Indigenous Peoples' Day 2024
Celebrating Sunrise at 14,115'
It’s been a week so I thought I’d reflect on my second Indigenous Peoples’ Day since I came onboard as a Tribal Liaison here with the United States Forest Service. Since I started last August, Indigenous Peoples’ Day was one of the first real opportunities I had to meet with representatives of the Nations I work with. I made some really wonderful friends last year, and those friendships have largely carried me through my term here with USFS.
Let’s see, first things you should know- within the borders of present-day Colorado are the ancestral homelands of numerous Indigenous peoples, including the Ute, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Jicarilla Apache, Comanche, Pawnee, Pueblo, Osage, and Diné peoples among others. Getting to know folks out here has far and away been the best part of my job. I truly love everyone I get to work with and absolutely cherish my relationships with them.
It’s kind of in this vein that I carry out my role as a Tribal Liaison. The position was so new (I’m the first to inhabit this role in my forest unit) that each person kind of shapes it to the best of their ability, based upon their expertise and needs of the USFS and Tribes. In my mind, the best thing I can do is be an advocate for Tribal concerns when and where I can, learn as much as I can from my Tribal partners, and then teach to everyone the importance of costewardship on Indigenous lands. While I work for the federal government (it’s an honor to do so), I believe that my best strengths are as a conduit between the Forest Service and Indigenous Nations, and that hopefully my efforts will result in upholding our treaty and trust responsibilities across the board.
I’ve written before about my approach to getting the know the landscape—I owe it to folks to learn these spaces—but I also believe in being there for the people. And that’s what led me to getting up at 3am last Monday:
I needed to be at the base of Pike’s Peak by 5 in order to travel with everyone to the top of the mountain. One of the things that makes Pike’s Peak (just west of Colorado Springs) is that you can drive all the way to the summit. It’s pretty cool. But in order to have a Sunrise Ceremony on top of the mountain, you have to drive up the mountain in the pitch black dark. Also, it’s cold.
But we all loaded into the vans that the city of Colorado Springs provided and up we went. I was excited to meet folks I had yet to meet, many of whom were experiencing the mountain for the first time. Further, a number of Forest Service personnel came for the ceremony just to show support for the Tribes. And that’s cool.
With no stops, you can get to the stop in about 45 minutes or so. It’s about a 19 mile drive to make it all the way up. My first couple of times driving were kind of white knuckley, but you get used to it.
Once we got up there, we had the chance to talk, look around, share some coffee, and enjoy company with one another before the ceremony began. I knew to expect some grief from a friend of mine, as I am slowly learning Ute language and folks, it’s a process. But I love it. And I love learning the words. And it was an honor to be asked to learn the language. I would like, if I am able, to more formally devote time to studying it. But I’m getting there.
I won’t comment on what the sunrise ceremony is about. We ask folks not to take photographs or video when that’s going on and I won’t recap what those are like. That’s not my place. But what I can tell you is that when I am with the folks I serve here, it makes the pain of being so far from my boys go away a bit. I like to think this is what I am supposed to be doing, though frankly I am still learning exactly what that means.
I’ll also tell you that I get so wrapped up in the moment that I tend to forget to actually enjoy the sunrise, though I somehow remembered to snap this image from atop the mountain of the sun coming up.
It’s always pretty cool to share time with everyone, especially when a number of Tribes were represented in person on the mountain that day. I even got to be in the group picture, which made me feel really good.
Unfortunately, not everyone was able to make it. The actions of the United States in our past made living close to these homelands extremely difficult for many Tribal Members. And my primary goal this fall and winter is to get out on the road and visit with as many people as I can. So get ready, because I am coming to Oklahoma as soon as possible!
I think maybe I write this tonight because it affirms why I am here: to be of help in whatever way I can to people. I know a lot of people go to get a Ph.D. in history to be a professor (and that was certainly my plan), but being here, with these folks I truly love, gives meaning to me in ways I have yet to properly figure out how to say.
Anyway, I hope your Monday is off to a great start.
Jason