Growing Ute - Preserving The Language and Culture

G R O W I N G

Preserving the Language and Culture

GR O W IN G U T E L I V IN G L A N GUAGE PR O GR A M

Growing Ute Copyright © Anthony Two Moons 2021 Photography and Creative Direction by Anthony Two Moons Production management by Beverly Santicola with Colleen Cuthair, Helen Munoz, Juanita PlentyHoles and Antoinette Porambo Design by Encarnita Santos Rivera Poetry by Tanaya Winder Editorial consulting by Charles Linn Archives consulting by Tallas Cantsee

Special thanks to Chairman Manuel Heart, Tribal Council, and members of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe community for your participation and endorsement of this project.

Also thanks to the United States Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development for funding the Living Languages Grant Program to make this project possible.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form including posting to the internet, photocopying, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Printed by Marathon Press, in the United States of America.

INTRODUCTION

Early in 2015 I received a call from an old friend asking if I would be interested in shooting stills for a film project. I was used to receiving collaboration requests from him occasionally and normally I would have been all ears. But this time was different: I was busier by far than I had ever been in my career. I was preparing to issue a “Sorry, maybe next time,” when he quietly mentioned the project was for an Indigenous tribe in southwestern Colorado. I asked if he meant the Ute? When he said yes I immediately went into default-excuse mode for my other client. I had to do this! I’m Indigenous. I’m from Colorado.

And no, I’m not Ute but that’s a story for another time.

What began as a film project quickly took on a life of its own. Now when I visit, I feel like I'm home visiting my friends in Colorado. It's a feeling I miss as soon as I return to New York.

After several visits and thousands of mesmerizing moments captured, the result is the book you are holding. The Ute poet, singer and writer Tanaya Winder has graciously contributed her poetry, which lovingly describes the joys and sorrows of the Ute people.

Who are the Weeminuche, commonly known as the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe?

And why am I still photographing and learning about my new friends years later?

Currently there are three Ute tribes, the Uintah Ouray Utes in northwest Utah, theSouthern Ute Indian Tribe in southwestern Colorado and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (UMUT) in Montezuma County, Colorado, San Juan County, Utah, and San Juan County, New Mexico. The UMUT has been officially located on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation for over 100 years. Today, the homelands for the Weeminuche total about 600,000 acres.

These tribal lands are on what's known as the Colorado Plateau, a high-desert area formed by mountains, stone monuments, deep chasms and red dirt desert mesas, all dotted with ancestral Pueblo ruins. This area, better known as the Four Corners, is rich in culture and history.

The views are large, desolate, and beautiful, but the rundown tribal dwellings that dot the landscape are a stark reminder of the hardships the Weeminuche face. Sadly, it’s not the traditions, but rather the hardships they face and the hardships I have faced as an “Urban Indian,” that we have in common.

“We are TRADITIONAL!” is a phrase I hear often when visiting Towaoc, Colorado, the capital of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.

But holding onto the traditional ways has always been challenging for any tribe. Language is at the core of any cultural tradition, and the fact that language of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe people is on the verge of extinction is a crisis.

Out of 2,100 members, there are only about 100 Ute Mountain Ute speakers. The language is not formally recorded. And, with the average life expectancy on the Reservation at only 55 years, and few able to speak it fluently, all but traces of the language could be gone in a generation. This book has been produced in support of a grant given to the Growing Ute Living Language Program. Its goal is to develop and implement Native language instruction and immersion programs for Ute Mountain Ute Tribe through intergenerational learning and leadership.

The opportunity to shine light on this effort through a photo storybook is the moment I’ve been waiting for! Indigenous Peoples photographing Indigenous Peoples! It’s a good day, or as the Ute say, “Tu Tavai Yak.” ANTHONY T WO MOONS

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BEING UTE

Wake up, greet the sun, and pray Burn cedar, sweet grass, sage – sacred herbs to honor the lives we’ve been given, for we have been gifted these ways since the beginning of time.

Remember, when you step into the arena of your life think about those who stand beside you, next to, and with you Your ancestors are always in your corner, along with your people When we enter this world we are born hungry, our spirits long for us to live out our traditions that have been passed down for generations.

