No trip to the Colorado Rockies is complete unless you've paid your respects to the land's first inhabitants. At the Ouray Memorial Park, located in Montrose, you can walk the land that Ute Chief Ouray himself once farmed, visit a monument to Ouray and the grave of his wife, Chipeta, and stop into a small museum with information about the Ute culture, their ceremonial artifacts, and history.
Chief Oray, of the Ute Indians spoke Spanish, English and several Native languages and was a proponent of peaceful co-existence. His diplomatic skills took him to Washington, DC and he negotiated a treaty between the tribe and the United States Government. His legacy is respected today by the approximately 3500 Ute Indians living in Utah.