The UTE Tribes

Reported by Mark Ellsworth Hickman, a Ute descendant
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Daguerretype photograph of our Ute ancestor
She married an Eddleman (Edelmann) (German) man.
(CLICK on her photo to see fuller picture!)

THE TYPE PHOTOGRAPH (SIMILAR TO A TINTYPE PHOTOGRAPH) IS CALLED A DAGUERRETYPE, PRODUCED WITH SILVER OVER COPPER. THE PROCESS WAS FIRST USED BY A FRENCH PAINTER DAGUERRE, CIRCA 1851. I BELIEVE SOME OF THESE PHOTOS DATE IN THE 1840'S. -- JERRY RECORDS

Thanks to the Denver (Colorado) Public Library
for use of the Ute Dancers photograph used for the background.





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Ute Genealogy

    A cherished story through generations of my Eddleman (Von Edelmann) ancestral family is that we descend from a Ute woman. Given that written records are a fairly recent development in most Native American nations, and that racial discrimination in the early settlement of America by Europeans often led to obscuring of Native American ancestry, we have not yet documented our Ute roots. However, the family legend is supported by:

  • - consistency of the story told in various branches of the family, even among very far removed cousins and across geographic boundaries

  • - our family's retention of a tin type photograph of our Ute ancestor

  • - the historical plausibility of the story given the year when the Rogers and Clark expedition established contact with Shoshonean tribes

  • - the early-enough arrival of our Eddleman ancestors at locations significant in that Lewis and Clark expedition

  • - the documented better relationship the Utes had with German visitors as opposed to their dealings with other Euro-Americans

  • - the memories of currently living octogenerian members of the family of their parents and grandparents telling the story of our Ute ancestor, despite the fact that the latter lived prior to the time when mixed ancestry had achieved any significant level of social acceptability in the moderately-prosperous and self-defined "proper" social groups of which the Eddleman family was a part in 19th Century America

  • - the otherwise-inexplicable occurance of Mongolian eye folds in some members of our Eddleman family (whose roots are in Switzerland and the Rhineland Palatinate region of contemporary Germany)

  • - Civil war records documenting the early occurance of black hair in soldiers from this swiss-german family, but with blond hair finally occurring in some family members five (5) generations later

  • - I will deeply appreciate any help or ideas anyone can give me to find written documentation about my Ute ancestors. As I have learned more about the Ute people, I am very proud of my Ute heritage, and I will appreciate any help I can get in this research. Thanks!




See the cartoon at the bottom of this Web site!




Ute Information


  • The State of Utah is named for the Ute people.

  • Our Ute ancestors were rugged and resourceful, successfully living in the mountain, plain, forest and desert areas of their territory.

  • The Ute people were among the first North American tribes to embrace the horse as a resource.

  • Resisting European expansion longer than most North American tribes, the Ute people succeeded in protecting their territory and culture from European domination for two centuries, until the final years of the 19th century.

  • In September of 1879, the Meeker Massacre and Thornburg Battle, were the subject of world-wide news. Although these events involved only a few Northern Utes, the incidents were used to generate opposition among white settlers to freedom for all Ute people. The Governor of Colorado at the time encouraged such opposition to Ute freedom by speaking of "the Ute menace."

  • Although the Utes were skilled hunters and warriers, they tended to prefer to avoid conflicts and war, living the private existence that was central to their way of life. It was only when their way of life and homelands were in jeopardy that they used their awesome skills to fight the European American settlers. And, at that point, their strength received international attention.

  • Ute territory today is reduced to three pieces of reservation land in Utah and Colorado, with a small extension into New Mexico.

  • There were seven bands of the Ute Tribe.

    • Four Northern Bands of the Ute Tribe

      • Tabegauche Band or Uncompahgre Band

      • Grand River Band or Parianucs Band

      • White River Band

      • Unitah Band


    • Three southern Bands of the Ute Tribe

      • Mouache Band

      • Capote Ute Band

      • Weeminuche Band






Your Homework Assignments

    Parents, please empower your children by making sure they know how to use book, encyclopedia, journal, library and Internet resources to research subjects.

