Journal 53: The Relevance of the Mouache Ute

Beneath every road sign and beneath every boot print in the Spanish Peaks lies a much older trail carved by Mouache Ute footsteps. Though the Mouache themselves are gone from these valleys, the echoes of their journey remain. Their legacy still influences us in multiple ways through language, pathways, stewardship of the land, and relationships. Together they form a living history across the Cuchara Valley.

 Echos of Language

The Mouache are part of the Ute people and share a common language with other Ute bands. (1) They had no alphabet or ink pressed to parchment. Instead, their wisdom flowed on a breath spoken in stories, sung in prayers, and danced in ceremonies that carried memory from one generation to the next. (2) The land itself became their canvas: canyon walls and rock faces etched with pictographs and petroglyphs. These were not words, but symbols that were reminders of sacred encounters, long migrations, and visions glimpsed in stillness. For the Ute, language was never confined to speech alone. It was living tradition, woven of voice and image, story and symbol and speaking truths too deep for prose to contain. 

Without even knowing it, those of us who live in the Cuchara Valley use the colorful language of the Mouache.  To the Mouache, the Spanish Peaks were sacred landmarks, rising like guardians over the valley. They called them Huajatolla, Guajatoyah, or Wahatoya, a name often translated as “Breasts of the Earth”, a reminder of the land’s power to nourish, shelter, and give life.  (3) Today, many older residents still affectionately refer to the Spanish Peaks as the “Wahatoyas”. A U.S./city directory also cites that the valley was formerly called Nunda Canyon (Potato Canyon), before later becoming Cuchara Valley.     (4) (5)  The Mouache were known to dig roots with a digging stick, such as the Indian potato (Orogenia linearifolia), which was used in soups or eaten raw. (6) In addition, local history sources also believe the Cuchara area was once known as Nunda Canyon and that nunda was said to mean “potato” in the Mouache language. Every time these Mouache words appear on a sign, in a story, or on a trail map, it breathes life into the Ute language, ensuring their voice still echoes through the valley.

Highways on Ancient Paths

Imagine standing in the Cuchara Valley centuries ago. Before any road signs or tire tracks, the Mouache Utes moved quietly through these forests, following water, game, and the natural folds of the land. They traced paths through forest and valley, following water and game from season to season.

Decades later, settlers arrived and found those same faint paths. They widened them with wagon wheels, the wooden rims creaking as families pushed deeper into the valley. Dust rose where deer once slipped silently through the trees. Many of the trails, roads, and byways we use today were trails carved by the Ute hunters and migration seasons. 

La Veta Pass, a key low saddle in the Sangre de Cristos, was used by Utes long before a wagon road and then railroad were built there in the 1870s. In fact, many of today’s highways sit on ancient footpaths. The Highway of Legends (Colorado State Highway 12) that winds through Cuchara Pass is now marketed with tales of conquistadors and outlaws, but it’s also literally following in the footsteps of Ute hunters and traders who knew that route intimately. 

Before it became Cordova Pass, this mountain crossing southwest of Aguilar was known as Apishapa Pass, a name drawn from the nearby Apishapa River and said to mean “stinking water” in Indigenous tongue. (7) The pass today sits at 11,248 feet, where a short interpretive trail leads visitors to sweeping views of the Spanish Peaks, alpine meadows, and wildflower-strewn ridges once traveled by native hunters, sheepherders, and early settlers. (8) Every turn of the road and bend of the trail reminds us that long before asphalt and signposts, these mountains were mapped by Mouache footsteps.

Land Stewardship

The Mouache Utes understood something we often forget: we must be stewards of the land we live upon. Their way of life, rooted in balance and restraint, carries striking relevance for southern Colorado today, where ranching, hunting, and tourism all depend on a healthy environment. The Ute principle of “take only what you need” mirrors modern conservation, reminding us that sustainability is not a new invention, but a wisdom tested over centuries. (9)

Current wildfire mitigation strategies and forest health initiatives increasingly echo Indigenous practices. For example, the Ute once set controlled fires to clear underbrush and stimulate fresh grass for elk and deer. (10) This tradition of “good fire” is now being revisited by the U.S. Forest Service as part of Colorado’s fire management toolkit. Though implementation is still in its infancy, the shift shows a growing recognition that Indigenous science has answers to twenty-first century crises.

