Preface

My moccasins are new,
.  .  .  and smell of fresh
buckskin.

They are tight and strong,
for life is a great journey;
.  .  .  a sacred path.

And the circle awaits me .  .  .

The circle is a whole.
The circle is life,
and its surroundings.
Our surroundings .  .  .
It is time.

The circle is me,
and the circle is you.

There are four colors within .  .  .
Four directions,
Four Seasons,
And Four Lifestages.

This is the Circle .  .  .

The Circle of Life.

My moccasins are new,
.  .  .  and the circle awaits me.
 
Page 6 – Insert the Ute Circle of Life Diagram

“Tamarit”

Spring
Season

Beginning.

Sunrise.

A time to start anew, and
the welcoming of new things.

Birth, early day,
and greenness .  .  .
entering the circle .  .  .

The Creation

 It began long ago when there were no people on the Earth .  .  .  .  .  .

  Sinewav, the Creator, cut sticks and put them in a bag.

 Coyote, the curious trickster he is, waited until Sinewav was gone and opened the bag to see what was inside.  Many, many people came rushing out, running in every direction and speaking many different languages .  .  .  .  .  Only a few remained in the bag.

 Sinewav was angry, very angry.  He had planned to give each group its own place on the earth so they would not fight.  Coyote, spoiling that plan, meant wars would begin all over the land.

 Sinewav took the bag .  .  .  .  .
 .  .  .  .  . and saw the few that remained .  .  .  .  .

 He said, “These people will be a very brave and very strong people.”

 “These people .  .  .  .  .  .  .”

 “.  .  .  .  .  .  .  . will be called .  .  .  .  .”

 “.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . Ute.”

Ute Creation

In the beginning, there was nothing but the blue sky, clouds, sunshine, and rain.  No
mountains, plains, forest or desert, no men either, red or white.  The Manitou, or
great He-She spirit, lived alone in the middle of the sky and was the ruler of all that
was.  There were no other powers or gods.  He was alone.

After a while, he became lonesome and wanted something new.  He got tired of telling the sun to shine, the wind to blow, and the rain to fall.  So, he made a big stone drill and made a big hole through the heavens and kept on making it bigger and bigger until he could look down through onto the nothingness that was below.  He was pleased with his work.

When the hole was as big as he wanted it, he took snow and rain and poured it through the hole into the void below.  Then he took the dirt and stones that came out of the hole in the floor of heaven and poured them through.  After he had poured all these things for a long time, he looked through the hole and saw a big mountain that he had made and all around the mountain there were other mountains, and to the east a great plain.

After looking at the top of the mountain, the He-She thought he would like to see more, so he made the hole bigger and crawled through it and stepped down to the top of the mountain.  When he finally got down, he found that all the stones, dirt, snow and rain had formed an immense thing that was ugly and bald and did not look nice.  So, he touched the earth with his fingers and there the trees and forests appeared.  He swept his flat hand over the plains and there was grass and small plants.  Then, he told the sun to shine through the hole in the sky and as the snow melted, it made lakes and rivers and creeks.  These flowed east and west and afterward went into great holes that formed the Sky Blue Waters, the Oceans.  They stole their colors from the sky, which accounts for their name.  It was all very pretty and everyday the gentle rain fell and the earth blossomed.

The He-She came down everyday from heaven and enjoyed the great creations.  At that time, there were no animals or men, only trees, grass, and water.  After a while, he got tired of it and wanted something else.

When the He-She came down from heaven, he always carried his magic cane and as he sat and pondered, he broke off the small end of it.  Out of this he made fishes, big ones and little ones, and of all sizes and shapes.  Then he stroked them with his hands and breathed on them and they came alive.  So he looked around to see what he would do with them and finally he put them in a stream and they swam away.

He-She then went to the forests and found lots of leaves that were on the ground and had pretty colors.  These he took into his hands and making magic, blew on them and they grew wings and feathers and became birds.  From the oak leaves, he made eagles, ravens and hawks; from the red sumac, the red bird; and from the green aspen, the blue jay.  Each leaf made its own kind of bird and the birds all sang nice songs.

From the middle of his magic cane, the He-She made the antelope, buffalo, rabbit, squirrel, the coyote, and all the other animals.  They lived together in peace for a long time until the coyote got back and caused a lot of mischief and they began to fight.  The strong killed the weak and soon there was lots of blood all over everything.  The He-She looked on and was disgusted with his creations.

After a while, he decided that he would make one big captain or wise animal who was to be chief and rule the rest of the animals with wisdom and strength.  So, he made the great grizzly bear.  To him, he gave all the wisdom and power to govern the world.  He explained to the animals that they must stop fighting and live at peace for those were the orders of the great He-She and if they did not do it, he would punish them.  Most of them obeyed, except for coyote who makes mischief.

