At a Glance
- Trail Ridge Origin: Arapaho trade route
- Ute Relation: Territorial neighbors
- Current Tribe: Northern Arapaho, WY
- Historical Period: Pre-1860s
Arapaho Use of the High Country
The Arapaho people — primarily the Northern Arapaho and Southern Arapaho bands — moved through and used the Grand Lake area seasonally as part of their broader territorial range across the central Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. The high passes of what is now RMNP served as trade and travel routes between the plains to the east and the western mountain valleys.
The route that roughly corresponds to modern Trail Ridge Road was used by the Arapaho as a crossing of the Continental Divide. The NPS and historians sometimes refer to it as the 'Ute Trail,' though the designation is imprecise — both Ute and Arapaho peoples used various high routes through the mountains.
Arapaho Relationship with the Ute
The Arapaho and Ute peoples occupied overlapping territories in and around the Colorado Rockies, and their relationship was complex — sometimes adversarial, sometimes peaceful trading partners. The mountain parks of Colorado, including Grand County, were a contested area rather than the exclusive territory of either group.
Historical evidence indicates that both peoples used the resources of the Grand Lake area — fishing the lakes, hunting elk and deer, and gathering in the mountain parks seasonally. Neither group established permanent settlements at Grand Lake's elevation; the use was seasonal and resource-oriented.
Modern Arapaho Connection
The Northern Arapaho Tribe is based today on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Cultural connections to ancestral territories in Colorado, including Grand Lake, are maintained through oral tradition and periodic visits to significant sites.
Rocky Mountain National Park has worked with contemporary tribal members to acknowledge and interpret Arapaho (and Ute) use of the park area — an ongoing effort to incorporate indigenous history into the park's interpretive narrative.