The Ute Indians are the most recent native occupants (dating back to the 1300s AD) of theUintah Basin , which has been occupied by native people since 10,000 BC.  Spanish explorers in the 1600s opened the Basin to fur-trappers and traders.  In the early 1860s, Mormon leader Brigham Young ordered an expedition to the Basin to determine its suitability for settlement.  At the time, Deseret News reported that little was found and that the Basin was a “vast contiguity of waste…valueless excepting for nomadic purposes, hunting grounds for Indians and to hold the world together.”  Shortly after, in an effort to contain the Ute Indians, a U.S. Presidential proclamation set aside a large part of the Uintah Basin as an Indian Reservation; most Tribal members were relocated to the Reservation within a few years. 

Within a decade valuable minerals were discovered on the Reservation and pressure mounted to have the land opened to white development.  In 1905, the Reservation’s most resourceful lands—over half its total area—were allotted to homesteaders in land drawings and the present-day boundaries of the U&O Reservation were set.  Since then the Uintah Basin has been susceptible to frequent economic boom-bust cycles and today little remains from the times of economic prosperity.  What does remain is a small population base of Ute Indians and whites supported by a fragile, and sometimes volatile, economy based on agriculture, natural resource extraction (oil and gas), and some tourism (Source: “Uintah Basin,” Craig Fuller, Utah History Encyclopedia). Ute Indian Tribal enterprises are reported to be adding to the economic diversity of the area (Utah Department of Workforce Services).  The majority of the houses on the Reservation are old, in need of repair, and lack Internet access.  There are almost no commercial or entertainment opportunities or establishments: no movie theatres, no multimedia stores, no bookstores, and no clothing stores.  However, there is one grocery store, two gas stations, laundromats, and the Tribal government offices.

Employment opportunities are scarce for Utes living on the Reservation and those that are available are primarily manual labor and require little pre-employment training.  This dismal reality discourages Utes from pursuing an education.  However, the ones who do pursue a high school diploma or postsecondary degree often do so as a means of escaping reservation life.  Unfortunately, most Utes are not prepared academically and psychologically for postsecondary pursuits, nor do they have an adequate support system to succeed at them.  Further, few educated Ute role models exist and deep seated tensions stemming from cultural, racial, and religious differences have resulted in a public school system that inadequately serves Ute students—leaving them unprepared for the world of higher education. 

Facing such odds, many Utes give up on creating a better future for themselves (or their Tribe) and turn to alcohol, drugs, and destructive sexual behavior.  The net result of generations of such hopelessness and negative adaptive behavior has been the disempowerment of Tribal members, eroding personal self-esteem and Tribal culture.  The lack of pride, power, and opportunity has created chronic poverty, unemployment, drug abuse, and the systemic undervaluing of education.

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