{"id":36326,"date":"2023-01-13T17:02:56","date_gmt":"2023-01-14T00:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tribal-leaders-stress-education-water-issues-in-first-of-its-kind-address-to-colorado-lawmakers\/"},"modified":"2023-01-14T00:02:56","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T00:02:56","slug":"tribal-leaders-stress-education-water-issues-in-first-of-its-kind-address-to-colorado-lawmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tribal-leaders-stress-education-water-issues-in-first-of-its-kind-address-to-colorado-lawmakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribal leaders stress education, water issues in first-of-its-kind address to Colorado lawmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Manuel
Manuel Heart and Melvin J. Baker<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Leaders of the two federally recognized Native American tribes within Colorado\u2019s borders used part of their first annual address to the state\u2019s General Assembly to brief lawmakers on the long history of their relations with other governments \u2013 beginning with a treaty with the Spanish more than a century before the United States existed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ute people have been here since time immemorial,\u201d Chairman Manuel Heart of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe said. \u201cWe as the Ute people have lost a lot over time, up to the present day, 2023. \u2026 We all claim these lands as our homelands, but let us look at the past history and what has been taken away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heart and Melvin J. Baker, chairman of the Southern Ute Tribe, stressed attention to education and water issues in separate speeches to nearly 100 Colorado lawmakers gathered for a joint session of the state Legislature on Wednesday. They were the first addresses delivered under Senate Bill 22-105<\/a>, a law passed last year that invites tribal representatives to give an annual address modeled on the governor\u2019s State of the State speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s address marks an historic step forward in strengthening our partnership with Colorado\u2019s Tribes and uplifting the priorities, concerns and accomplishments of those communities,\u201d Senate President Steve Fenberg of Boulder and Majority Leader Dominick Moreno of Commerce City, both Democrats, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Southern Ute and Ute Mountain tribes are headquartered on reservations in La Plata and Montezuma counties, respectively, where they were forcibly relocated in the late 19th century after a gold and silver rush in the San Juan Mountains. A third Ute tribe is headquartered on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in eastern Utah.<\/p>\n

In general, Baker said, the two tribes have a strong working relationship with state and local agencies in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we look at other states, we often see friction between the states and the tribes within (their) borders, but not in Colorado,\u201d he said. \u201cColorado is the leader among all states when it comes to honoring the tribal-state relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

But both chairmen faulted lawmakers for legislative efforts that have not always taken tribal concerns and sovereignty into account, like its 2019 referral of a sports-betting<\/a> measure to the statewide ballot, where it was approved by voters. Heart and Baker said their tribes weren\u2019t consulted on the measure\u2019s language, and have faced hurdles in setting up sports books at tribal casinos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times when you legislate that you may not remember that there are two sovereign tribes within your borders,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n

Education a priority<\/div>\n

Heart praised the Legislature\u2019s passage of Senate Bill 21-116<\/a>, which prohibits the use of American Indian mascots<\/a> by public schools and went into effect last year. But he noted that Colorado\u2019s curriculum standards don\u2019t include specific teachings on the history of the Utes, and called on lawmakers to change that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important that future generations are provided with this history and knowledge,\u201d Heart said. \u201cNow is the time to ensure that the oldest continuous residents of this country, their history be required in the curriculum in the public education system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other recent legislation passed by the General Assembly includes the creation of a new state office<\/a> to investigate cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation last month launched a Missing Indigenous Persons Alert system, which was activated for the first time on Jan. 3 after the disappearance of Wanbli Oyate Vigil, a 27-year-old Denver resident who was found deceased<\/a> by police two days later.<\/p>\n

Heart said a priority for the Ute Mountain Utes is to improve the quality of education on tribal lands. The tribe\u2019s efforts have included the opening of a new charter school in 2021, where students are taught the Ute language and other cultural traditions alongside standard elementary instruction. He spoke of the long-lasting damage caused by the boarding schools<\/a> where many Native American children were sent under federal forced-assimilation policies as recently as the early 20th century.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boarding school era was an atrocity,\u201d Heart said. \u201cIt had a devastating impact on three to four generations of tribal families in a very negative way, right up to today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker urged lawmakers to consult and cooperate with the Southern Ute Tribe on issues including oil and gas and clean-energy development, as well as regional water management in an age of worsening drought<\/a> driven by climate change. Both tribes hold key water rights within the Colorado River system, where states, tribal governments and federal agencies are negotiating ahead of a 2026 deadline<\/a> that could reshape the river\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease remember that our most important resource is water,\u201d Baker said. \u201cIt is essential that we work together for the protection of those water rights so they are present for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit www.coloradonewsline.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chairmen of Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute tribes highlight need for consultation and cooperation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[394,28,1097,561,629,547],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-headlines","tag-indigenous-people","tag-native-american","tag-southern-ute-indian-tribe","tag-ute-mountain-ute-indian-tribe"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36326","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=36326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36326"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}