00:00.00 archpodnet Have any questions I just kind of started. Okay, okay sorry editors welcome to heritage voices episode 69 I'm Jessica you quinto and I'm your host sorry. I changed the number in there and so that made my voice sound weird welcome to heritage voices episode 69 I'm Jessica uquinto and I'm your host and today we are talking about the utes as a forgotten people. Before we begin I'd like to honor and acknowledge that the lands I'm recording on today are part of the noch or ute people's treaty lands the daneta and the ancestral pueblo and homeland and today we have ernest house jr on the show ernest was the former executive director of the Colorado commission of. Um, ernest affairs start. Okay I got this? um ernest was the former executive director of for the Colorado Commission Of Indian Affairs ccia for over None ears through which ernest maintained the communication between the southern newte indian tribe the umountainnewt indian tribe and other american indian organizations. Okay and other American Indian Organizations State agencies and affiliated groups in that position ernest worked closely with Governor Hickenlooper lieutenant Governor Donna Lynn and the C Cia members to maintain a government-to-government relationship between the state of Colorado and tribal governments currently ernest is the senior policy director for the keystone policy center working with various stakeholders in areas of tribal consultation energy. Health care and education. So welcome to the show. Ernest thank you Jessica for having me. It's an honor to be on your show. Um I should first start out saying Mike the Govan the wayak which means hello my friends. Thank you for the opportunity. Um, I'm a member of the yoot mountain u tribe and it's even a bigger honor to be doing this podcast here from my hometown in Cortez Colorado and the 4 corners area in Southwestern Colorado um and yeah just thank you for the opportunity to to join you today. Yeah, so it's it like we were talking about before we started recording I don't usually get to to do these with with people that I've worked with and where I'm personally just really excited to get a background on the other things that you're doing besides the thing that we're working on together. So ah. 05:22.68 archpodnet To get us started on that thread. Ah what got you interested in this type of work I mean it's real specific and not a lot of people know about it. So how did you? How did you find out. How did you get into it. Yeah, no thanks? Um, well. Being born and raised in in Southwestern Colorado growing up. Um Mihel Mocanyon is where I grew up and on the ut mountain reservation. Um, my father was ernest house senior um was a longtime tribal leader. He served. For over 35 years as an elected official for the uke mountain u tribe served as chairman council memberm um my great grandfather and who raised my father was chief Jack House the last traditional chief of my tribe. Ah, the you mountainu tribe he passed away in 72 and when he passed away he passed away with the title so he that's why read? He's referenced as a last hereditary chief. Um, so there was a lot of of my upbringing that was rooted in tribal politics that was rooted in. Advocating for water rights I was rooted in advocating for off reservation fishing and hunting rights. Um, we'd do all those activities we'd hike around our canyons around our home. Um, my. A great grandfather was credited with opening up the ut mountain tribal park which is on the backside of mesar national park none it's a tribally led um outdoor recreation. Um place where we bring in nonnative. Ah. Ah, community non-native members to brit to show them a lot of the ute history ancestral pueblo history list goes on and on. So yeah I just I grew up with this this appreciation and and knowledge that passed down through through my. Grandparents and great-grandparents and my father around why the ut mountainund tribe has six thousand acres six hundred thousand acres in three states why we don't have more why we have several enterprises and why we should have more and why we don't have you know why we might have less. And just the challenges I think of being you know Colorado is is a lot of people don't know is has None federally recognized tribes within its state borders and that's my tribe the umountain u tribe and our sister tribe the Southern New indian tribe our other sister tribe. The northern ute. 10:42.22 archpodnet Was we refered to them in Fort Deschae Utah were forcibly removed by gunpoint after the meeker massacre we often call it the meeker incident. Um, but our none reservation was established in Colorado on 1868 and but the utes have been known as as you know the. The the people of the shining mountains. The the we're mountain nomadic people moved with game um have hunting blinds still standing in Rocky Mount national park our last ceremony in garden of the gods in Kara Springs was around nineteen six until we were removed from that location as well. So you know when we talk about especially now with states recognizing indigenous histories um tribes that were forcibly removed. Displaced to make way for metropolitan cities or growing populations. We see today. Um, you know that was that that ute history was always embedded in in when I was growing up just surrounding me and I would I'd go to Washington d c with my father and hear him advocate about. Water rights settlements and and the struggle of the plight of of the women who band and which is our band for folks that don't know there's several bands of utes. Um like like many tribes and and those bands consolidated over the last hundred and fifty years and to make up our 3 u tribes today. So the southern u tribe makeup two of those bands them watch the kibodi band you mountain tribes the we manooch band to the largest out of all the None and then the ah the other 4 consolidated makeup northern you in in Utah and fort du in Utah so you know growing up that was really. Always the focus I remember not too long ago. My mother cleaning out some but old boxes that she had and you know, kind of as parents do they they find these old boxes from your high school days or whatever else and they want to like here you go you know. And I was looking through some and there was a paper that I did in high school about um the Bruno Treaty agreement of eighteen ninety of ah none um and it just it. It shocked me because after. I went through high school I went to Greeley to University Northern Colorado in