{"id":2449856,"date":"2019-10-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/carbondale-celebrates-indigenous-peoples-day\/"},"modified":"2019-10-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T06:00:00","slug":"carbondale-celebrates-indigenous-peoples-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/carbondale-celebrates-indigenous-peoples-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Carbondale celebrates Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Ute tribe elder Roland McCook spoke to a crowd at Sopris Park during Carbondale\u2019s first Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day celebration.<\/strong>
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Around 40 people gathered in Sopris Park on Monday to participate in Carbondale\u2019s first Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day celebration.<\/p>\n

Ute tribal members came to lead traditional dances and drumming, sharing their culture with those gathered.<\/p>\n

Ute elder Roland McCook noted that similar celebrations in rural towns have hundreds of people in attendance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the least amount of people that I\u2019ve seen at a gathering in a rural area,\u201d McCook said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Buena Vista, I had 200 people show up. In Salida, (the crowd was) out the door; in Paonia, out the door,\u201d McCook said.<\/p>\n

The event wasn\u2019t announced until early October, shortly after Carbondale trustees passed a resolution Sept. 24 recognizing the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day.<\/p>\n

McCook didn\u2019t assign blame, but said that those who have roots in rural life are more likely to be interested in the native history of the land than people who recently arrived, McCook said.<\/p>\n

McCook talked for an hour and answered questions about Native American history and Ute culture.<\/p>\n

The Nuche<\/p>\n

The term \u201cUte\u201d comes from Spanish sources, but it is not the word Ute tribes use to describe themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur name for ourselves is Nuche,\u201d pronounced \u201cnooch,\u201d McCook said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have different interpretations for what that means, but generally, it means people. It refers to us as people of dignity, people of feelings, those mysterious feelings that come, the same as you, from the heart,\u201d McCook said.<\/p>\n

Several native dancers and two musicians led the group in songs and dances.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re listening to music and drum beats that are original,\u201d McCook said, introducing singers and dancers who led the group in traditional songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we sing, it\u2019s like when you hum. When you hum your song and leave the words out, that\u2019s what we do,\u201d McCook said.<\/p>\n

The pattern the singers use mirrors the mountains, starting high, and moving down in pitch like streams into the valleys, McCook said.<\/p>\n

Celebrating the Nuche<\/p>\n

Carbondale residents John Hoffman and Rita Marsh hope that in years to come, the town will celebrate Nuche Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Carbondale carries it forward, we\u2019ll look at it as Nuche Day along with Potato Day and Dandelion Day. It will help us think in those terms of the indigenous relationship with the planet,\u201d Hoffman said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Marsh and Hoffman petitioned the town of Carbondale to recognize Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day. Boulder, Denver and Durango declared the second Monday in October Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day in 2016, and Aspen recognized it in 2017.<\/p>\n

That date has significance as the time when the U.S. traditionally celebrates Christopher Columbus, the first Italian colonialist who arrived in the Americas in the late 15th century.<\/p>\n

For Hoffman and Marsh, celebrating indigenous peoples also has an environmental purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe planet is going through some really radical changes right now,\u201d Hoffman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe treat our planet like our slave, and figure it can take anything we can throw at it. And it is affected by that. One thing indigenous peoples do is feel gratitude for the planet. They live their lives around sustainable parameters that would carry the planet along as a healthy, living being,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Marsh and Hoffman also run the Roaring Fork Circle, a loosely organized group that meets during full moons to celebrate nature. They were instrumental in naming Nuche Park south of town to honor the Ute tribes, and hope to announce further development of the park later this year.<\/p>\n

McCook expressed his support for increasing gratitude for the natural world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes community strength, community awareness, and I will be right in the middle of it if you give me a chance,\u201d McCook said.<\/p>\n

Carbondale trustee Marty Silverstein, who attended the celebration, said it was good to recognize the history of the Nuche in the valley and their environmental message regardless of the number of people who came to the lightly publicized event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we did the right thing, and if we continue to do it, the turnout will grow,\u201d Silverstein said. \u201cSometimes you do something because it\u2019s the right thing to do, whether the turnout is 100 people or 30 people.\u201d<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ute tribe elder Roland McCook spoke to a crowd at Sopris Park during Carbondale\u2019s first Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day celebration. Around 40 people gathered in Sopris Park on Monday to participate in Carbondale\u2019s first Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day celebration. Ute tribal members came to lead traditional dances and drumming, sharing their culture with those gathered. Ute elder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2449856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 12:57:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}