The mood about Kwiyagat Community Academy is upbeat though there are challenges finding licensed teachers in this remote corner of Colorado
Ute Mountain Ute Reservation
Posted inWater
The Ute Mountain Ute can’t access their Colorado River water rights. Here’s how the tribal chairman is trying to change that.
A conversation about water with the Ute Mountain Ute tribal chairman
Posted inCOVID, News
High case numbers drive southwest Colorado tribes to revive COVID restrictions
The Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Indian Tribes in southwestern Colorado have revived coronavirus restrictions on gatherings, hoping to quell coronavirus case numbers that have risen to the highest point since the pandemic began in 2020, according to tribal spokespeople. The Ute Mountain Ute tribal council Monday imposed its second-most stringent coronavirus precautions — […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, Environment, Equity, Growth, News, Outdoors
What happens when the lure of outdoor rec starts to pull people onto tribal lands?
INDIAN WELLS, ARIZONA — When the FBI suspected someone was illegally digging artifacts from the Navajo Nation, an agent called Jonathan Dover for help. Dover was working as a Navajo Ranger who specialized in archaeological crimes. He drove with the FBI agent out into a search area that spanned hundreds of square miles. They were […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Wildfire
Here are the wildfires currently burning across Colorado
UPDATE: This story was updated at 10:27 a.m. on Thursday, July 22, 2021, to include the latest information on the wildfires. Morgan Creek | Sylvan | Oil Springs | Trail Canyon | Muddy Slide | West | Wild Cow Morgan Creek fire Routt CountyA wildfire that ignited about 15 miles of north of Steamboat Springs […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
In Colorado’s hard-to-count communities, census outreach and coronavirus support are one and the same
To say that 2020 has not been a normal year to take a national census — well, it doesn’t quite capture the full extent of the situation. The Census Bureau’s normally nonpartisan operations have been repeatedly undercut, whether it’s in the form of chronic underfunding, the federal administration’s fear-stoking attempt in 2019 to add a […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Culture, News, Politics and Government
A cartoonish Native American towering over Durango has divided the city. Should “the chief” stay or go?
He has a wide grin under a big nose. A single feather dangles beside one of his braids. His hand is raised in a howdy-friendly wave. And his bow legs and moccasins are planted atop a commercial sign. He is “the chief,” a two-story-tall metal depiction of a Native American that has been part of […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, COVID, Culture
Ute tribes reimagine Bear Dances, a key ceremony of renewal, as coronavirus locks down Colorado reservations
In normal, non-pandemic times, this is the season when the thrumming notes of a ceremonial song, the rasping of metal sticks rubbed on notched wood and the swinging and flicking of colorful fringed shawls would be kicking off the annual Bear Dances on Colorado’s American Indian reservations. Groups of dancers would sway back and forth, […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
U.S. House approves largest Colorado wilderness bill in 40 years. But not everyone is happy.
Twentieth time’s a charm for U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette. More than 20 years after the Denver Democrat first proposed a wilderness bill to protect low-lying, yet untrammeled, Colorado landscapes, DeGette’s bill was approved by the U.S. House on Wednesday. The Protecting America’s Wilderness Act — setting aside 660,000 acres in 36 areas in Colorado, 478,500 […]
Posted inColoradans, Culture, Environment, Growth
Whenever crews move dirt in the Garden of the Gods, an archaeologist helps link the present to the past
COLORADO SPRINGS — On a windy morning in Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs City Archaeologist Anna Cordova jumps a fence into the construction site with a practiced ease. A backhoe rests on the tracked up ground, and stakes with orange tape marking the perimeter of a new bathroom facility have already been placed. Cordova […]