Greeley and I didn't I wanted to be a baseball player I wanted to that's all I wanted to do. You know it's all you do down here is basketball or baseball and I at that point hearing it so much I definitely didn't want to. 16:09.16 archpodnet Tribal politics also saw the bad side of it as well growing up and just didn't want to do anything related to it and it was interesting how it ended up coming back into my life and and then it got an internship with the state of Colorado with the Colorado Commission Of Indian Affairs which is established um one person agency was established in the lieutenant Governor's office and a lot of people don't know the lieutenant governor in the state of Colorado has a statutory responsibility to chair the Colorado commission of any affairs to um, maintain the government-to-government relationship. Um. And so I I wanted to give it a shot and and at the time Karen Wilde was the executive director she taught me so much about the commission. Um I'd known Karen before through my father's work and um, just but you know tribal being a tribal liaison that wasn't Ah, thing back then it's not like what you go I think there's more certificate programs out there in higher education around you know those particular roles. Um and and opportunities to engage that was a huge opportunity for me and so I ended up being the first you mountain tribal member to. To hold the position as executive director for the Colorado commission of many affairs the southern new tribe. Our sister tribe had um a member that held the role in the early 90 s Cynthia Kent um and I got a chance to meet Cynthia during my tenure at the state and great to swap stories and. Because when you're I mean I think when you're in office of None not only is you're dealing with so many different issues from um, visiting and talking about native american spirituality in prisons and meeting with native offenders and advocating for access to um. To continue and maintain our spirituality. Ah, and then you're talking about education issues or healthcare issues or teen suicide issues and a lot of times you end up being the voice and falling victim to that tokenism very quickly and so it was helpful to have this commission. Be the not just the sounding board but also be the advisor. You know our tribal leaders were actively represented on this commission that was started in one 76 it was actually started out of protest because the state um had not returned some native american human remains that they had had um. That led into a much larger conversation that you know I can get into here in a little bit of the one of the major projects that I think shaped my and shifted my career but that's really where it got started. It got started little did I know that at the time what ended up being trail building in. 21:52.78 archpodnet The umountain tribal park and then being a tour guide learning about all this history from my father from my grandfather from my great grandfather would end up being my biggest resource in talking to governor hickenlooper governor ritter and governor owens who I ended up working for yeah wow. Okay, so you're also a tour guide I didn't know that at the tribal park. Um, so first I just want to put in a quick plug. Um for the tribal park. It's very cool if you're ever up in the area. Definitely. You know book a a tour. Check it out. It's very impressive. We took some friends there and they were like oh is there just you know this amount of pottery at every site and this area and it's like no you got a amazingeverity and there's nothing. Um, but it's just. Covered so it's it's very um, special that the tribe is protecting it in that way still giving access but you know it's clearly not um, ah picked over the way that um public you know, totally public sites are um so definitely a big plug for yip mountain tribal park and um. The other you enterprises are great. You need some blue cornn meal um bow and arrow is your people. So um, and they have I think some like gift things as well. So um, we can put that in the show notes. Ah so definitely support them through that or the casino or the hotel. Um and same with with southern ute. Um, but going back to the cci. Can you tell us a little bit more about some of the the projects that you worked on when you were there. Maybe if there's like a couple of examples that you could give of of projects that you were really excited about and really proud of Absolutely I think the 2 biggest ones that well I guess the 3 biggest ones that come to my mind was the first one. Um I became executive director in 2005 and um, right at the height of it ongoing conversation had been going on colorado and the tribes the two you tribes. Around the return of continuing this conversation from the 70 s and through the 80 s around the return of native american humor remains that were that had been found on state and private lands. But because of the loophole with the nagpra could not be returned to um, unclaim or tribes that did not claim them. As descendants. Um, oh yes, and and so culturally unaffiliated meant that these remains were found um and there was no determination of affiliation made or even a mechanism to present to tribes so that they could. 27:28.20 archpodnet Make a claim. Um, so what happened is the state ended up collecting over 400 native american human remains ah that and I remember going into this warehouse that was um, downtown Denver um, it was under a busy street. Was crazy because you could hear the people driving over over on ah over above your head. Um and it was one of those scenes where like you know the movies where you turn on the lights and it just like None light turns on and then the next one and then the next one but it's like this hallway that just keeps going and going and. And I remember that's the none time and it was highly secured. Facility. Um, and I just I wanted to know. Obviously what what we're dealing with in terms of the amount terms of of how. The the issue that we're talking about and I was taken aback by just the sheer size. Um and the problem and and fortunately there were people before me. Um, that had been trailblazers both on the tribal side. And on the on the archaeological and anthropology side. You know I think this was still a timeframe where cowboy archeology was active and strong and not really reporting anything. Not really you know talking to tribes. You know, coordinating with tribal reps. Um, was not was just did not happen. Um, folks were out there on their own even taking advice or direction from tribal representatives were was not um, was not good or was not happening. 