[14] The Utes came to inhabit a large area including most of Utah,[15] western and central Colorado, and south into the San Juan River watershed of New Mexico.

Living a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle, summers were spent in the Pikes Peak area mountains, which was considered by other tribes to be the domain of the Utes.

"[19][20][21][22] Artifacts found from the nearby Garden of the Gods, such as grinding stones, "suggest the groups would gather together after their hunt to complete the tanning of hides and processing of meat.

"[17][23] The old Ute Pass Trail went eastward from Monument Creek (near Roswell) to Garden of the Gods and Manitou Springs to the Rocky Mountains.

[25] Cañon Pintado, or painted canyon, is a prehistoric site with rock art from Fremont people (650 to 1200) and Utes.

The Fremont art reflect an interest in agriculture, including corn stalks and use of light at different times of the year to show a planting calendar.

[27][28] The Ute appeared to have hunted and camped in an ancient Ancestral Puebloans and Fremont people campsite in near what is now Arches National Park.

Chiefs led bands when structure was required with the introduction of horses to plan for defense, buffalo hunting, and raiding.

[15] The south and eastern Utes also raided Native Americans in New Mexico, Southern Paiutes and Western Shoshones, capturing women and children and selling them as slaves in exchange for Spanish goods.

To prepare themselves for battle Ute warriors would often fast, participate in sweat lodge ceremonies, and paint their faces and horses for special symbolic meanings.

Warriors were exclusively men but women often followed behind war parties to help gather loot and sing songs.

[47] The Utes used a variety of weapons including bows, spears and buffalo-skin shields,[15] as well as rifles, shotguns and pistols which were obtained through raiding or trading.

[43][49] Indian agents tried to get the Utes to farm, a dramatic lifestyle change which lead to starvation due to crop failures.

Oil & gas, and real estate leases, plus various off-reservation financial and business investments, have contributed to their success.

The Ute operate KSUT,[68] the major public radio station serving southwestern Colorado and the Four Corners.

Prior to living on reservations, Utes shared land with other tribal members according to a traditional societal property system.

[70] Utes were forced to perform manual labor, relinquish their horses, and send their children to American Indian boarding schools.

The Ute Mountain Tribe used their money, including what they earned from mineral leases, to invest in tourist related and other enterprises in the 1950s.

[15] Since the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, the Utes control the police, courts, credit management, and schools.

Unemployment is high on the reservation, in large part due to discrimination, and half of the tribal members work for the government of the United States or the tribe.

All groups also lived in structures 10–15 feet in diameter that were made of conical pole-frames and brush, and sweat lodges were similarly built.

The men hunted buffalo, antelope, elk, deer, bear, rabbit, sage hens, and beaver using arrows, spears and nets.

Women processed and stored the meat and gathered greens, berries, roots, yampa, pine nuts, yucca, and seeds.

[15] Occasionally members of Ute bands met up to trade, intermarry, and practice ceremonies, like the annual spring Bear Dance.

[73] The annual fasting and purification ceremony Sun Dance is an important traditional spiritual event, feast, and means of asserting their Native American identity.

Each spring the Ute (Northern and Southern) hold their traditional Bear Dance, which was used to strengthen social ties and for courtship.

[15] The Native American Church is another source of spiritual life for some Ute, where followers believe that "God reveals Himself in Peyote.

The Ute constructed special ceremonial rattles made from buffalo rawhide, which they filled with clear quartz crystals collected from the mountains of Colorado and Utah.

When the rattles were shaken at night during ceremonies, the friction and mechanical stress of the quartz crystals banging together produced flashes of light which partly shone through the translucent buffalo hide.

These rattles were believed to call spirits into Ute ceremonies, and were considered extremely powerful religious objects.