Some of our Marines Brothers were Ute Indians

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The first people in North America were the Native Americans. There were many tribes and bands that lived throughout Canada, the United States, and Mexico. One of the tribes that lived in the United States was the Utes. The Utes were natives to the area now known as Colorado and parts of Utah and northern New Mexico. They were a unique people and had a unique way of life.

The Ute Indians lived apart from most tribes. They lived on the plains and in the mountains of an area covering about 150,000 square miles. This land included hunting grounds, places of spiritual importance, and the territories of the seven Ute bands.

The seven Ute bands were known as the Mouache, the Capote, the Weeminuche, the Tabeguache/Uncompahgre, the Parianucs, the Uintahs, and the Yampahs.

It was the band of Yampahs that lived near Steamboat Springs, Colorado. They came to Steamboat because of the area's many natural mineral springs. The springs were very sacred and viewed as a place of healing.

The Utes lived off the land. They hunted the many animals in the area. These included bear, elk, deer, buffalo, antelope, mountain sheep, beaver, jack rabbits, sage hens, geese, ducks, wolves, minks, and more. From these animals they got their clothing and homes.

The Utes lived in tipis. They used twelve to eighteen straight poles and put them in a cone shape. They then covered these with the skins of the animals they had killed.

The Utes were very religious. Their medicine man or shaman was a doctor or healer. The medicine man carried a bag of special things to heal people. Some of the special things they carried in the bag were deer tails, small drums, rattles, and a tiny sack of herbs containing yarrow.

Besides using medicines to cure someone, the Utes also had many dances. One of the important dances was the Bear Dance. The Utes believed that they were very closely related to bears. The Utes called the Bear Dance "Momaqui Mowat". This was a very sacred and honored name.

The Utes had other words for things. They called themselves Yuuttaa. The state of Utah was named after the Utes. They also called horses "magic dogs". This was because the horses seemed like big dogs that magically appeared as a present from the Great Spirit.

Today the Utes don't have Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico to roam in the way of their ancestors. Today, reservations are what most Utes call home.

The Ute Indians ranged across much of the northern Colorado Plateau beginning at least 2000 years B.P. The very name ‘Ute,’ from which the name of the state of Utah was derived, means "high land" or "land of the sun." The Ute language, Southern Numic, belongs to the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages shared by most of the Great Basin tribes. The Utes, however, included mountain-dwellers as well as desert nomads.

Rock State Park, Indian Creek, Utah.

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HISTORY

Originally separate and independent Tribes of the Algonquin linguistic family, the Sac (or Sauk) and Fox Tribes have long been affiliated and allied. The name Sac is from their own name "Osakiwug," which means "people of the outlet" or "people of the yellow earth," and differentiates them from the foxes, whose own name is Meshkwakihug, "red earth people." The name Fox was applied to the entire Tribe by the French, from the name of one clan, the "Wagosh" or "Red Fox" group.

The original homeland of the Sacs and Fox was in the Great Lakes region, where the Sacs inhabited the upper Michigan peninsula and the Foxes, the south shore of Lake Superior. Their indigenous culture, later influenced by contact with Plains Tribes and the acquisition of horses in the nineteenth century, was that of the eastern woodlands. Although they established fixed villages and practiced extensive cultivation of maize, beans, squash and tobacco, they devoted much time to fishing, hunting of small game and buffalo, and harvesting wild rice. Travel was by dugout and birch-bark canoe. The two Tribes lived in bark houses in the warm weather and in oval flag-reed lodges during the winter. Their social and religious organization was a complex one in which the Grand Medicine Society played an important part.

By 1667, when Father Allovez made the first recorded white contact with the two Tribes, Iroquois and French pressure on the Sacs, and Chippewa pressure on the Foxes, had pushed both groups to the vicinity of the present Green Bay, Wisconsin. French attacks on the Sacs and Foxes in the eighteenth century, attributed to Indians, contributed to a strengthened alliance amounting to confederation of the two Tribes. Forced to migrate south, they attacked the Illinois Tribe and forced them from their lands along the Mississippi in the present states of Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa. Those groups that stayed near the Mississippi river became known as the "Sac and Fox of the Mississippi" to distinguish them from the "Sac and Fox of the Missouri," a large band that settled further south along the Missouri River.

The Missouri band became the source of much trouble for the other Sacs and Foxes, for in 1804, at St. Louis, Missouri band chiefs were persuaded to sign a treaty ceding to the U.S. Government all Sac and Fox lands east of the Mississippi River, as well as some hunting grounds to the west of the river. Government efforts several years to enforce the land surrender embittered the Sacs and Foxes, most of whom knew nothing about the 1804 Treaty. A brave and warlike people, they had aided the British in the war of 1812, and had fought constantly with the Sioux, Omahas, Menominees and other Tribes.