    I have been startled at how many requests I get asking me to do a student's homework assignment about the Ute Tribes.

    I have been even more startled by how often parents send an e-mail asking me to do this for their children.

    First, I don't have time to accomplish all of these requests. (My Web pages generate so many e-mail messages that your report will be due before I have time to respond to you.)

    More important, such assignments are opportunities for students to learn how to research.

    While I don't mind if information on this page is part of the information that a student has found for completing a school assignment, the student should be encouraged to complete the assignment using books, journal articles, the school library, the public library, other libraries, and even Internet Search Engines or exploring the links to other Ute sites which are listed below.

    Here are two excellent books that are a good starting point for learning about the Ute people....

  • People of the Shining Mountains: the Utes of Colorado,
    by Charles S. Marsh (1982),
    Pruett Publishing Company,
    Boulder, Colorado.

  • American Indians in Cologrado, Second Edition,
    by J. Donald Hughes (1987),
    Pruett Publishing Company,
    Boulder, Colorado.

    Some key words that may help in your library and Internet searches are Ute, native, Colorado, Unitah, Capote, Weeminuche, Mouache, Tabegauche, Uncompahgre, Grand River, Ouray, Bear Dance.

    So, while I don't respond to requests asking me to do a student's homework assignment, I do want to help your children -- by telling them to practice research skills that will help them learn throughout their lives.

    Thanks for your understanding, and make good use of that library!




This "Native American Who's Hot Award"
(Genealogical Section)
was given for my Ute Tribes Web Site.





Ute & Native Links





Quoted for your information...

UTE TALES

    collected by Anne M. Smith. University of Utah Press, 101 University Services Building, Salt Lake City, UT 84112. Illustrated. 175 pp., $24.95 cloth. 0-87480-404-3

    REVIEW. Anne Smith an ethnographer and Ute advocate in the 1930s, was interested in Ute culture prior to their contact with Europeans. These 102 tales (from Volume II of her dissertation) are divided into three groups, according to how the bands were named by Indian agencies: Unita (eastern Utah), Uncompahgre (central Colorado), and White River (Wyoming and Northwestern Colorado). The Ute tales are mainly concerned with animal activities before humans were created and many are moral stories explaining why an animal has (or is missing) certain traits, such as "Why Dog Can't Talk," or why eagle never laughs. The coyote as trickster figures prominently, as do rabbit, buffalo, bear, skunk, and water babies. The myths are related without elaboration or introduction. My favorite is called "The Anthropologist Who Went Back In Time." This story can be found on the verso of the title page (the page that has the copyright date), where it says that Smith lived from 1990-1981. Recommended.

    (posted by sbrock@teal.csn.org (Steve Brock) to Native-l on Sat, 10 Apr 1993 and Mon, 19 Jul 1993)






To visit the other Native American history page for my family,
go to:

1780 Ruddles Station (Kentucky) Massacre





Click image
to visit
NativeWeb:




Click here to see the famous Ute Bear Dance .


    (The traditional Ute Bear Dance is a very old tradition, performed in the Spring when bears are ending their winter hibernation. A notched stick is scraped with a bone or pipe to make the sound of a bear growling, with a basket beneath these tools to amplify the sound. Women choose their partners for this dance, then stand in a line when a song begins. The song pauses while the men form a second line, facing the women. The song resumes and the lines move back and forth to the music. Eventually, the lines break into partners dancing back and forth.)


Click here to see traditional Ute dancers
.

    Photo Credits: People of the Shining Mountains: the Utes of Colorado,
    by Charles S. Marsh (1982),
    Pruett Publishing Company,
    Boulder, Colorado.


Click here to see another view of Bear Dance
    Credit: Mullarky





Another great resource:



    Doreen Robinson has made me aware of this genealogical resource for Ute people. (Thanks, Doreen!)

