How do we get to where we are and how important is every little story? Unfortunately, for most of us, we don't remember our great-grandparents or our great-great-grandparents, but we're all very valuable and every single person's story is incredible. If it wasn't, you wouldn't be here. Imagine that there's a hundred generations before you and anything could have gone wrong in those, in that context, and you wouldn't be here. So if you take that perspective and and recognize how valuable and important you personally are, it leads you to believe and understand that listening to someone else's story is extremely important and recognizing in their story, your story, and that you are part of it.

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How do we get people to understand where they are in Colorado, where they are in our part of the world? This is the land of the Great Spirit. That's what our tribe, the Ute tribe has always called it. And the difficulty is people don't really know where they are. They don't know the background, they don't know the history. And so knowing the history is really important. Recognizing that there are people that have been here long before you is always very powerful. And so being able to talk about that, detail that, and explain it to others so they have a perspective of of someone else's place, they, it puts them, it gives them a perspective of where they are, how they're going to be there, and in future to go out and look for other things that put them there and keep them there. That they are protectors of this place too. Well, if you get to know the history and you get to know other people, you're, you're able to get in touch with not only where you are who you are, but also those people who came along before you. I am Johnny T. Valdez. I am a native historian and I wrote a special story about the Brunot agreement. It is the agreement that ties together how the Ute Tribe passed over their land to the United States government. It's a very confusing story if you are a local child from Colorado, because you probably never heard the story. You just recognize there's beautiful mountains and great hikes, great fishing places, great places to go hunting, great places to go skiing. If you're from Colorado, that's what you know. What you don't know is that there's a great history behind it. And I wrote the story and the Power Place magazine for the US 250, Colorado 150 magazine that talks about that perspective. It's a different perspective. When I think back to all the things I learned in school, I'm reminded how much I missed, how much I wasn't taught, or simply didn't know. Some of that is my own fault and some is mystery. I took everything I was told in school as fact, and all I was told by my elders and tribal protectors is myth, legend or story I found later in life that I would've been better served. Listening to the latter, we were taught in Colorado Public School that the Utes gave or sold the land of Colorado and neighboring states to the United States government. No teacher said it happened under the threat of Annihilation. No one spoke about the forced removal to reservations or the loss of their homeland. No one spoke the Ute Tribes rich and storied heritage. It wasn't mentioned that they were likely the first tribe to attain the horse from the Spanish more than 400 years ago. I was told all these things by my people a long time ago, but I chose to ignore many simple truths. The original treaty of 1863 with the Ute people, the Nuuchu also known as the Conejos Treaty, seated most of the mountains of Colorado and to the United States. The Brunot agreement of 1873 ratified by Congress in 1874 occurred three years before Colorado statehood. These combined documents also preserve the rights of the Ute people to their hunting crowns. Littler is known or taught about the treaty that seeded the ancestral lands of the Ute people. It can be found in its original form in cursive in the National archives at Washington D.C. It can also be seen online in tight written form without fanfare or reverence. What is not found in either place is the history of the individual tribal leaders who signed the parchments. Overlooked are the stories of traitors miners, homesteaders, railroad barons, as well as local, state and federal leaders who had much to gain by negotiating a comprehensive land deal with the Ute. The government's acquisition of land in the Colorado territory provided a powerful economic boost to the areas extensive natural resources. Gold and silver and other minerals had been discovered in the San Juan Mountains in the late 1850s. The land also had abundant old growth forests and a vast water supply from many of the major rivers in the west. This newly acquired region provided incredible opportunities to the newcomers of the state. The signing of the Treaty of 1863 was only attended and agreed to by one band of the Ute, the Tabeguache. This document was written to relieve tension arising from minors encroaching on Ute lands in the San Juans. It is important to note that only the Tabeguache received compensation for the homelands in four states encompassing roughly 225,000 square miles. The Brunot agreement was a separate training and was created to solidify and consolidate previous treaties signed by different bands of the Ute. Felix R. Bruno, for whom the agreement was named was the Commissioner of Indian Affairs acting on behalf of the United States. The agreements itself is short with just over a thousand words. It claims that all the bands of the Utes were involved and included in its formation. The acceptance. It eventually creates three reservations, less than 100th, the size of the tribe's original territory. It secures perpetual hunting rights within the tribe's original hunting grounds, quote, so long as the game lasts and the Indians are at peace with the white people, and it lays out an infinite annual trust payment that the US government has never dispersed. Records show that the participants who signed the agreement did not understand it. During the negotiations, there was misinformation and miscommunication, and there were cultural differences about the idea of land ownership. Section one, article six gives Chief Ouray of the Tabeguache band monetary compensation for his services. Section two specifies the sum he's to receive. He was bestowed the position of head chief of all Ute people, a title which has never been given to any leader of any of the bands. But Colorado is more than just land. It's water, mountains, planes, valleys, they're all priceless, valuable beyond monetary worth. This incredibly beautiful place is the land of the great Spirit. It is sacred and holds a history of stewardship maintained by the Nuuchiu or the Ute. And now that stewardship belongs to you, please protect it. And remember the story that you heard here. It might not be what you learned in school, but it's the truth.

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