Native Nations Fact Sheet: Five Tribes, Eight Nations in the Utah Region

Distinguishing Between Nations, Tribes, Bands, and Clans

There are eight federally recognized tribal nations in the Utah region:

• Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation
• Skull Valley Band of Goshute
• Navajo Nation
• Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation
• Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah 
• San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe
• White Mesa Community of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe 
• Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation 

Wait--I thought there were only five tribes: Navajo, Shoshone, Ute, Paiute, and Goshute?

Native Americans can be grouped in a variety of ways. The tribe is the largest designation. Within each tribe, there may be subgroups of “bands” or “clans," often very distinct in culture and tradition while still sharing common language and ancestry with the tribe as a whole. It is also important to recognize that until forced to distinguish themselves as tribal nations, most of the Native American groups consisted of small extended-family groupings. Horses, guns, white contact, and disease destroyed this social organization of family groupings, resulting in more formal identities and larger-than-family band and tribal loyalties.

What about Utah’s flag? That implies six tribes.

Currently, Utah's flag is an eagle with six arrows in its beak, which are said to represent the six tribes that reside in Utah and surrounding areas--adding to the confusion. When the flag was created in the 19th century, there were six tribes residing in the region of Utah. In addition to the five still here, the Bannock tribe also resided in Utah, but in the late 1800's they were moved to the Fort Hall reservation in southern Idaho.

Why do some tribes have multiple names?

Tribes can have more than one name because when Europeans arrived in the Americas, they sometimes mispronounced tribal names or renamed them. Many tribal groups are known officially by names that include “nation.” In the region of Utah and its surrouding areas, tribal names are derived from what outsiders called them; in each of their own languages, they identify as “the people.”

• The word Goshute comes from the native word Kutsipiuti (Gutsipiuti), which means “desert people.” The Goshutes are related to the Shoshone and also call themselves Newe. 
• Navajo is the name given by Spanish settlers in the 1600s and is an adaptation of the Tewa Pueblo word navahu’u, meaning "farm fields in the valley," but they call themselves “Diné.” 
• Shoshone is a transliteration from the expression So-so-goi means “those who travel on foot.” The Shoshone people traditionally call themselves Newe.  
• Paiute refers to three groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin whose languages are related and is an historical, collective label.
• The Southern Paiute often refer to themselves by their band but traditionally call themselves “Nungwu,” “Nuwu,” or “Nunwu,” depending on the dialect. 
• The Spanish called both the Ute and the Paiute “Yutas,” which meant “meat eaters.” “Yutas” was then anglicized to “Ute,” which is not part of the Ute language. The name they call themselves is "Noochee."

What is a tribe and what is a sovereign nation? And what does "sovereign" mean?

A tribe is a community of Native people who share a distinct geography, common language and shared ancestry. When a tribe is recognized by the US government and the Bureau of Indian Affairs through a long and difficult process, they are granted “tribal recognition and sovereignty.” Sovereignty is a nation that has one centralized government that has the power to govern a specific geographic area, similar to a state’s power. Thus tribal nations have their own government, which can determine membership requirements, enact legislation and establish law enforcement and court systems. 

Federal Recognition

Can a tribe lose its federal recognition?

Yes. The rights and privileges associated with tribal federal recognition have changed over time through acts of Congress and judicial decisions. The privileges that accompany federal recognition are strongly intertwined with land rights and it was not uncommon for the federal government to set aside reservation land for Native American groups and then to later attempt to remove them. For example, in 1907, the federal government set aside land for the San Juan Southern Paiute, but later, in 1933, withdrew the designation, instead grouping the land with the Navajo reservation. It wasn’t until December 11, 1989 that the San Juan Southern Paiute was federally recognized and another 31 years later (2000) before a portion of their ancestral lands were restored to them through a treaty with the Navajo Nation. 

Can a tribe have more than one federally recognized nation?

Yes. Three tribes in the region of Utah---the Ute, Paiute, and Goshute---each have two distinct federally recognized nations, as they are different bands. There used to be even more. In 1929 there were four distinct federally recognized Southern Paiute nations: Shivwits, Indian Peaks, Koosharem, and Kanosh. In 1954, all of these tribes had their federal recognition terminated through laws passed by Congress. On April 3, 1980, after many years of work, these bands, and the previously unrecognized Cedar band, were together given federal recognition as the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah. In other cases, a federally recognized tribe might be made up of more than one tribe! Each case is unique.

