what is a utah ute

The Utah Utes are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The athletic department is named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans. The Utes are a Native American tribe upon which the state of Utah was named after. The Ute people were skilled warriors who specialized in horse-mounted combat and inhabited a large area including most of Utah, western and central Colorado, and south into the San Juan River watershed of New Mexico. The Ute Nation once covered most of Utah, Colorado, and northern New Mexico—long before the Spanish, trappers, traders, miners, and Mormon pioneers. The Ute Indian Tribe has given explicit permission to the University of Utah to use the name "Utes" for all its athletic teams. The term "Ute" is used to display institutional loyalty and evoke culture that is the bedrock of Utah’s history and its namesake.