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How did mounted Ute and Navajo bands affect Southern Paiute, Western Shoshone, and Gosiute communities between 1800 and 1850?

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Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin Kaylei Weed (left) of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe with her two sons and mother, Elaine Ethel Weed, at the Wind River Indian Reservation in 2015.

Between 1800 and 1850, mounted Ute and Navajo bands significantly impacted Southern Paiute, Western Shoshone, and Gosiute communities through predatory raids. These mounted groups targeted these communities to capture prisoners, specifically women and children, for the purpose of enslavement. The captives were often traded and sold into the Spanish settlements of New Mexico and southern California.1

This period of raiding was facilitated by the disparity in horse-related technology and mobility between the groups. While the Ute and other northern and eastern Great Basin peoples had adopted horses and Plains-style equestrian cultures by 1800, the Southern Paiute, Western Shoshone, and Gosiute remained largely pedestrian, continuing to rely on traditional hunting and gathering practices and house forms until the mid-19th century. The enslavement of these populations represents a profound violation of human rights and dignity, reflecting the destructive influence of colonial-era trade networks on Indigenous societies.12