The most tangible reminders of Ute stewardship still grow in the foothills of the Spanish Peaks: culturally modified trees (CMTs). A scarred pine with bark stripped centuries ago and known as a “medicine tree", is more than a curiosity. It is a living record of how Utes sustained themselves without exhausting the forest. (11) A bent cedar, tied as a sapling to mark a trail still points toward springs, passes, or sacred spaces. (12) These trees are not relics in a museum but standing monuments, some more than 300 years old. Protecting them means protecting history, and local groups like the La Veta Public Library and Huerfano Historical Society have hosted events such as “Spirit Trees: Utes’ Legacy to Huerfano County” to teach residents how to recognize and care for them. (13) For hikers, ranchers, and property owners, the lesson is simple: respect what was left behind, and do not cut down a tree that carries centuries of memory.

Most of all, the Ute perspective reframes our relationship with natural resources. They saw themselves as “protectors and caretakers of their lands.” (14) Those values find renewed urgency as the region faces drought, water scarcity, and the pressures of sustainable tourism. Instead of short-term exploitation, the Mouache invite us to imagine long-term harmony: to treat the Spanish Peaks not only as scenery but as a partner whose health determines our own.

Respectful Coexistence

The history of the Mouache Ute is not just a story of the past, it is a continuing dialogue between land, memory, and people. Many in the Spanish Peaks region recognize that the ground beneath their feet carries an inheritance: it once belonged to the Ute. This awareness has inspired gestures of reconciliation, from ranchers inviting Southern Ute youth to hunt elk on their property, to local voices advocating for public spaces named after Ute leaders. It is a reminder that the story of this land did not begin with settlement. (15)

On a broader scale, the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute governments remain influential in Colorado’s economy and politics, from energy development to wildlife management. (16) Their decisions often ripple into the Spanish Peaks, making it clear that Ute sovereignty is not just a matter of history but of present relevance. When the Southern Ute Tribe negotiated expanded hunting and fishing rights in 2018, it directly affected mountain areas familiar to Huerfano County residents. (17)

Communities have also begun to honor Ute history more openly. In 2022, Colorado issued a formal apology for the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, though the event targeted Cheyenne and Arapaho, it helped spark broader reconciliation with all Native peoples. (18) Locally, there is discussion about commemorating the Ute as original inhabitants of the Spanish Peaks through monuments, plaques, or interpretive trail signs. Such efforts transform ordinary landscapes into “living history,” much as roadside markers near Walsenburg recall the 1881 Ute removal by train. (19)

These gestures of remembrance deepen present-day connections. The Southern Ute Tribe welcomes visitors to its annual fair and powwow in Ignacio, drawing participants from across Colorado, including Huerfano County. (20) This kind of cultural exchange is more than symbolic; it creates spaces where Ute presence is acknowledged not just in memory but in relationship. By engaging with Ute history and events today, Spanish Peaks residents foster mutual respect and cultivate a sense of shared heritage that benefits both communities.

The Mouache Still Speak

Local histories of the Cuchara settlement note encounters with Mouache Ute (21)  In addition, 19th-century accounts around Francisco Fort in La Veta describe a large Ute camp in the valley in June 1873. (22) The Ute presence still whispers through the Cuchara Valley, if you know where to listen. Ron Jameson, whose family once owned the Yellow Pine Ranch, shared a memory from his boyhood days mucking out horse stalls in the old barn and unearthing Ute arrowheads and spear points hidden in the soil. “Our ranch in the valley must have been a favorite Ute campsite”, said Jameson. (23) Pinehaven patriarch Bob Pierotti also told me about how heavy rains unearthed Ute arrowheads in the forest. (24)

The Mouache left more than artifacts; they left enduring legacies of stewardship, balance, and respect. Today, we walk the trails they first opened and live by traditions they began, whether we recognize it or not.

