah. They are called "elk people" and Grand River Utes. The tribe was relocated to the

Meeker Battle

The White River Utes were pressured to give up their

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

lifestyle and take up farming in 1879. This was pressed upon them by an Indian agent,

Nathan Meeker Nathan Cook Meeker (July 12, 1817 – September 30, 1879) was a 19th-century American journalist, homesteader, entrepreneur, and Indian agent for the federal government. He is noted for his founding in 1870 of the Union Colony, a cooperative ...

, through a number of means, destruction of Ute ponies, starvation, and sending for the military. The Utes took a defensive stand against the military and the agent, killing the agent and U.S. Army Commander Thomas Thornburgh in two separate conflicts. There were also Utes and other whites killed in what was called the

Meeker Massacre Meeker Massacre, or Meeker Incident, White River War, Ute War, or the Ute Campaign), took place on September 29, 1879 in Colorado. Members of a band of Ute Indians ( Native Americans) attacked the Indian agency on their reservation, killing th ...

and the Thornburgh ambush. This ultimately led to the White River Utes being moved to the

Uintah and Ouray Reservation The Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation (, ) is located in northeastern Utah, United States. It is the homeland of the Ute Indian Tribe (Ute dialect: Núuchi-u), and is the largest of three Indian reservations inhabited by members of the Ute Tribe ...

in Utah.

Resettlement in South Dakota

A small number of White River Utes were resettled on the

Cheyenne River Reservation The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was created by the United States in 1889 by breaking up the Great Sioux Reservation, following the attrition of the Lakota in a series of wars in the 1870s. The reservation covers almost all of Dewey ...

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

, in 1906 and 1907, being allocated 4 townships totalling 92,160 acres. That land remains in the former northern part of the Cheyenne River Reservation. Their communities are Iron Lightning and

Thunder Butte Thunder Butte (Lakota: ''Wakíŋyaŋ Pahá'') is a prominent butte landmark located in the northwest corner of Ziebach County, South Dakota, in the United States. Thunder Butte is a large, isolated hill that can be seen for many miles in every d ...

References

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