E W S L E
NATIVE NATIONS INUTAH
Utah is home to approximately 60,000 Native Americans, representing more than 50 Tribal Nations, with eight being federally recognized. These Tribes are Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation, Confederated Tribes of Goshute, Skull Valley Band of Goshute, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, and Navajo Nation.
Each has their own contemporary traditions, festivals, and lifestyles, as well as a unique heritage that can be found among the state's many dwelling sites, petroglyph and pictograph panels and museum exhibits. Today, these people continue to live on the lands of their ancestors and invite visitors who visit with respect
Today's Utah has five major tribes with strong cultural legacies which continue to flourish: Ute, Dine' (Navajo), Paiute, Goshute, and Shoshone.
PAIUTEINDIAN TRIBEOFUTAH
The ancestral lands of the Paiutes are anchored in southern Utah, southeastern California, northern Arizona, and southern Nevada. They handed down stories of a powerful spirit, called “the one who made the earth”, represented by the sun, and the mythic heroes of Coyote and the Wolf, as well as the supernatural beings of the Thunder People and Water Babies.
The Paiutes moved according to the seasons, plant harvests and animal migrations, and were also sophisticated farmers.
The Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, a confederation of five Bands: Cedar, Indian Peaks, Kanosh, Koosharem, and Shivwits, was created by the U.S. Congress in April 1980
The Tribe’s reservation consists of ten land parcels in four southwestern Utah counties
NOVEMBER 12TH
The Utah Division of Indian Affairs celebrates, honors, and recognizes the countless contributions of Utah’s American Indian community at its annual Indigenous Day celebration. As part of National Native American Indian Heritage Month, the division and its network of partners work together to promote events celebrating Native culture throughout the state.
SANJUANSOUTHERN PAIUTETRIBE
The tribe, located in northern Arizona and southern Utah, has shared territory with the Navajo for more than 160 years. Utah members live around Navajo Mountain, White Mesa, and Blanding. Paiute Canyon, in both Arizona and Utah, is also included in the Tribe’s traditional homelands.
During the 1860s, U.S. military campaigns led thousands of Navajos to escape west into San Juan Southern Paiute territory, which led some years later, for Paiute lands to be annexed into the Navajo Nation. Many Paiutes live with Navajo and Hopi neighbors on ancestral homelands within Navajo land.
The Tribe was federally recognized in 1989. “Although we may have Navajo and Hopi relatives and friends, we are different. We are San Juan Southern Paiute”, according to the Tribe’s website.
The Tribe was federally recognized in 1989. In 2000, the Tribe reached an agreement with Navajo Nation leaders to set aside some 5,400 acres of Paiute homelands, and leaders hope for federal recognition
SAN JUAN SOUTHERN PAIUTE TRIBE AND NAVAJO NATION TREATY
After more than a century and a half of struggle, our Tribe does not yet have a Reservation that is exclusively our own. However, as part of an effort to settle our territorial boundaries, in the year 2000, we entered into an historic Treaty with the Navajo Nation that would set aside approximately 5,400 acres of land in our Northern and Southern Areas within the Navajo Reservation when it is approved by the United States Congress We are hopeful that in the near future our traditional homelands in our Northern and Southern Areas that are identified in the Treaty will be confirmed by the United States as the San Juan Southern Paiute Reservation so that our Tribe can help address the serious social and economic needs for housing and services for our San Juan Southern Paiute People.
KAIBABPAIUTETRIBE
The home of the Kaibab-Paiute people consists of a plateau and desert grassland that spans 121,000 acres and hosts five tribal villages, as well as the non-Indian community of Moccasin.
The Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians is one of 10 member tribes of the Southern Paiute group that live along the southern Great Basin and San Juan-Colorado River drainage. Situated along Kanab Creek, the tribe's northernmost border is the Arizona-Utah border. Members of the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians speak a Uto-Aztecan language in addition to English and the economy is largely centered on tourism and livestock.
The Kaibab Paiute tribe is part of the Southern Paiute Nation. The tribe is relatively small, with about 240 members.
The Southern Paiute claim a vast swath of traditional lands, bounded on the south by about 600 miles of the Colorado River The Grand Canyon and Colorado River lay within the sacred land of Puxant Tuvip, where the Southern Paiute people believe they were created.
The Kaibab Paiute were one in a long line of inhabitants of the Kaibab Plateau, moving into the region around 1250 A.D. according to archeologists.
KAIBAB PAIUTE RESERVATION
The Kaibab Paiute Reservation was created by executive order in 1913 and expanded in 1917. It covers less than 200 square miles, a small portion of their historic territory. The wide diversity in elevation across the reservation means that the climate ranges from semi-arid to alpine The Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians was formed under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. They organized a tribal government in the 1950s, and in 1970 the Bureau of Indian Affairs provided them with a building to use as their tribal headquarters directly across from Pipe Spring National Monument.
STARGAZING
Eighty percent of Americans live in an area where they cannot see the Milky Way due to the light pollution of the cities. That is not an issue when stargazing in Utah. There's a certified International Dark Sky Park nearby to reconnect you with our ancestral knowledge and finely tuned instincts. Except this presents a welcome challenge: do we go to bed early to ensure ample energy for tomorrow's adventures, or stay up late for a chance to peer into light tens of thousands of years old, yet part of the same universal sea of energy?
