THE STORY BEHIND THE NAMES

Tabby Mountain on the southwest edge of the Uintas is named for Tabiuna-To-Kwanah, Child of the Sun, warrior and leader of the Uinta-ats band of the Ute people. Born in about 1800, Chief Tabby died in 1902.

When President Lincoln designated land in the Uinta Basin in l861 as the permanent home for the Utes, soon there-after Congress ended the Utes' rights to minerals and agricultural lands. Warned by Brigham Young that he should accept the offer of goods, services, and annual fees for all the lands in Utah and Sanpete Counties or the government would seize it, Chief Tabby refused, saying we "are not ready now to give up the land." The Utes eventually signed the treaty, but Congress did not honor the document or pay the fees promised by LDS Church and government leaders. The people soon encountered starvation, stripping of minerals, and eventual usurpation by homesteaders in l905.

(Condensed from an article by Will Bagley in the Salt Lake Tribune of 4/18/2004. Mr. Bagley cited Clifford Duncan's Ute tribal history in A History of Utahís American Indians for his article.)

Chepeta, whose name graces the lake and creek on the far eastern reach of the Uintas, was wife of Ute chief Ouray. One memorable account of Chepeta took place in Alamosa, Colorado, in 1880, when she and ten Ute chiefs prepared to board a train for Washington to resolve reservation resettlement matters. She was almost hanged by a lynch mob of irate settlers.