The great He-She left the bear to rule for him, and then went back to the heavens to rest awhile.

-Chief Buckskin Charley and Chief Nanice-

-As told to Jean Allard Jeancom, Ignacio, Colorado  1904-

Origin of the Ute Bear Dance

English translation of the Ute text
as told by Mollie B. Cloud,
recorded December 16, 1976, by T. Givon,
transcribed and translated by S. Smith and T. Givon

This is the story of the Bear Dance.  Long ago, in the days of the Old People, those first Utes who used to roam around, there was no Bear Dance.  There lived then two young men, brothers.  They roamed around where nobody had gone before them, they were hunting around.  And at one time, they were sitting on top a hill and watching the open country below, and they saw something moving down below, and lo .  .  .  .  .  . it was a bear.

So one of them said to the other, “Hey let’s go down there.”
The other, the young brother said, “We better stay here and watch.”
“I’m going down there,” implored the older brother.
“You might get killed,” warned the younger one.

The older brother insisted and he then removed his clothes and climbed down the cliffs naked, while his younger brother sat and watched.

The older brother approached the bear, all naked, and suddenly the bear stood up.  And lo .  .  .  .  .  . it was a she-bear, a woman-bear.  And she took the older brother into her den where they both disappeared.

Now the younger brother was all alone.  His brother had told him, “If I disappear with the bear, you go home with my clothes and tell our kinsmen, ‘here are his clothes, he married a she-bear.’  And then, after five nights have passed, you bring them back here with you.  I myself have no idea what the bear is going to do to me.”

The younger did as he was told, and when he came to his kinsmen with his brother’s clothes, they said,
“You killed him!!!”

But the younger brother said, “See his clothes, they’re clean, there’s no blood on them.  He took them off himself.  I saw him with my own eyes, joining the she-bear, and she took him with her into the cave.  And he told me to bring you all back there in five nights’ time.”

Well, they all took off together, with the younger brother leading the whole clan.  And they finally came to the hillside overlooking the she-bear’s dwelling place.  And, lo .  .  .  .  .  . she had a house there under a big boulder, a cave.  They all stood there watching, and the younger brother called his brother by name several times.  At last, the older brother appeared, coming out of the cave.  And he told his kinsmen who were gathered on the rim of the valley above him:

“The she-bear says we have no dance ceremony.  Therefore, from now on, in the month of the Long Moon, you shall hold a dance, gather the whole people together and make a corral.  You shall make it out of pinon, put sticks up in a wide circle.  Then you will all gather inside and sit in the circle, and I’ll sing to you the songs that the she-bear has taught me.”

And then he went on to sing the songs to them, showing them the way she had taught him, he was singing there in front of his kinsmen, and thus taught them the Bear Dance songs.

After teaching them the songs, he continued.  “After you make the corral, sit inside there, and at least one of you will have to remember these songs and sing them.  Then the bear and I will arrive, and we will show you how to dance, so that you will learn the Bear Dance too.”  He thusly spoke to them and repeated, “In the Spring, you should get ready.  We will be arriving then and will sing and dance and teach you, the bear and I.”

The young man stayed with the she-bear until the next spring, and when the time came, his kinsmen got together and built the corral the way he told them, they cut up pinons, dug up the earth in a wide circle, and they made a hole in the ground and covered it with rawhide the way he told them.  And at the right time in the spring, they all gathered inside the corral, and some were going to be singers and play the notched sticks they way they were told.

Finally, the she-bear and the young man arrived together.  And they demonstrated to all the people the way the Bear Dance should be danced.  They both danced together, and the singers sang and the drummers drummed.  And thus, the Bear Dance was transferred to the young man’s kinfolks.  At the end, the she-bear and the young man left, never to be seen again.  And from that time onward, the Ute people have been dancing the Bear Dance the way the she-bear had taught them.

Bear Dance

The annual Ute Bear Dance, which is held every spring, is a social dance where everyone enjoys themselves.

Origin of the Bear Dance can be traced back to the fifteenth century when the Spanish first came upon the Utes in the springtime.

Ute legends or stories remember the time when the elders asked the hunters to go out and gather meat.  As they were out hunting, they encountered some small people who ran into the rocks in the hills.  They told the elders about them and the elders told them that they were called cliff dwellers, which according to archaeologists, were call Anasazi, the ancient ones.

When the first thunder in the spring was heard, it was time for the Bear Dance.

According to some of the elders, this was usually around the middle of March.  All the families would come and set up camp and prepare for the dance.

Many of the singers were ready to sing their songs, which they had practiced or dreamed about during the winter months.

The original meaning of the Bear Dance has long dropped by the wayside as modern ways have intervened with the old methods of telling the meaning of the Bear Dance.