How many federally recognized tribes are there in the US?

In the US there are currently 574, and more than 200 tribes that have not yet been granted federal recognition. This number changes as tribes gain federal recognition.

Are there tribes in the Utah region petitioning to be recognized?

Yes. You may have heard the word Timpanogos used for a mountain, a cave, a high school; first and foremost, that word designates the identity of a people. They are in the process of applying for federal recognition. It can take years, even decades, if it happens at all.

Land Acknowledgements

In land acknowledgements, I hear the phrase “ancestral land.” What does that mean?

The idea of “owning” land is a European concept brought to America. Unlike our political boundaries (country, state, county, city, and so on), traditional Native American borders were extremely fluid, changing with the seasons and over time. Before the coming of explorers and settlers from Europe, the Indigenous people in this region lived in an extensive area from western Nevada to the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming and from Idaho to southern Utah. Ancestral Lands are what tribal groups consider their homeland, whether or not they still occupy or “own” those lands.

What is a reservation and do Natives have to live there? And is there a difference between tribal land and a federally established reservation?

A reservation is land set aside by the federal government for a tribe or tribes. Sometimes the reservation includes the ancestral lands of the tribes, but sometimes it is the land they were forcibly removed to live on. Reservations are generally exempt from state jurisdiction. No one has to stay in their tribal reservation. Reservations are tribal lands, but tribal lands can also include lands for which the United States government has a trust responsibility to a Native American tribe or a member of a tribe, such as pueblo land grants, tribal trust lands and individual trust allotments. So all reservations are tribal lands, but not all tribal lands are reservations. For example, the Northwest Band of the Shoshone Nation have bought back some of their ancestral lands in Cache Valley but the land is not held in trust by the government, and thus is not a reservation.

Do you have to have a reservation to be a tribe?

No. There are approximately 326 Indian reservations in the United States although there are more than 570 federally recognized tribes. This is because some tribes have more than one reservation, some share reservations, while others have none.

How many Indian reservations are there in Utah?

This map shows where the tribal lands are in the region of Utah. You can see that in some cases land may not be contiguous (The Paiute Reservation consists of ten separate land parcels located in four southwestern Utah counties); land may not lived on (NWBS); or land may not be geographically defined separately from another tribe (San Juan Southern Paiute “share” parts of the Navajo Reservation).  

1. Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation
   1912--Reservation established by executive order

   1940--Constitution & bylaws ratified

2. Navajo Nation  
   1868--federally recognized & reservation established

3. Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation
   1987--Federally recognized as separate from other bands of Shoshone

   Land shown is technically a reservation as it’s held in trust by the government, but it is a cemetery and no one lives on it. Most of their tribal lands are in Southern Idaho and owned by the tribe, not the government. 

4. Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah  (Shivwits, Indian Peaks, Koosharem, Kanosh, Cedar)
   1891--Shivwits originally recognized and reservation established

   1915--Indian Peaks originally recognized and reservation established

   1928--Koosharem originally recognized and reservation established

   1929--Kanosh originally recognized and reservation established

   1954--US Congress passed Termination of Federal Supervision over Paiute Indians of Utah 

   1980--The Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah (PITU) Restoration Act restored the federal trust relationship by combining the above bands with the addition of the Cedar Band into one federally recognized tribe and secured reservation land to replace some of the tribal land lost during termination.

5. San Juan Southern Paiute 
   1907--Paiute Strip set aside as reservation 

   1933--Reservation land incorporated with Navajo Reservation by US Government

   1989--Federally recognized

   2000--Entered into an historic Treaty with the Navajo Nation to set aside 5,000+ acres of land in their Northern and Southern Areas within the Navajo Reservation, pending approval by Congress. Still being negotiated today.

6. Skull Valley Band of Goshute 
   1863--gained federal recognition 

   1912--Reservation established by executive order

7. White Mesa Community of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe 
   1877--Southern Ute Reservation established

   Mid-1890s--Ute Mountain Ute Reservation established

8. Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation (Uintah, White River, and Uncompahgre bands) 
   1861--Uintah Valley Reservation established for the Uintah Band by executive order 

   1880--Uncompahgre Reservation approved by Congress

   1934--After the White River & Uncompahgre Bands are moved by federal government to Uintah and Uncompahgre reservations, the three Bands organized and formed the Ute Indian Tribe of Uintah and Ouray Reservation