Native American Issues
by Andrew Gulliford
In the 1890s cowboy archaeologists dug caves in remote sections of Utah’s Bears Ears. They created Basketmaker and Ancestral Puebloan artifact collections that have been hidden away for over a century in prestigious museums.
Now a group of scholars and researchers is focusing...
Hundreds of live sheep were delivered to needy families on the Navajo Reservation on Memorial Day as part of the “Farmers Feeding Utah” project. The distribution was for families in the Montezuma Creek, Aneth, Red Mesa, and Tódahadekanii areas.
An additional distribution of live sheep will take...
It started with a “Splat,” then came “Black Hole,” “Boomerang,” and most recently, “Diné Diamonds.”
What can all those things possibly have in common? Well, when it comes to Twin Rocks Trading Post, the likely answer is Navajo baskets, and baskets it is.
First, a little context. Several years ago,...
As I look back on the early days of Twin Rocks Trading Post, I am reminded what Orson Welles said shortly after the release of his cinematic masterpiece Citizen Kane.
When asked what allowed him to write, produce, direct, and star in Kane, the 26-year-old novice filmmaker commented that ignorance...
Local author Bob McPherson has recently published the history Traders, Agents, and Weavers: Developing the Northern Navajo Region (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2020).
The book centers around the story of Navajo economic and cultural development through the testimonies of traders,...
San Juan County and the Navajo Department of Transportation (NDOT) have come to an agreement about the maintenance of a handful of roads used as school bus routes in the southern portion of the county.
An agreement between the two entities was signed on February 24 at a ceremony at Teec Nos Pos, AZ...
DUST IN THE WIND
I hope you enjoy Andrew Gulliford’s story about the possible movement of the Ute Reservation to San Juan County about 125 years ago. (See page A4.)
This is a story that has fascinated me for many years.
• • • • •
From a Utah perspective, the timing of the effort to move the...
Whenever I hike in Bears Ears National Monument, I think about how it almost became an Indian reservation.
Over a century ago Durango businessmen actively campaigned to remove the Southern Utes to San Juan County, UT. Most of that county would have become a new 2.9 million-acre Ute Indian...
The Utah State legislature is being asked to contribute to a development effort for the Westwater community west of Blanding.
The project could total $2 million, with the legislature asked to contribute $500,000. The contribution will be added to similar $500,000 contributions from the Navajo...
For years we’ve learned that Ancestral Puebloans depended upon corn, beans, and squash, nicknamed The Three Sisters, for sustenance. Well, move over sisters. Little brother spud is about to take the stage.
With a $225,000 National Science Foundation grant, researchers at the University of Utah hope...