Colorado Early History

First Early Inhabitants

Early history examines the archaeological record that tells the story of the first inhabitants of Colorado. Learn about the history and culture of the first inhabitants, and what lessons it might teach us about the early history of Colorado.

• 1500 BC - Earliest inhabitants of Colorado were known as the Basket Makers.
• 500 BC - Other Native Americans, ancestors of the Pueblo, entered the area and most probably intermingled with the Basket Makers.
• 1 to 1299 - Advent of great Prehistoric Cliff Dwelling Civilization in the Mesa Verde region.
• 1276 to 1299 - A great drought and/or pressure from nomadic tribes forced the Cliff Dwellers to abandon their Mesa Verde homes.

The earliest inhabitants of Colorado were known as the Basket Makers. They arrived in the region around 1500 BC and were primarily nomadic hunters. The Basket Makers developed a sophisticated practice of basket making, and they created waterproof containers by covering baskets with clay and baking them.

Gradually, the Basket Makers developed farming practices and raised corn and squash. By 500 BC, other Native Americans, ancestors of the Pueblo, entered the area and most probably intermingled with the Basket Makers. Later inhabitants,probably the Anasazi Indians, who included the cliff dwellers who built multi-storied stone houses in the alcoves of canyon walls  in the southwestern corner of Colorado. At the end of the thirteenth century, these Indians abandoned their cliff dwellings and apparently moved southward.

When Spanish explorers came to the area in the 16th century, they found many different tribes of Native Americans. The Ute inhabited the mountain valleys, while the Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa lived in the Great Plains region. Warfare between these groups of early inhabitants was continuous. Eventually, the Plains Indians combined forces in an attempt to stop the invasion of their homelands by white settlers.

Today, most of the state’s Native American population is found on the Southern Ute reservation in the Denver area.