Government attempts to remove the Sacs and Foxes caused a split in the confederation. The majority of the Tribes followed the conciliatory Sac chief Kaokuk, and intelligent and able (though somewhat pompous and ambitious orator and politician) who agreed to removal. The remainder of the federation, however, supported his rival, Black Hawk, a brave Sac warrior who was bitterly opposed to the 1804 treaty and led his "British Band" into revolt and bolder skirmishes which became known as "Black Hawk’s War." Despite broken promises of help from other Tribes, and pursuit by superior U.S. Forces, Black Hawk skillfully led his followers north as far as Prairie du Cien, Wisconsin, where they were defeated and their leader was captured. With the 1832 treaty of Ft. Armstrong, Sac and Fox power on the frontier came to an end. In 1833 the Tribe was removed to Iowa.

They lived there for only thirteen years, then were moved to the Osage River Reservation in Kansas for a 23-year stay. Although Sac and Fox warriors had been able to drive the Sioux from their Iowa lands during their stay there, and to win fights in Kansas with Comanches, Cheyennes, Iotas, Osages and other Tribes, the inexorable westward movement of white settlers resulted in still another removal of the Sacs and Foxes in 1869, this time to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Cakewalk, and later his son Moses, continued to lead the conciliatory faction of the Tribes, but most of the Foxes opposed the many cessions of land to the Government and, under the leadership of Chief Poweshiek, returned to Iowa in 1850 to join a small number who had steadfastly refused to leave.

Today, the Sac & Fox Tribe of Missouri has 420 members of whom 55 live in the area. Their reservation borders the Iowa Reservation on the west. All that remains of the allotted land on this reservation is 44.60 acres. There are 453 acres of tribal land.

Keokuk, Chief of the Sauk and Fox Nation
This painted was done by Charles Bird King. This was probably the most famous and most powerful man in all of the tribes within the area. He would travel to visit with the Osage, the Oto, the Omaha, the Winnebage, and the Iowa each year. He would always be accompanied by fifty of his tribes strongest warriors as his guards. He was legendary around the plains in the 1820s and 1830s.

[d c taveapont]

4669; Each year on veterans day the news paper here posts the names of all the ute tribal members who have been in the services and which wars that they were in. from ww1 to todays war with iraq....well stated 4669...the mouse

[usmc4669]

The Navajo Nation encompasses portions of Arizona,
New Mexico, and Utah, covering over 25,000 square miles of land.

NAVAJO ORIGINS
Long before the theory of the 'land bridge from Asia to North America across the Bering Strait', Navajo elders told their own story about their own origin. The Navajo (DINE') creation is the story of their origin through a series of emergences through a series of different colored worlds.

Accounts vary as to the exact number and colors of the worlds, for example, black, then blue, then yellow, then glittering, all of which lead up to their final emergence in the present world.

Stories by the Navajo and scientists differ about the first Navajo people. Traditional Navajo legends tell how First Man, First Woman, the Holy People and all the animals of earth came up to this world from the different worlds below. Traditional Navajo history accounts for how the first Navajos were made, who made the first clans, and who made the first hogans. Traditional Navajo stories tell how the Holy People fought against the floods, monsters, and evil giants.

THE FOUR WORLDS OF THE NAVAJO
First/Black World:

The beginning of time. In the First World, there lived various spiritual beings. They were given Navajo names describing certain insects and animals. Altse Hastiin (First Man) and Altse Asdzaa(First Woman) were created. The beings couldn't get alson with one another so they decided to leave through an opening in the east into the Second World.

Second/Blue World:

This world was already occupied by the Blue Birds, animals and other beings who were in disagreement and couldn't get along with one another. There was severe hardship so they decided to leave this world. First Man made a want of white shell, turquoise, abalone, and jet. This wand carried everyone through an opening in the south into the Third World.

Third/Yellow World:

This world was entered first by Bluebird, First Man, First Woman, Coyote, and other beings. This land had great rivers crossing from east to west and north to south. One day, Coyote stole Water Baby from the river, causing a great flood. First Man ordered everyone to climb into the reed to escape the rising waters. As the beings climbed out of the reed into the Fourth World, the people discovered Coyote was the one who had stole Water Baby. Coyote took the Water Baby back to its mother and the flooded waters began to recede.

Fourth/White World:

Locust was the first to enter the fourth world. He saw water everywhere and other beings living there. The beings in the Fourth World would not let the beings from the Third World to enter unless the Locust passed certain tests. Locust passed all the tests and the people entered into the Fourth World. Later, First Man and First Woman formed the four sacred mountains. The sacred dirt was brought from the First World to form these mountains.

THE PEOPLE
The Dine, as they call themselves, need no separate word for religion; all life is lived in sacred relationship to the land. With healing ceremonies to bring them back to harmony with each other, they sing of a beauty and harmony which is apparent to all visitors to Navajo Country.

Navajo legend says that the Dineh had to pass through three different worlds before emerging into the present world - the Fourth World or Glittering World. So, the Holy People put four sacred mountains in four different directions. Mt. Blanca in the east. Mt. Taylor in the south, San Francisco Peaks in the west, and Mt. Hesperus in the north, thus creating the boundaries of Navajoland.

Centuries ago, the Navajo people were taught by the Holy People to live in harmony with Mother Earth and how to conduct their many activities of everyday life. The Dineh believe there are two classes of beings: the Earth People and the Holy People. The earth People are ordinary mortals, while the Holy People are spiritual beings that cannot be seen. Holy People are believed to aid or harm Earth People.

