Cloyd is an Indigenous American: His mother was a Ute, and his father is Navajo. The Utes, for which the state of Utah is named, trace their lineage back 10,000 years. In recent centuries, they lived mainly in eastern Utah and southern Colorado, trading with the Navajos and, later, the Spaniards, from whom they acquired horses. Those animals gave the Utes and neighboring groups—Comanche, Apache, and others—vastly increased hunting range. While other native groups migrated to the Great Plains, the Utes stayed in the mountains and valleys of their ancestral lands, sometimes traveling beyond it to hunt, trade, and raid.

The Navajo migrated to what is now Arizona and New Mexico in the early 1600s. They speak a language akin to those spoken in Alaska. The Navajo—who also call themselves “Diné” or “The People”—adopted sheep and goat farming from the Spanish and began weaving woolen blankets and rugs that were, and still are, in high demand. The Navajo sometimes raided other groups for resources but mostly traded, especially with the Spanish and the Ute.

Cloyd refers to the Ancient Ones who lived in cliff houses; these are the ancestors of the Pueblo Natives who traded extensively with the Navajo and Ute peoples.