Various Indigenous tribes were the first inhabitants of the Rocky Mountain region, living there for thousands of years before European arrival.

Long before European exploration and settlement, numerous Indigenous tribes inhabited the Rocky Mountain region. These groups had deep cultural connections to the land and developed unique ways of life adapted to the mountain environment. Tribes such as the Apache, Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Crow, Shoshone, and Ute, among others, have ancestral ties to the Rockies and have lived there for millennia. Their history and cultural heritage are integral to the region's story.