{"id":116624,"date":"2014-11-10T21:32:56","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T04:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-council-swears-in-house\/"},"modified":"2014-11-10T21:32:56","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T04:32:56","slug":"ute-council-swears-in-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-council-swears-in-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Ute council swears in House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Jim
Jim Mimiaga\/Cortez Journal<br><br>DeAnne House speaks to the audience after being sworn in to the Ute Mountain tribal council.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DeAnne House was sworn in as Ute Mountain tribal councilwoman Friday in Towaoc.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will make decisions based on membership needs,\u201d House said in a speech after taking her seat on the council. \u201cFrom the youngest to the oldest, I will work for the people so we can all prosper.\u201d<\/p>\n

House holds two college degrees, one in geology from the University of Colorado, and one in psychology. She is related to longtime leader Ernest House Sr., and Chief Jack House, the tribe\u2019s last traditional chief.<\/p>\n

This is House\u2019s second term, and she was previously in the finance department. She makes up a female majority on the council with Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, Juanita Plentyholes, and Priscilla Blackhawk Rentz.<\/p>\n

A round of speeches, some in Ute, by council members and Chairman Manuel Heart revealed the political climate for the 2,100-strong tribe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith all of our degrees, this is the most educated council in a long time,\u201d said councilman Gary Hayes. \u201cWe need it to protect our rights at the local, state, and federal level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Educating outsiders is an ongoing challenge, Hayes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenator Udall was a strong advocate for Indian Country. Now we need to educate a new U.S. Senator on our tribe and Native Americans issues in general,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Heart said the council is working well together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have vision in our hearts and minds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But to preserve Ute Mountain land, water, and treaties, he said, the tribe needs more of its members to go to law school.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need tribal members to become lawyers, to advocate for our rights into the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

CU law students were invited for the ceremony, which included ritual blessings and a performance by the Shining Mountain drum group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been an incredible experience,\u201d said Liam Culhane, a third-year law student. \u201cWe\u2019re fascinated to learn how tribal government works and really appreciate how the Ute language is incorporated into the proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members say tribe needs more lawyers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,308,547],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-116624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-local-elections","tag-ute-mountain-ute-indian-tribe"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116624"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=116624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}