The great bronze “Man the Builder" is a creative effort that symbolizes the dramatic development of the Ute Indian Nation. By capturing and taming the wild Spanish horses that came out of the American Southwest, the Ute’s changed their tribal lives forever. Well known authorities claim that the Ute Indians were probably the first North American horse Indians. They revered the horse. They were in awe of this equine, brought to America by the Spanish adventurers– Cortez in 1519 and Coronado in 1540. The Ute’s valued them as highly as their family members. They mastered horsemanship swiftly– in a few short years they became skilled riders equal to any tribe in the West. They developed a new breed of horse– perfectly adapted for the rigors of the Rocky Mountains: a pinto pony that grew to 14 hands high. These ponies were sure footed and wiry, they had great endurance and needed very little care from their owners. Because of this new marriage of man and horse, the Ute people were able to move eastward across the Colorado Rockies and into the Great Plains rich with buffalo and other wild animals. They moved southward into the hunting grounds of the Navajo for food and commerce in buckskins. They became horse traders as well as horse breeders. The Ute’s acted as middlemen for traders among other tribes, the Bannock, Snake, Crow, Blackfoot, Sioux, Cheyenne, Nez Pierce and Flathead. Boldly the Ute riders moved across the Continental Divide to the rising sun in the Great Plains– north and south along the snowy peaks of the Rocky Mountains. They became masters of this sprawling region, during the 1600’s and 1700’s. Not until the arrival to the fur trappers and emigrant trains would this Ute supremacy be challenged. “Man the Builder” is a magnificent bronze statue that commemorates the unbreakable bond that the Ute Indian had for his horse. It captures the spirit of a proud people and an incredible animal that served this Indian Nation so well for so many centuries. | 