Utah has the highest concentration of International Dark-Sky Association-certified locations, including communities, parks, and protected areas.
EAST ZION
Welcome to the east side of Utah's Zion National Park. Visitors who stay on this side of the park enjoy what is often referred to as the quiet side of the park, and they also have much closer access to other destinations such as Bryce Canyon National Park, Cedar Breaks National Monument, the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and even the North Rim of the Grand Canyon The eastern side of Zion National Park is accessed via Utah State Route 9, a scenic highway, which passes through Zion and connects with U.S. Route 89. Elevations in East Zion range from 5,200' to over 6,500' resulting in cooler summer time temperatures than are found on the west side of Zion. Nearby communities include Mt. Carmel Junction, Orderville, Glendale and Kanab.
NATIVESTORY
Once upon a time, summer came to the land, and with summer came the hot, shimmering sun. At first everyone enjoyed the sun's generous warmth, but after a while, all the animals began to complain, for the sun often stayed out for days at a time, giving no one a moment's rest.
"Will the sun never stop shining?" everyone asked, for the days seemed to last forever. Rivers and streams and lakes began to dry up. The animals grumbled and moaned. "Oh, it's hot," they sighed, as they moved more and more slowly. The crops withered under the endless heat.
Rabbit complained especially loudly. "It's far too hot!" he called to the sun.
"Please, won't you take some time off?" But the sun stayed high in the sky, pouring its rays down upon the land, enjoying its chance to be the center of the world's attention.
"I'm going to stop this sun from shining!" Rabbit declared to the others. They rolled their eyes and sighed. They were accustomed to Rabbit's complaints and to his promises.
"What do you intend to do?" they asked.
"I'm going to shoot the sun," Rabbit said.
The others laughed. Beaver laughed, although he thought longingly of the time when the rivers would rise. And Deer laughed, though she too wished the sun would take a rest, and the birds cackled, and the coyotes howled, but the more the animals laughed, the more determined Rabbit became.
Soon he was practicing his aim, taking one arrow after another, stringing his bow, aiming at the sky.
T H E R A B B I T & T H E S U N
"You'll never hit the sun from this distance," the others said. "You'll have to go to the sun's home in the east and wait until a time he is resting."
So Rabbit began to hop toward the east. As he hopped, he practiced his aim, fitting arrow to bow, squinting up at the sky. "Take this," he would cry, and then he would hop on, faster and faster, in spite of the exhausting heat. "I'll get you, sun," he shouted.
Now as Rabbit traveled, the sun watched and listened. He was confident. Who could shoot the sun, after all? He was hot and strong and powerful. Nobody could overcome him, and so, for all of Rabbit's boasts and promises, and for all his practicing, and for all his speed and anger, the sun was not worried.
At long last Rabbit reached the place where the sun rose. "I'll just wait here, and when the sun begins his journey, I'll aim and fire," he said.
Now the sun knew that he must trick Rabbit, and so he devised a plan.
That night the sun finally took his rest, but the next morning, as Rabbit lay in wait for the sun to emerge and start his journey, the sun took a new route. He bounced into the sky, full of energy and fire, but by the time Rabbit saw him, it was too late. The sun was high overhead already.
"Never mind!" Rabbit shouted. "I'll get you another day!"
Rabbit lay in wait, taking aim at the place the sun had risen that day, but naturally, the next time the sun rose, he chose a different route altogether. Once again he fooled Rabbit, and as he rose high in the sky, he blazed with delight at Rabbit's fury.
For many days the same thing happened. Rabbit would wait, his arrow ready, and the sun would choose a new path to travel. Day after day the sun bore down on the land, and everyone squinted and sweated, and the land grew drier still. But the sun became proud and overconfident. One day he forgot to change paths, and so as Rabbit stood and waited, his arrow poised, the sun began to rise from his old spot. "There you are!"
Rabbit shouted, and he took aim and fired.
Rabbit's arrow pierced the sun's belly, and as it did, hot, steaming liquid flowed out and poured over the land. Rabbit ran as fast as he could, just ahead of the steaming liquid.
"Run for your lives," Rabbit called to all the others, and everyone raced away. Rabbit tried to hide beneath the bushes and trees, but they too raced away from the frightening flood. Just one bush stood firm. "Hide beneath me," the bush called, and Rabbit and all the other animals ducked beneath its canopy of leaves.
T H E R A B B I T & T H E S U N
The streaming liquid rolled over the bush, singeing its once-green leaves, turning them scarlet. This is the plant called the burning bush, and every fall it turns scarlet in memory of that day, which ended with a welcome darkness descending and cooling the Earth.
Rabbit's fur has remained singed ever since, too, to remind him of the day he shot the sun.
The sun changed its ways after that day. From then on, the sun peered slowly over the horizon each morning, and it continued to rise in the sky, but it did not linger there. Instead it cast its rays upon the Earth as it moved across the sky, journeying to the western edge of the world to give the animals and land a chance to rest.
T H E R A B B I T & T H E S U N