The Ute people lived in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. The tribes connected to the Ute people were Mouache, Capote, Weeminuche, Yampa, Uintah and Uncompahgre. The Ute people signed their first treaty with the United States in 1849.

The Ute chief Ouray (Arrow) was born in Taos, New Mexico 1820. His father came from the Ute tribe but his mother was Apache. He was well educated and could speak both English and Spanish. When his father died in 1860 Ouray became a chief of the Tabeguache tribe, and as he was a good friend of Kit Carson he signed a peace treaty with the United States the 7th of October 1863. As they were buffalo hunters the Utes worried about the increasing numbers of white settlers, and they became gradually more involved in fights. In 1872 Ouray went to Washington to make a complaint over the white settlers spreading in the area. Ouray meant that the Ute Reservation was only for them. In 1878 Nathan Meeker was appointed to be responsible for the White River Ute Reservation. He helped to make the indians worry when he tried to force them to be farmers, and in September 1879 he called for the army to master the Ute tribes. Another Ute chief, Chief Douglas and a band of warriors killed Meeker and seven other members of the agency when they heard about this. The event was called "the Meeker Massacre." The Ute tribes also attacked Major Thomas Thornburgh and his troops who were on their way to the White River agency. In the fights Thornburgh was killed and also nine of his men. Ouray now negotiated with the United States governement about piece, and as a result the Ute people were moved from Colorado and placed on a Reservation in Utah. Ouray himself received a yearly amount of money of $1,000 from the governement for his agreement. he died from "Brights syndrome" the 27th of October 1880.

The Paiute people are divided into two groups: The Northern and the Southern Paiute group. The northern tribes lived in Oregon, Nevada and California, while the southern group lived in Utah and Arizona. The southern group speaked the same language as the Ute tribes.

Paiutes lived on cereals and nuts and hunted smaller prey, mostly rabbits. Isabella Bird, who visited Californa in 1873 said they mostly lived on grasshoppers. Their houses were primitiv and they had little or no clothes at all. On the other hand they had blankets made of Rabbits fur. As the Europeans settled in their areas, a lot of Paiute people were hired as labours on the farms. In 1874 all of the Paiute country was confiscated by the United States, and the indians were forced to move to Reservations in Utah and Nevada. Today the Paiute people are estimated to be about 4,000 left in USA.