It was the men who usually prepared the Bear Dance corral and any other functions connected with the Bear Dance.  The women’s role was to prepare the family’s clothes that they were to wear during the dance.

It was the role of the storyteller to tell the family about the way of life and this was done in the winter time when the family was gathered around the campfires.

The origin of the Ute Bear Dance relates the time when two brothers were out hunting in the mountains and, as they became tired, they laid down to rest.  One of the brothers noticed a bear standing upright, facing a tree, and seemed to be dancing and making a noise while clawing the tree.

The one brother went on hunting while the other brother continued to observe the bear.  The bear taught the young man to do the same dance and also taught the young man the song that went with the dance.

He told the young man to return to his people and teach them the dance and songs of the bear.

The songs, according to legends, show respect for the spirit of the bear, and showing of the respect to the bear spirit makes one strong.

After a long winter, everyone was ready to be outside.

The Bear Dance was one way in which people could release their tensions.  The men and women, as they entered the corral, would wear some sort of plumes, which at the end of the fourth and final day, they would leave on a cedar tree planted at the east entrance of the corral.  The north-side cedar was for the men and the south-side was for the women.  As the Utes say, leaving the plume on the tree was to leave your troubles behind and start your life anew.

 The alphabet letters throughout this guide correspond to the alphabet letters posed on exhibits throughout the museum:

 The cradleboard is where a baby spent most of its first year on this earth.  After an early morning bathing and being bundled in rabbit skin or buckskin filled with eagle-down, deer hair, or very soft cloth, the baby was laced up inside, and when not being carried by the mother or an older sister, the cradleboard was often hung in the shady limbs of a tree.  A grandmother usually made a child’s cradleboard with a boy’s being white and a girl’s yellow from earth paint.  Both were attached with medicine bundles on the side which contained blessing symbols as well as the baby’s umbilical cord to ensure health, good luck and spiritual protection.

 “Babies didn’t cry so much in the old days when they were in their boards,” recalls elder Isabel Kent.  “The cradle was their home, they don’t feel lost there, you put them in there and they just hush because they’re warm.  Their arms are down and their feet are straight.  You sing to the baby, cuddle it and just love it.  That’s why they’re quiet when they’re with you.  They know they have a place in this world.”

 Children were taught early on that the knowledge they learned was essential, for someday they would be the leaders of the tribe.  They spent most of their time with their grandparents and elders, listening to stories and acquiring skills.  Young girls learned to maintain camp, sew, care for younger children, and make clothing similar to larger buckskin items.  They might try weaving or beading, or hide tanning.  Young boys learned to track and hunt, how to make themselves a bow, and as they gained honors, were allowed to wear beaded strips or feathers.

“Tachat”

Summer
Season

A time of warmth.

Youth .  .  .  . and curiosity.

A time to dance .  .  .  .  .
and sing;

.  .  .  .  . unity.

Learning within the circle.

THE UTE INDIAN SUNDANCE

 The Ute Indian Sundance is an annual event, held in the middle of the summer.  Soon after the Bear Dance is over in the spring, the date of the Sundance is made known.

 This is a ceremony in which some men who have made a commitment to themselves and to their Creator, fast for three or four days.  They neither drink nor eat during this time.  After their entrance into the lodge, which is a circular structure of cottonwood trees, they will remain within the ceremonial lodge with the other dancers.

 For the entire period, a group of men will be providing the singing and the drumming.  Some of the women will accompany with their singing too.  To this music, the dancers will be dancing back and forth, while blowing on their eagle-bone whistles.

 At the entrance to the left is the designated seating for the women.  The men and visitors sit to the right of the entrance.

 The dancers occupy their places on either side of the Sundance Chief and all face the pole set in the center of the ground.  The pole in the center has a symbolic meaning connected to the ceremony.  It is found to have a perfect fork in it with proper dimensions at the trunk and its base.  Twelve poles are set around in a circle and provide the base structure for the whole lodge.  The pole in the center is adorned with prayer cloths at the tips, with a buffalo head attached at the middle part.  Some willows are placed in the fork of the pole and further down, it is painted with its designated colors.  During its symbolic tenure, it will be the focus point for everyone.  At no time can it be touched by anyone, including some of the dancers, until they have proven themselves worthy of this gesture.

 Every morning, just before the sun rises, the drumming and singing begins anew.  At this time, a ceremony is observed where all the dancers gather in a group around the pole and face toward the eastern horizon to welcome a new day.  All others follow their lead and stand wherever they happen to be at the moment.  Anyone who can make the effort to rise early and get to the grounds will be able to participate in this awesome event.  If you are some distance from the grounds, make note of the time the sun will rise and plan accordingly.

 Also, the next best time to see the dancing is in the evening, when it is cooler.