Bonus Content

Before Colorado had highways or cabins, these mountains were home to the Mouache Ute, a people who moved with the seasons, lived by the rhythms of nature, and left a legacy written across the land itself. Check out the bonus content below that reveals ten surprising facts about the Mouache Ute.(25)

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Footnotes

Parenthetical numbers in the text (e.g., 5) correspond to the sequentially numbered citations listed below.

1. Southern Ute Indian Tribe, “History,” Southern Ute Indian Tribe (website), accessed October 3, 2025, https://www.southernute-nsn.gov/history/. 

2. Talmy Givón, Ute Reference Grammar (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2011), 1–2, 7.

  

3. “Visit Wilderness,” Wilderness.net, accessed October 3, 2025, https://wilderness.net/visit-wilderness/?ID=572.

4. The Uncover Colorado site states: “Cuchara was first known as Nunda Canyon, with nunda meaning ‘potato’ in the local native language.”

  

5. Cuchara Valley Area – The Colorado Vacation Directory,” Colorado Directory (accessed October 5, 2025), https://www.coloradodirectory.com/cucharaarea/.

  

6. Southern Ute Indian Tribe. “History.” Southern Ute Indian Tribe. Accessed October 6, 2025. https://www.southernute-nsn.gov/history/.

  

7. Uncover Colorado, “Cordova Pass,” Uncover Colorado (accessed October 5, 2025), https://www.uncovercolorado.com/activities/cordova-pass/.

  

8. Cordova Pass (Colorado),” Wikipedia (accessed October 5, 2025), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordova_Pass_(Colorado).

  

9. Huerfano World Journal, “The Spanish Peaks: Legends,” June 25, 2015.

  

10. Kat Anderson, Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).

  

11. Huerfano World Journal, “Spirit Trees: Utes’ Legacy to Huerfano County,” September 22, 2016.

  

12. Huerfano World Journal, “Spirit Trees: Utes’ Legacy to Huerfano County,” September 22, 2016.

13. La Veta Public Library, “Spirit Trees: Utes’ Legacy to Huerfano County,” event flyer, 2016.

  

14. Forrest Cuch, A History of Utah’s American Indians (Salt Lake City: Utah State Division of Indian Affairs, 2000), 160.

  

15. Huerfano World Journal, “The Spanish Peaks: Legends,” June 25, 2015.

  

16. Forrest Cuch, A History of Utah’s American Indians (Salt Lake City: Utah State Division of 16. Indian Affairs, 2000), 158–59.

  

17. Colorado Parks and Wildlife, “Southern Ute Tribe Hunting and Fishing Rights Agreement,” press release, 2018.

  

18. Colorado General Assembly, Joint Resolution Apologizing for the Sand Creek Massacre, 2022.

  

19. La Veta Historical Society, “Programs and Lectures,” accessed October 5, 2025.

  

20. Southern Ute Indian Tribe, “Southern Ute Tribal Fair and Powwow,” official website, accessed October 5, 2025.

  

21. K. Mitch. n.d. “Cucharas, Huerfano County.” Accessed September 28, 2025. https://www.kmitch.com/Huerfano/cucharas.html?utm. 

  

22. Francisco Plaza,” Colorado Encyclopedia, accessed September 28, 2025, https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/francisco-plaza?utm_source=chatgpt.com.

  

23. Ron Jameson, interview by the author, Cuchara, Colorado, June 22, 2025.

  

24. Bob Pierotti, interview by the author, Cuchara, Colorado, June 24, 2025.

25. Author’s note: In preparing this article, the author used AI-assisted tools for research support, proofreading, fact-checking, and stylistic refinement. The narrative, analysis, and historical interpretations are the author’s own, and responsibility for accuracy rests solely with the author. The blog’s research methodology statement is available at:

https://cabininthepinescuchara.blogspot.com/2019/03/methodology-sources-and-use-of-research.html