09 Jun “the land Provides”: Yuyavan robles

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument recently added new wayside exhibits, which are signs placed along trails to allow visitors to read and walk the trails. One of the two newly added wayside exhibits on the one-mile petrified forest loop in collaboration with 19 sovereign indigenous nations. Showcases how the national Park service values preservation and protection of the acres of landscape through stewardship and other scientific research. With a supporting message that tribes are still here and their values still influence the monument’s cultural landscape, and to all visitors, we hope it offers the opportunity to reflect upon the convergence of heritages that we hope leads to the value of shared stewardship. Being a part of a national monument that continues to honor communities and support them as best as they can, gives me encouragement as I move forward in my outreach to local Latino communities I undoubtedly will get full support from the staff here at Florissant fossil bed.

From reading the wayside exhibits above I wanted to learn more, this is what prompted me to check out one of the nineteen tribes mentioned. The Utes had a close relationship with the land some might say the land owned them rather than they owned the land due to their responsibility of stewardship. In our National Monument library I saw an array of books, however, I was drawn to the native American history texts that were available in the library. In a passage, it showed how their views were and how tied in they are to the valley that their energy and spirit could feel the change with no need of any tools.

“They were created in their mountains ( Western Colorado, New Mexico & Utah) by their ancestral deities and they had an obligation to be in the right place at the right time to be in the right place at the right time to be the stewards of the resources of the plants and the animals”. (Daniels et al., 2008)

Daniels, H. S., Smith, J., & Smith, P. D. (2008). The Ute Indians of Southwestern Colorado. Western Reflections Pub. Co.