 Please observe all protocols and you will be most welcome to our ceremony.

 Travel on with our prayers for a safe journey and enjoy the rest of the year.

This information is provided by: Mrs. Annabelle Eagle, Vice-Chairperson
     Southern Ute Language and Cultural Committee
     07/90
The Ute Sundance

 The Sundance ceremony, conducted once a year in the middle of summer, is the most important spiritual ceremony in the Ute tradition.  Having undergone a series of transformations over the last century, it nevertheless preserves, at its core, the tradition of taga-wuni or “standing thirsty.”  The tradition has two major, mutually interlocked aspects to it -- the personal and the communal.

 At the personal level, a dancer (traditionally male) must receive a command or beckoning to dance.  The command often comes to him through a dream and impels him to participate in the ceremony as a dancer.  At the visible level, participation involves a four-day fast -- abstaining from both food and liquid -- inside the Sundance lodge.  The dancer undergoes the various ceremonies connected with the Sundance and of the dance itself (the individual dancer, when aroused by the drumming and singing, dances facing the center pole of the lodge).  The visible trimmings of the ceremony are the mere shell, within which the actual spiritual contents reside.  For the individual dancer, spiritual contents involve a quest for spiritual power, a purification, an act of communion (or attempted communion).  This quest for the so-called “medicine power” is strictly individual, with very minimal direction from the Sundance Chief.  The Sundancer has to reckon with the spiritual world by himself and cope with the rigors and pains of the quest alone, calling upon his utmost physical and mental resources.  He is not judged or evaluated; the “success” of his quest is purely a matter between him and the Great Spirit.  And the gained “medicine power”, if indeed obtained, is given to him to use or abuse according to his private vision.  That is, however, only half of the story.

 The communal or social aspect of the Sundance dictates that the Sundancer not partake in the ceremony as an individual.  He is, at the same time, a member of a family.  And the family pitches their tipi or shaded lodge in designated locations around the periphery of the Sundance grounds.  The Sundancer comes forward as their representative, and they are there to support him, both spiritually and physically, in singing, drumming, or silent participation.  The presence of the family is crucial in giving the Sundancer strength and sustenance as he undergoes his quest-ordeal.  It is also crucial in reminding the dancer that, although he is there of his own volition, and the “medicine power,” if gained, will be to his use, the power is ultimately not his at all.  Rather, it comes from the ultimate source, the Great Spirit, and is given to him for the purpose of using it in the service of family and community.  The family/community, thus, has very high stakes in the dancer’s successful quest.  And while they are keenly aware of the possibility that the dancer may choose to hoard his gained “medicine power” and use it strictly for his own ends, their presence and support exerts a powerful force upon the dancer to follow the path of mature, spiritual, and social responsibility  -- responsibility to his kin as well as to the community-at-large.

With the family serving as the mediating force, the Sundance becomes the instrument in which the entire Ute community attempts to achieve spiritual rejuvenation and reinforce the common spiritual power which has traditionally served to bind them together.  The Sundance becomes both the means of achieving that common bond, and the affirmation of the existence of such a binding power.  And so long as the Sundance Tradition persists, and so long as Sundancers receive their dream-vision and come forward to dance, the survival of the people is assured.

Aka-Nuche (Red Ute)
Eddie Box, Sr.
 Women, being the backbone and strength of the family much as today, were vital to the economy of the band.  When not setting up or maintaining camp, there were hides to be tanned and in-season plants, berries, and roots to be harvested, dried and stored.  There was clothing to be made and decorated; beadwork to be done.

 The tipi, which was the family’s shelter as well as one of the center points of everyday ceremony, was considered to be the woman’s.  She made it, as well as put it up, took it down, packed it and moved it.  It was clear to any man living there that he was an honored guest in her home.

 Men decided when and where to move camp and spent a majority of their time hunting, fishing, or discussing any problems which affected the band.  When not busy making tools or teaching younger boys to pursue, track and capture game, they would gather socially to talk, drum, sing or tell stories.

 “The Indian men were the providers, the protectors, and the ones who were responsible to keep order within the family, village or camp,” recalls Mr. Eddie Box, Sr.  “The real thing was what the warriors did.  They provided safe-keeping, directed our young people to also become good warriors, and provided for and had feeling for our old people, for all the people.  That was their responsibility.”

 The acquisition of the horse, coinciding with the arrival of the Spaniards and their settlement of New Mexico, changed the Ute culture forever.  The horse greatly increased mobility, thus making much easier the utilization of natural food supplies, the consolidation of bands into larger social units for annual celebrations and ceremonies, and the spread of trade, along with warfare, with neighboring tribes.  The horse quickly became a man’s most important single possession, not only for hunting and raiding, but also as a status symbol representing wealth and bravery.