    Fort Lewis Indian School [Southern Utes], Census Records 1904-1908. Extracted by Doreen Robinson. 2000. Quintin Publications, Pawtucket, R.I., 8 1/2 " x 11", spiral bound, 89 pages. The records identify each individual by their Native American and their English names, gender, ages, relationships to others in the family, etc. $10.00

    This book is available at

    http://www.quintinpublications.com/co.html

    To see Walker River Paiute Census Records and other resources by Doreen, go to:

    http://hometown.aol.com/drobin5727/myhomepage/business.html




Click image
to visit


Native American Who's Hot Award Page:


Map of original Territory
of the Ute Nation,
spanning much of what is now
Colorado, Utah
and adjoining States,
courtesy of a wonderful book
called
People of the Shining Mountains: the Utes of Colorado,
by Charles S. Marsh (1982),
Pruett Publishing Company,
Boulder, Colorado.














SOURCES


  • Daguerretype photograph of our Ute ancestor, photographically copied from the original owned by Ralph D. Eddleman (born 23 April 1908), who is my grandfather's first cousin
  • Jerry Record's recent e-mail explanation to me that a Daguerretype photograph (in contrast to a tintype photograph) is produced with silver over copper, and that this process was first used by a French painter Daguerre, circa 1851, although some of these photos may date as early as the 1840's
  • People of the Shining Mountains: the Utes of Colorado, by Charles S. Marsh (1982), Pruett Publishing Company, Boulder, Colorado
  • American Indians in Colorado, Second Edition, by J. Donald Hughes (1987), Pruett Publishing Company, Boulder, Colorado
  • post by sbrock@teal.csn.org (Steve Brock) to Native-l on Sat, 10 Apr 1993 and Mon, 19 Jul 1993: Excerpt from UTE TALES, collected by Anne M. Smith. University of Utah Press, 101 University Services Building, Salt Lake City, UT 84112. Illustrated. 175 pp., $24.95 cloth. 0-87480-404-3
  • Fort Lewis Indian School [Southern Utes], Census Records 1904-1908. Extracted by Doreen Robinson. 2000. Quintin Publications, Pawtucket, R.I., 8 1/2 " x 11", spiral bound, 89 pages. The records identify each individual by their Native American and their English names, gender, ages, relationships to others in the family, etc. $10.00. This book is available at http://www.quintinpublications.com/co.html
  • Ute Dancers photograph (background image on this site) from Denver (Colorado) Public Library
  • Written records of David Eddleman (brother of my great-grandfather, Alonzo Eddleman), with these records being given to my Aunt, Janice Sue (Eddleman) Wellman
  • Written records of Ralph D. Eddleman(born 23 April 1908), son of the above-named David Eddleman, with this Ralph D. Eddleman also being the owner of the Daguerretype photograph of our Ute ancestor
  • Interview with Ralph D. Eddleman(born 23 April 1908), son of the above-named David Eddleman, with this Ralph D. Eddleman also being the owner of the Daguerretype photograph of our Ute ancestor
  • Reports of Clarence Noble Eddleman (born 26 January 1909), my grandfather.
  • Reports of Helen Irene (Eddleman) Jones (born 19 August 1915), my grand-aunt
  • Interview with Orlando Eddleman (born 02 December 1910), son of the above-named David Eddleman
  • Floyd County, Indiana birth records
  • Floyd County, Indiana marriage records
  • Floyd County, Indiana death records
  • Harrison County, Indiana birth records
  • Harrison County, Indiana marriage records
  • Harrison County, Indiana death records
  • U. S. Civil War record of Adam Eddleman
  • Eddleman genealogical papers in Floyd County Public Library, New Albany, Indiana
  • Eddleman genealogical papers at Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, Indiana





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Copyright 1996-2006, Granduncle Mark
(Mark Ellsworth Hickman, PhD)




Granduncle Mark's Genealogy Parlor

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