A Ute Youth and His Dog

By Steven Wade Veatch

John Hillers, an early American photographer, took this remarkable photograph known as the “Indian Boy and His Dog,” in 1874. The youth in the tea-colored photograph belonged to the Uintah, one of 12 bands of the Ute tribe, and lived in Utah's Unita (no “h” at the end) Valley (Simmons, 2000). “Uintah Utes” refers to western Ute bands who were relocated after 1863, by the federal government, from central Utah to the Uintah Reservation (Jones, 2019). This band lived in the Unita Basin to the area around the Green River and the Tavaputs Plateau (Cuch, 2000).

"Indian Boy and His Dog" (1874). A male Ute teenager poses with his dog. Dogs were an important part of Uintah Ute culture. His bow and arrows are across his lap. This photograph, though posed, provides an important glimpse into the youth’s way of life. From part of a series: U.S. Topographical and Geological Survey of the Valley of the Colorado River of the West, by J.W. Powell and A.H. Thompson. From the Library of Congress, Call Number: LOT 13577, no. 9.

This young man is in his late teens, perhaps 17. This is the age when Chief Ouray joined his father’s warriors (C. Kaelin, personal communication, August 28, 2022). Warriors were highly respected because they offered their lives to protect their people. This teen spent much of his time hunting, fishing, and making weapons to hunt with and for protection (Pettit, 1990). Although his name is not recorded, he too may have joined a warrior band.

The young Ute is not wearing his everyday outfit. He is undoubtedly attired for the photographer, who asked him to don all his regalia. The teenage Ute is wearing his hair in traditional Ute style with two braids hung over his chest. The Utes never cut their hair (Rockwell, 1998). Ethnographer Ann Smith reports: “Men wore their hair parted in the middle and arranged in two braids, with otter or weasel skin braided in towards the ends for decoration” (Smith, 1974, p. 78). The cylinders covering his braids are likely made of buckskin decorated with colored porcupine quills. A length of fur from an animal—possibly otter, mink, or the summer fur of a weasel—is attached.

He parted his hair in the middle, and put decorations in his part, doubtless disks of dentalium shells, as they have a consistent size and shape (C. Kaelin, personal communication, August 10, 2022). These shells were cherished trade commodities and are still worn on regalia. The large shell that crests the three disks in his part is an olivella shell (a medium-sized to large marine snail), also a coveted trade item that is found in abundance in Ute territory.

The young man is wearing what appears to a necklace made of bone or shell beads strung together with a sinew string. According to Celinda Kaelin, noted historian, “The pendent is quillwork in the shape of the Four Directions symbol. This symbol is sacred to the Ute and is represented in their Medicine Wheels” (C. Kaelin, personal communication, August 10, 2022).

A sinew-wrapped bow and several arrows are spread out across the Ute teen’s lap. Arrows shot from bows were lethal up to 70 yards (Rockwell, 1998). One arrow point might be obsidian, making him a person with sacred abilities. Other points were made of metal. The Utes were practical. They would utilize metal for tips if it could be easily found. If not, they would resort to using stone points. Smith (1974. P. 111) reports:

Arrow points were described as being from ¾ inch long from point to beginning of the tang up to 2 ½ or 3 inches long. The end of the arrow was split, the tang inserted, and that section of the arrow was wrapped with sinew. No glue was used. Old arrow points, discovered when the people were roaming, were picked up, sharpened and used. Some hunters fashioned their own arrow points; others had them made by skilled old men.

The young Ute is in common men’s wear of leggings and a breech cloth. He is also barefoot, which is common in the summer and depends on personal preference.

Dogs were important to Ute culture, and they were often large. According to Pettit (1990), “This well-bred dog may have been obtained through trade or was a gift.” Utes denied ever eating dogs (Pettit, 1990). Dogs barked whenever an enemy approached and provided an alarm for the Ute warriors. Dogs also guarded against wolves. Since dogs were never fed, they cleaned up all waste around a village (Pettit, 1990). Each family owned between one and twelve dogs. Other animals, such as hawks and fawns, were kept by children (Pettit, 1990). This photo shows how much the Utes loved their pets. All animals were considered relatives in their cosmology.

John Hillers (1843 - 1925), who took this photograph, began making photographs in 1871 while part of Major John Wesley Powell’s second expedition of the Colorado River (Fowler, 1972). Hillers was nine years old when he emigrated from Hanover, Germany with his family to the United States in the 1850s (Fowler, 1972). He spent several years in the army and saw some action during the Civil War (Pitt Rivers Museum). At the end of the war, he re-enlisted and was posted to several Western forts (Fowler, 1972). Following his discharge from the army, Hillers worked a variety of jobs. In 1871, the 28-year-old veteran army sergeant worked as a boatman on John Wesley Powell’s expedition to map the Colorado River. While on Powell’s boat, the Emma Dean (named after Powell’s wife), he entertained the crew with rollicking stories and spirited songs (Flemming and Luskey, 1988). He quickly became interested in the survey’s photography and was soon the photographer’s assistant (Fowler, 1989). By 1872, Hillers was the expedition photographer (Getty Museum Collection).

Hillers at work with his negatives at a campsite on the Aquarius Plateau, Utah Territory, July 1875. Photograph by Almon Thompson or Grove Karl Gilbert. National Archives photo no. 57-PS-805 (U. S. Geological Survey Collection).

After Hillers saved Powell from drowning in a stretch of rough rapids, they formed a friendship that was to last over three decades (Fleming and Luskey, 1986). He was one of the first to photograph the Grand Canyon.

Hillers worked for the entirety of his extraordinary 29-year career as a photographer for the federal government and made more than two thousand negatives of anthropological and geological subjects (Fowler, 1972). He left behind possibly the most spectacular visual record of the 19^th century West. His work contributed to transforming American photography from being strictly utilitarian into an art form (Foresta 1996).

References and further reading

Cuch, F.S. (ed), 2000, A History of Utah’s American Indians: Salt Lake City, Utah State Division of Indian Affairs and the Utah State Division of History.

Flemming, P. R., and J. Luskey, 1988, The North American Indians in Early Photographs: New York, Dorset Press.

Fowler, D. D., 1972, Photographed All the Best Scenery: Jack Hiller’s Diary of the Powell Expedition, 1871-1875, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

Fowler, D. D. 1989, The Western Photographs of John K Hillers: Myself in the Water: Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press.

Foresta, M. A., 1996, American Photographs: The First Century: Washington, D.C., National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press.

Getty Museum Collection: John K. Hillers. Retrieved from https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/103KGQ on August 8, 2020.

Jones, S. G., 2019, Being and Becoming Ute: The Story of an American Indian People: Salt Lake City, The University of Utah Press.

Pettit, J., 1990, Utes: The Mountain People: Boulder, Johnson Printing Company.

Pitt Rivers Museum: Among the Pueblos, John K. Hillers. Retrieved from https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/event/among-the-pueblos on August 8, 2020.

Rockwell, W., 1998, The Utes: A Forgotten People: Ouray, Colorado, Western Reflections.

Simmons, V. M., 2000, The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico: Boulder, University of Colorado Press.

Smith, A. M., 1974, Ethnography of the Northern Utes: Papers in Anthropology (Museum of New Mexico), no. 17: Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press.