Stewards of the Ancestral Puebloan past: Ute Mountain Tribal Park offers a Native view of history
Published in Indian Country Today in June 2008. For more on topics like this, see my book, American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle....
Cortez, Colo. — Careful stewardship means visitors to vast, sere landscape of Ute Mountain Tribal Park can easily imagine that the Ancestral Puebloans, who lived here until the late 13th century, just recently packed up and left. A tour through Mancos Canyon, the central valley of the 125,000-acre park, is a special experience — lively and interactive.
In addition, visitorship is kept low. “Because of the fragility of the sites, we have to control the number of tourists,” said Veronica Cuthair, Ute Mountain Ute, director of the park. Those visitors are escorted by tribal guides, and patrols prevent trespassing; both policies control looting.
The tribe’s knowledgeable tour guides explain the history, geology, botany and human use of the park from the Native point of view. On the trip this reporter took, members of the tour group were uniformly impressed by the amount of information imparted, from ancient history to present-day issues, that is not available otherwise. We even learned how to use sage as mosquito repellant (rub it on your skin and pray).
Other calendrical structures in the park include small towers that serve as solstice markers and a rough cliff face across which a snake-shaped shadow travels. As the shadow moves, it appears to open its mouth and swallow a man.
Members of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, on whose reservation the park lies, continually work to stabilize the area’s historic structures — cliff dwellings, towers, kivas and more — and the paths leading to them. However, the tribe, whose ancestral range included Mancos Canyon, does not allow further interference with the landscape or its ancient patrimony.
There’s no archaeological excavation, which is widely thought by Native people to destroy sites. Nor is there a modern tourism infrastructure, including sidewalks and buildings with running water, as are found at Mesa Verde National Park, which borders the Utes’ park to the north.
As a result of the tribe’s vigilance, Ute Mountain Tribal Park is in pristine condition, with varied shrubs and grasses watered by a river that rushes through its broad valley. Wildlife includes golden and bald eagles, wild turkeys, brown and black bears, antelopes and mountain lions. Wild horses trot by tour groups and peer curiously at the humans ogling them.
Piles of pottery sherds are simply everywhere. On the pots’ surfaces, black-and-white painted designs have survived centuries of exposure to the high-altitude region’s weather extremes and scorching sun. Red ware is also present, as are grey pots with exteriors that were incised to create decorative corrugations; the ridges and valleys are also functional, as they increase the exposed surface area and thereby hasten cooking.
The tribe’s knowledgeable tour guides explain the history, geology, botany and human use of the park from the Native point of view. On the trip this reporter took, members of the tour group were uniformly impressed by the amount of information imparted, from ancient history to present-day issues, that is not available otherwise. We even learned how to use sage as mosquito repellant (rub it on your skin and pray).
Our guide that day, Marshall Deer, Ute Mountain Ute, offered his tribe’s answer to the oft-repeated question about the ancient inhabitants of the Four Corners area: Why did they leave? “People say the Ancestral Puebloans were completing a spiritual migration,” said Deer. “It wasn’t a case of food or water shortage.”
Special highlights of the experience included an explanation of a rock art Creation Panel, also called the Butterfly Panel after one winged figure cut into the reddish rock face. Once a year, a shadow resembling a lizard, cast by a small nearby outcropping, crosses the panel. As the lizard crawls past Spiderwoman, Kokopelli and more, it reveals this world’s beginnings, interactions of gods and humans, an epic migration to the North Pole and back, prophesies for the future and predictions for crop germination in the growing season to come.
Other calendrical structures in the park include small towers that serve as solstice markers and a rough cliff face across which a snake-shaped shadow travels. As the shadow moves, it appears to open its mouth and swallow a man.
“These were created by the Ancestral Puebloans and pertained to practices and ceremonies at certain times of the year,” said Cuthair.
To arrange a visit
Call 800-847-5485 or email utepark@fone.net. Half- and full-day tours start at 9 AM daily, May through November 20. Meet at the Visitor Center, 20 miles south of Cortez, Colo., on Highway160/491. Costs per person: half-day, $24; full-day, $44; discounts for children. Traveling in the guide’s van costs an extra $9 per person (recommended, as you’ll hear more of the lecture).
Log on to utemountainute.com/tribalpark.htm for more information, including fees for special events, custom tours and camping. This summer, tours to rarely seen tribal park cliff dwellings take place July 12 and 26 and August 2, starting at the Mesa Verde National Park entrance at 8:30 am.
For lodging
Contact Michelle Eagle Boyer, Santa Clara Pueblo, at Grizzly Roadhouse Bed & Breakfast, 8 miles south of Cortez (3450 Highway 160/491; Cortez, Colo. 81328; (970) 565-7738; $79.00 to $158.00/night, depending on breakfast plan). The property is nestled under the massive mesa that encompasses both Mesa Verde National Park and Ute Mountain Tribal Park. The charming personal landscape surrounding the B&B includes gardens, pools, a medicine wheel, a rock maze and two chapels.
Text and photographs c. Stephanie Woodard.
Text and photographs c. Stephanie Woodard.