Prayer, ceremony, dance, language – our Ute ways of being.

Never forget you were put on this earth for a reason – Honor your ancestors.

Be a good person, be who you are, be a good relative We are strong, beautiful and unique.

We are a part of a great legacy, carrying on traditions through the centuries.

We support each other, our sister tribes, together (nana-ma) is the way we thrive.

We are a part of a family that never dies, but endures into the spirit world.

We honor our ancestors by honoring our spirits in song, ceremony, and prayer.

We honor our bodies when we dance or play on the field or court.

We challenge and push ourselves to keep our culture living because we are alive.

We live, we love, we pray, we honor our ancestors by embracing the strength and resilience that lives in our bones.

Our blood flows ancestral, Ute strong, coursing through our veins like rivers reminding us to be who we are meant to be – brave, warriors who have survived.

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W E A R E M A D E O F S TA R S

we are made of stars we know who we are we know where we’ve been & what we survived all our ancestors did to keep us alive it’s inside you, their light guides you

we are made of stars we know who we are together as constellations we carry generations in each beat of our hearts it’s what sets us apart.

we are made of stars.

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P E A R L’ S S O N G

Can you heal my spirit?

Can you hear my heart?

A song can hold you like a prayer, As the roots hold a tree swaying in the wind, As the sky holds the moon And likewise the stars.

May the Creator hold our hearts, May the old Ones guide our path.

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HEARTS ON FIRE

We each carry a fire in our hearts an undying flame burning so brightly it can barely be contained in these earthbound bodies. This fire can never be extinguished – our ancestor’s sang songs that sparked its breathing.

The fire we carry gives us meaning and purpose.

Some call it life, call it passion, call it gift. Call it spirit – name it magic, for it has always been y(ours), fully. We move through the world together, interconnected with w(hole) heart, scars & all.

Because you are everything that ever happened to you.

You. Are. Here. You are love(d) Remember you are fire.

And you cannot make fire feel afraid, so be brave in the healing of yourself & others.

Be a warrior of revolutionary, legendary love.

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WE W E R E S T O L E N

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One day when we're all gone

and you think we've disappeared.

You'll realize we were stolen. The earth

will continue to split herself open in mourning.

The morning sun will no longer rise because you failed to protect those who are so powerful they're in sync with the moon.

And soon, hurricane, tsunami high waves will cover the land in the water you didn't care to protect because you thought oil was more precious than life.

Our Mother will shake in her wailed grieving so hard to stir you from complacency. Pipelines will break

and the fractured sites will turn flame

as Mother Earth sets herself on fire.

And as you're being swallowed whole

you'll wish you paid more attention, wish you listened, wish you believed, wish you protected instead of abused or misused us.

Don't just bear witness at rallies or see us in headlines that declare "missing" then "body found" then "murdered"

and then claim that you'll protect us.

See us when we're alive not just when we go missing, get stolen, and murdered.

Remember that we are real, we are worthy, and we deserve to be seen with each beat our hearts take,

each beat our hearts make as we continue to birth revolutions.

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INTERTRIBAL So many heartsongs to give voice to When I was a child When I was a child When we were children our past in refrains, waves that break against the sands, our history. In my mouth the taste of winter and when I speak, I speak winter When I go to sleep I whisper remember. Remember, remember, re-member

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I T ’ S A G O O D DAY Woke up this morning to greet the day burned sage to give thanks and began to pray.

I asked Creator: do what you can to guide our path.

Tu Tavai Yak It’s a Good Good Day. Let us serve the ones who need to see what truths you’ve placed in our hearts.

Help us find the ones who teach lessons we need to carry on.

Tu Tavai Yak It’s a Good Good Day. Ancestors please protect our spirits, those we hold dearest in our hearts.

If there are wounds help us heal them so others know love if even for a minute.

Tu Tavai Yak It’s a Good Good Day

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Image credits; Babie Laner, pages 89, 114 , 77; Kamea Clark, page 32 All poems © Tanaya Winder used with permission. Translation of Pearl's Song, page 24, by Pearl Cassius.

Statistics on the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe provided by Beverly Santicola.

Historical imagery from the collection of Southern Ute Cultural Center and Museum UMUT Towaoc. tourdeute.org