31:21.16 archpodnet It seems to be okay, so good. All right? Um, so when I jumped in we had already received a nagpa grant at the time to establish a process to develop a protocol for the state of Colorado. Um, to address inadvertently discovered native american human remains found on state and private lands in the state of Colorado that was the title of the protocol I think we got the word for the longest title of a state policy. Um and and ah, but primarily we tried to solve it. We tried to go to the attorney general's office and it wouldn't fly for whatever reason we tried and create it at that level. We tried to run legislation state legislation and that didn't work. Um, so the longest hardest possible solution was going to be the absolute longest and looking back. It was the best thing that could have happened. It took 3 years to meet with tribes. Not just the two u tribes in Colorado we were attempting to meet with any tribe that called Colorado home that could provide a preponderance of evidence that would tie them to. Anywhere in the state of Colorado at any point in time and when you think about that I mean that lift alone when we would tell people they would I remember they' be like what are you thinking about like are you serious like and so hugely appreciative of the nagpa grants that we were able to pull. To do that we did that in 3 regional consultations in Grand Junction um in Denver and then I believe we do it in Santa Fe um and we at the end of the day we ended up having an agreement with 48 historic tribes of Colorado including the yuke mountain u tribe and southern u tribe of. our our Colorado's oldest continuous resident of the state. Um, and the agreement was was that it actually had a few different levels to it. Um, but None of the biggest things was that ah a time clock really started ticking once inadvertently discovered. Native american human remains are found in the state which are between ten and fifteen annually every year in the state of Colorado I mean we have um majority of that is is around the springtime around spring runoff season. So when there's natural erosion but we've. I mean the amount of cases that would come in would scare you I mean everything from I remember that there was actively a um there was um, someone who was selling native american humor remains up in the the mountain town somewhere. 36:58.92 archpodnet Um I remember there was a when Youtube was I mean to me it seemed like Youtube just came out but quickly found out that there was a um, a hunter who had found a nave american remain and and was physically disturbing it and knew about it and then. Ah, recording it at the same time and putting it on Youtube so work with the Fbi around identifying who this individual was and then identifying the local landscape and where that was located all the way to um, you know people that were doing estate sales for. Grandma and grandpa that had unfortunately passed away and they hadn't been to their house and they literally had skeletons in their closet and so you know all these all the way to the to the just the farm and rancher who was plowing their field and came across you know some type of thing or putting in an addition to their home or a pipeline or something like that. So. It varied across the board but we created a process so that when those were found and when um, the information was collected by archaeologists that there would not be photographs taken. There wouldn't be any information shared other than. With the tribes that we had the agreement with that. No movement of the remains were to be done until a tribal representative was on hand and was monitoring the situation all the way up until eventually the reinternment. If you didn't have any tribes that would step forward and make a claim based on the information and location or fenerary objects that were with the individual then um the two u tribes in Colorado would take the initiative to return them I thought that was really big because even though. Of 48 tribes historic tribes at Colorado this is also including um Cheyenne Arapaho comanche None pueblos in New Mexico Navajo nation Hopi Zuni Hickory Apache Mescalero apache yoot mountain I mean across the board. We all have our different. Perspectives on death alone and but at the end of the day they were indigenous and so that agreement was sent such a huge I think um message and signal people like Terry Knight and people like Alden Naranho with Southern Indian tribe were individuals and and Neil cloud a southern indian tribe that stood up that said you know there needs to be if no one's going to step forward to rebury our relatives even if they're any of what you any None of our tribes then we'll step forward to ensure that they. 42:23.54 archpodnet Belong in the ground because None thing that is universal is that they need to continue on their journey and we need to do that for them and a much better place than in some room underneath in downtown Denver that's not respectful at all. And and so that process and and again like you also had state state representatives and history Colorado that were advocating for this change and it just shifted the whole process of of how um nagpra native american grace protection repatriation act was handled how this new protocol would actually. Unfold how it was going to play out. Um, what funding it was going to be was going to be needed for it. I mean this is all brand new to the state of Colorado. So after that was signed Colorado was the none state in 2007 to have adopted that type of protocol now since then numerous other states have followed suit and I think. Have gone above and beyond the letter of the law to ensure so a lot of people to ensure that that we do right by by these indigenous remains and in our indigenous communities. But I think that people are often surprised when I use nagpra as a point that actually um. Pulled together different perspectives as opposed to separating us. It was actually a law that we were able to utilize to our benefit to ensure that different voices were at the table and to be successful ultimately in creating something that was. You know much needed for the state of Colorado at the time. Um the other two ah quickly mentioned the other one was oh yeah, sorry? Ok so we are already at our none breakpoint so much more to talk about and so we will be right back here in a moment.