When disorder happens in a Navajo's life, such as illness, herbs, medicinemen (diagnosticians), prayers, songs and ceremonies are used to help cure the ailment. Some tribal members prefer modern day hospitals on the Navajo Reservation; some seek the assistance of a traditional Navajo medicineman, some combine both methods.

Navajos believe that a medicineman is a uniquely qualified individual bestowed with supernatural powers to diagnose a person's problem and to heal or cure illnesses. The Dineh believe they are sustained as a nation because of their enduring faith in the Great Spirit. And because of their strong spirituality, the Navajo people believe they will continue to survive as an Indian nation forever.

For a Navajo, to be a well balanced person, he/she must have equal development in the four values of life. When a Navajo has been well taught in all areas of life, that person is a harmonious person and well educated. Just as corn needs four things: sunlight, water, air, and soil to grow; so a Navajo needs the four values: values of Life, values of Work, values of Social/Human Relations, and values of Respect/Reverence to grow.

LANGUAGE
The Navajo people are very dynamic and creative people who strongly believe in the power of the mind to think and create; finding expression in the myriad symbolic creations of the Navajo language, art and ritual ceremonies.

The Navajo language has a great sense humor in day to day conversation. Humor transforms difficult and frustrating circumstances into bearable and even pleasant situations. The strong emphasis and value Navajos place on humor is evidenced in the First Laugh rite. The first time a Navajo child laughs out loud is a time for honor and celebration.

Aside from being the mother tongue of the Navajo Nation, the Navajo language also has played a highly significant role in helping the entire nation. During World War II, the Navajo language was used as a code to confuse the enemy. Navajo bravery and patriotism is unequaled. Navajos were inducted and trained in the U.S. Marine Corps to become "code talkers" on the front-line.

Shrouded in secrecy at the time, these men are known today as the famed Navajo Code Talkers, proved to be the only code that could not be broken during World War II.

Although not all tribal members speak the language fluently, most Navajos have a deep respect for it.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese in a surpise attack, bombed Pearl Harbor and started World War II. The Japanese eavesdropped on the Marines and decoded every code that the Marines sent out.

In early 1942, a man by the name of Sgt. Phillip Johnston, a missionay's son, who was raised on the Navajo Reservation guaranteed unbreakable codes that the Marines could use in the war.

The Marines had been from the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, but they came to the Navajo reservation to recruit Navajo boys who became known as the Code Talkers.

The history of the elderly Navajos have said the Dineh would one day save the world.

The Dineh have been known to remember and carry out their religion and believed to have used their memory in decoding and coding their messages.

While other non-Navajo Marines stumbled in the dark and recoiled from wild terrain, the Navajos proved to adapt in night scouting and were natural guerrilla fighters.

The Code Talkers survived on c-rations, living off the land, hunting, making stew from chicken, goats, and horses that they picked off with their sling shots.

FAMILY
Family is very important to the Navajos. There is the immediate family, and the extended family. The extended family is broken up into clans, which were created by the Holy Ones. The four original clans are 'Towering House', 'Bitterwater', 'Big Water' and' One-who-walks-around'.

Today there are about 130 clans. When we meet another Navajo for the first time we tell each other from what clan they are from.

Navahos identify how we are human by the clans of our mother, father, and ancestors. This is who we are. We also have our immediate family. We have a great responsibility to our family, for without the family we as a people would have an endDWELLINGS
A Navaho house is called a "hogan" and is made of logs, brush, and earth.

Summer houses are also utilized and made of brush with a windbreak.

-RELIGION AND CEREMONIES
The majority of their ceremonies are for curing mental and physical ills and for restoring universal harmony, once disturbed. In these ceremonies, many dry paintings or sand altars are made, depicting the characters and incidents of myths.

How many more tribes do our Marine Brothers come from? I wellcome all to post them here with their history, lets see just how many tribes were represented in the Marine Corps.

[bootlace15]

My name is Dennis King (bootlace15). I was raised in Oneida NY. The land of the Oneida Indians. I am not sure if you have heard of them. They are now in a big dispute over land property rights. They claim the land that the city is located on is theirs. It is a long law suite that has been going on for many many years. The suite claims that their property was taken from them illegally,two sides to the story. There is a big casino in Vernon NY that is owned by them.

To make a long story short,my father Cpl. Warren King served with the Corp during WWll. My father was with the 5th Marines and was wounded in action around February 28th. He was a machine gunner and his outfit was known as Hogans Goats. There was a book about IWO that was published back in the late 70's and he found a picture of himself. I don't remember the name of the book or who wrote it, but I will check with my mother who still has this book by her bedside,as my father has passed. I am so glad I joined this site,there is so much information here that I have checked for on different sites and could not find.

I served with Echo 2/1 in Viet Nam in 1971. I was a short timer only over there for 28 days,and stepped on a landmine. Thats the breaks and that is what we joined for. I have no complaints and would do it again in a heart beat. Thank you for your information,it will remain with me forever.