The Yuta claim, like the Shoshonee, descent from an ancient people that immigrated into their present seats from the northwest. During the last thirty years they have considerably decreased according to the mountaineers, and have been demoralized mentally and physically by the emigrants: formerly they were friendly, now they are often at war with the intruders. As in Australia, arsenic and corrosive sublimate in springs and provisions have diminished their number. The nation is said to contain a total of 14 ,000 to 15,000 souls, divided into twenty-seven bands,of which the following are the principal:
The Pá Yuta (Pey Utes) are the most docile, interesting, and powerful, containing twelve bands; those in the west of the Territory on the Humboldt River number 6,000, and in the south 2,200 souls; they extend from forty miles west of Stony Point to the Californian line, and northwest to the Oregon line, and inhabit the valley of the Fenelon River, which, rising from Lake Bigler, empties itself into Pyramid Lake. The term means Water-Yuta, that is to say, those who live upon fish which they take from lakes and rivers in wiers and traps of willow, preferring that diet to roots, grass-seed , lizards, and crickets, the food of the other so-called Digger tribes.
Gosh Yuta, or Gosha Ute, is a small band, once protégés of the Shoshonee, who have the same lauguage and limits. Their principal chief died about five years ago, when the tribe was broken up. A body of sixty, under a peaceful leader, were settled permanently on the Indian Farm at Deep Creek, and the remainder wandered 40 to 200 miles west of Great Salt Lake City . Through this tribe our road lay; during the late tumults they have lost fifty warriors, and are now reduced to about 200 men. Like the Ghuzw of Arabia , they strengthen themselves by admitting the outcasts of other tribes, and will presently become a mere banditti.
Pavant,or Parovan Yuta ,are a distinct and self-organized tribe, under one principal and several sub-chiefs, whose total is set down at 700 souls. Half of them are settled on the Indian farm at Corn Creek ; the other wing of the tribe lives along Sevier Lake, and the surrounding country in the northeast extremity of Fillmore Valley, fifty miles from the city, where they join the Gosh Yuta . The Pavants breed horses, wear clothes of various patterns, grow grain , which the Gosh Yutas will not, and are as brave and improvable as their neighbors are mean and vile.
Timpenaguchyă, or Timpana Yuta , corrupted into Tenpenny Utes, who dwell about the kanyon of that name, and on the east of the Sweetwater Lake. Of this tribe was the chief Wakara, who so called himself after Walker, the celebrated trapper; the notorious horse- stealer proved himself a friend to the Latter-Day Saints. He died at Meadow Creek, six miles from Fillmore City, on the 29th of January, 1855 , and at his obsequies two squaws, two Pa Yuta children, and fifteen of his best horses composed the "customs."
Uinta Yuta , in the mountains south of Fort Bridger, and in the country along the Green River. Of this tribe, which contains a total of 1000, a band of 500, under four chiefs, lately settled on the Indian reservations at Spanish Fork .
Sampichyă, corrupted to San Pete Utas; about eighty warriors, settled on the Indian farm at San Pete. This and the Spanish Fork Farm number 900 inhabitants. Elk Mountain Yutas, who are set down at 2000 souls, by some even 3000; they wander over the southeast portion of the Territory, and, like the Uinta Yutas, are the most independent of white settlers .
Weber-River Yutas are those principally seen in Great Salt Lake City ; they are a poor and degraded tribe. Their chief settlement is forty miles to the north, and, like the Gosh Yutas, they understand Shoshonee.
Among the Yutas are reckoned the Washoe, from 500 to 700 souls. They inhabit the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, from Honey Lake to the West Fork of Walker's River in the south. Of this troublesome tribe there are three bands :
Captain Jim 's, near Lake Bigler,and Carson,Washoe,and Eagle Valleys, a total of 342 souls ;
Pasuka's band,340 souls, in Little Valley ;
and Deer Dick 's band, in Long Valley, southeast of Honey Lake. They are usually called Shoshoko, or “Digger Indians” — a term as insulting to a Shoshonee as nigger to an African.
Besides the Parawat Yutas, the Yampas, 200 – 300 miles south, on the White River; the Tabechyă, or Sun-hunters, about Tête de Biche, near Spanish lands; and the Tash Yuta, near the Navajoes: there are scatters of the nation along the Californian road from Beaver Valley, along the Santa Clara, Virgen, Las Vegas, and Muddy Rivers to New Mexico.