Durante miles de años, los nómadas Utes del Norte y sus antepasados viajaron por lo que hoy es Breckenridge en busca de comida. Seguían a los bisontes entre los pastos de verano en el río Blue y los cuarteles de invierno a menor altitud (Lower Blue). Los pasos utilizados por los utes se convirtieron en los primeros caminos para carromatos y en las actuales rutas de autopistas. Los utes quemaban el fondo del valle todos los años para fomentar el crecimiento de los pastos que preferían los bisontes. Esta tradición cambió el paisaje vegetal, fomentando el crecimiento de especies como el pino lodgepole, cuyos conos se abren tras ser expuestos al calor.

The Utes migrated with the seasons. Men spent summers in the high country hunting elk, bison, antelope and mountain sheep. The Utes acquired horses from the Spanish, which meant a wider hunting area. Women gathered herbs, berries and roots. Rather than carry all their food with them, women stored food in caches along migratory paths.

In summer, the Utes built shelters called wickiups made of brush and willow over a wood frame. Abundant summer food supplies dwindled in the fall so the Utes moved to lower elevations where food remained more abundant on a year-round basis. There were no permanent Ute villages in the Breckenridge area.
The Utes treasured their children, with both men and women sharing responsibility for them. Children spent much of their first year in a cradleboard carried by their mother or a sister.

Men and women wore highly decorated clothing made of hides tanned by women, who then added quills, beads and earth tone paints and fringes to the softened hides. Making and decorating clothing was just one of the roles assumed by women on a daily basis.

escrito por Sandra F. Mather, PhD