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Springtime for the Utes

By Tom Noel, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 4, 2008 at 3 p.m.

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The Ute Mountain Ute reservation, near Towaoc, is home to about 1,700 tribe members.

Photo by Chris Schneider / The Rocky/2007

The Ute Mountain Ute reservation, near Towaoc, is home to about 1,700 tribe members.

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"Hey, man, I just found out I'm an Indian! How do I get my money?"

That, said a laughing Ernest D. House Jr., executive secretary of the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs, "is the most common call I get." House also noted: "I am an office of one - the smallest in state government - and don't have dollars to hand out."

House is the son of Ernest D. House Sr., chairman of the Ute Mountain Utes, whose reservation lies in the extreme southwestern corner of Colorado. The Utes once occupied most of the state before the Spanish, the Cheyenne, the Arapaho and the palefaces came.

Today the Ute Mountain Ute tribe numbers about 2,000, of whom roughly 1,700 live on the 993-square-mile reservation. The neighboring Southern Ute Reservation to the east has about 1,500 tribal members, of whom about two-thirds live on their reservation.

House's great- grandfather, Jack House, was the last traditional chief of the Ute Mountain Utes, from 1936 until his death in 1971. He's commemorated at the Capitol in a stained-glass window in the old Supreme Court chambers, a portrait that House says he visits when contemplating the problems and possibilities of his people.

"I often wonder what Jack House would do. Unfortunately, about the only time you hear about Indians is when they are in trouble. Alcoholism. Murder. Poverty. You don't hear about our Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park tours, which are open to the public, or about our Ute Mountain Casino Hotel & Resort at Towaoc, which is making money for the tribe.

"Since its creation in 1983, our Weeminuche Construction Authority employs our people to work on reservation projects and throughout the Four Corners area, where it has become one of the largest construction companies. It is building the Animas La Plata Dam on the south side of Durango."

The Ute Mountain Ute reservation also offers tourists the Sleeping Ute RV Park and an Indian Village opened in 1995, featuring Indian dances and arts and crafts.

To help preserve reservation landmarks and to honor the Ancestral Puebloans who once lived on the Ute reservations, Jack House helped persuade the very traditional, conservative elders to create the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park. Stretching more than 125,000 acres for 25 miles along the Mancos River on the south side of Mesa Verde National Park, the tribal features thousand-year-old cliff houses and other ruins, as well as pictographs and petroglyphs. Tours are guided by Ute and must be arranged in advance with the tribe (1-800-847-5485, utemountainute.com/tribalpark.htm, utepark@fone.net).

Some traditional Utes opposed the park, and someone burned down the park hogan belonging to the House family. Ernest House, who had been raised in that hogan, understood.

"This is our homeland. So if you let other people come in, it's just like you invite people into your house. You don't want people looking around in your bedroom. . . . A lot of our old Indian people don't want strangers wandering around here."

Yet Ernest Sr. remained convinced that tourist income and preservation of reservation landmarks were worthwhile. So has Ernest Jr., who worked as a guide at the park. Ernest Sr. became director of the Ute Mountain Ute Park between stints as tribal chairman.

Although the Ute Mountain Utes have a reputation for being one of the most traditional-minded tribes, Ernest Jr. is a modern young man complete with a Blackberry, a computer and ambitious goals.

He's consulting with the Tribal Council, hoping to replace the troubled Bureau of Indian Affairs policing with the Ute Mountain Utes' own police and courts. He also is working with the Colorado Historical Society to double the size of its Ute Indian Museum in Montrose.

Like the bear emerging from hibernation, which the Utes celebrate in their unique spring bear dance, Ernest Sr. and Jr. note proudly that the tribe is emerging, beginning to grow again and to take control of its destiny.

Tom Noel welcomes your comments at coloradowebsites.com/ dr-colorado.