Land Acknowledgement
Receive guidance on writing and speaking your own land acknowledgement by The Native Governance Center: A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgement.
Walk this land and feel its peaceful, healing nature. But also know that the Bluff River Trail traverses a complex, ongoing, and often contentious cultural, political, and economic landscape.
The Bluff River Trail lies in the Four Corners region where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet. Centuries before state lines were drawn, the San Juan River valley at Bluff was a point of convergence for at least three known Native American homelands: Puebloan, Ute, and Navajo. The Puebloan villages, the seasonal camps of Utes, and the shelters of Navajo herders, were likely a common sight in this valley. Numerous rock art panels attest to the overlapping records of the people who were here. The Bluff area was a dynamic and fluctuating zone for trade, alliances, and occasional discord.
Nineteenth-century Anglo expansionism and colonization in the 4-Corners region violently altered Indigenous knowledge systems and land use practices. This era marks the relegation of Native populations to reservations. By 1864, the Navajos had been starved into submission by Kit Carson's "scorched earth" campaign. They were forced to march the Long Walk over 450 miles from the Monument Valley region to the Fort Sumner reservation in Bosque Redondo, New Mexico. Scores of elders, pregnant women, and the sick were shot or left to die. Those who survived suffered unsanitary and inhumane conditions for nearly a decade before being released. The Long Walk remains a traumatic milestone for current-day Navajos, who pass on their great-grandparents' stories of suffering during that time.
Not all Navajos, however, endured the Long Walk. Some Navajo bands escaped to the canyons of southeast Utah, hiding from soldiers, enemy tribes, and White settlers, foraging like refugees on their traditional lands. The Treaty of 1868 finally allowed the Navajo to return to their homelands; although, with new constraints on their territory and freedom.
The Weeminuche Ute, documented as living in southeast Utah since the 1600s, had been largely relocated to reservations in southwest Colorado by 1899. Several Ute bands survived in the canyons north of Bluff and along the San Juan River between Montezuma Creek, Utah and Bluff, Utah. Between 1899 and 1917 Ute Chief Posey was encamped at Sand Island near Bluff in the south and in Allen Canyon near Blanding, Utah in the north. His brother, Polk, resided near Calf Canyon and Cottonwood Canyon within the historic Bluff settlement. By 1923, escalating conflicts between the Utes and the settlers culminated in the "Posey War" and the subsequent death of Posey. The surviving Ute bands were then resettled on White Mesa north of Bluff and in Towaoc, Colorado.
Nevertheless, a 1901 Bluff plat map refers to indigenous lands as “unoccupied.” Native populations were historically regarded as neither alien nor citizens in their own homelands, treaties were violated, and their lands were encroached upon by ranchers, and by gold and uranium miners.
In 1952, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that Navajo livestock were trespassing on federal grazing lands. In this same year a posse of government agents and local stockmen forced the Navajos, living north of Bluff, across the San Juan River to the south. These Navajo families lost their homes, livestock, and belongings, with no support from law enforcement or the courts. Current Navajo residents in this area, who were children at that time, recall the terror and loss that they suffered.
Since the 1880s, Indigenous cultural sites on public lands in southeast Utah suffered decades of illegal looting, grave-robbing, and vandalism. Matters came to a head in 2009, when three law enforcement agencies conducted a joint criminal investigation in Blanding, Utah, which resulted in the recovery of numerous Indigenous sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony. This action stirred deep resentment in the Blanding community.
Familiar tensions again erupted in 2016 when President Obama proclaimed nearly 1.35 million acres in southeast Utah as the Bears Ears National Monument (BENM), achieved through the collaboration of the US Government and a coalition of five tribes: Navajo Nation, Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Tribe of Uintah and Ouray, and Pueblo of Zuni. The Bears Ears landscape is acknowledged as a cherished, traditional, and sacred land to Native Americans throughout the Southwest. Some southeast Utah residents felt that this action locked out non-Native American people, such as ranchers and uranium miners, even though the BENM Proclamation assured that ranching and mining could continue in designated areas. A portion of the Bluff River Trail passes through the Monument.
Our charter states: The Bluff River Trail reconnects the Bluff community and visitors to the San Juan River through recreation, education, research, and conservation. We have strived to give voice to those tied to this land culturally as well as to visitors passing through. We encourage dialogue and we are open to feedback about this acknowledgement.
The Bluff River Trail lies in the Four Corners region where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet. Centuries before state lines were drawn, the San Juan River valley at Bluff was a point of convergence for at least three known Native American homelands: Puebloan, Ute, and Navajo. The Puebloan villages, the seasonal camps of Utes, and the shelters of Navajo herders, were likely a common sight in this valley. Numerous rock art panels attest to the overlapping records of the people who were here. The Bluff area was a dynamic and fluctuating zone for trade, alliances, and occasional discord.
Nineteenth-century Anglo expansionism and colonization in the 4-Corners region violently altered Indigenous knowledge systems and land use practices. This era marks the relegation of Native populations to reservations. By 1864, the Navajos had been starved into submission by Kit Carson's "scorched earth" campaign. They were forced to march the Long Walk over 450 miles from the Monument Valley region to the Fort Sumner reservation in Bosque Redondo, New Mexico. Scores of elders, pregnant women, and the sick were shot or left to die. Those who survived suffered unsanitary and inhumane conditions for nearly a decade before being released. The Long Walk remains a traumatic milestone for current-day Navajos, who pass on their great-grandparents' stories of suffering during that time.
Not all Navajos, however, endured the Long Walk. Some Navajo bands escaped to the canyons of southeast Utah, hiding from soldiers, enemy tribes, and White settlers, foraging like refugees on their traditional lands. The Treaty of 1868 finally allowed the Navajo to return to their homelands; although, with new constraints on their territory and freedom.
The Weeminuche Ute, documented as living in southeast Utah since the 1600s, had been largely relocated to reservations in southwest Colorado by 1899. Several Ute bands survived in the canyons north of Bluff and along the San Juan River between Montezuma Creek, Utah and Bluff, Utah. Between 1899 and 1917 Ute Chief Posey was encamped at Sand Island near Bluff in the south and in Allen Canyon near Blanding, Utah in the north. His brother, Polk, resided near Calf Canyon and Cottonwood Canyon within the historic Bluff settlement. By 1923, escalating conflicts between the Utes and the settlers culminated in the "Posey War" and the subsequent death of Posey. The surviving Ute bands were then resettled on White Mesa north of Bluff and in Towaoc, Colorado.
Nevertheless, a 1901 Bluff plat map refers to indigenous lands as “unoccupied.” Native populations were historically regarded as neither alien nor citizens in their own homelands, treaties were violated, and their lands were encroached upon by ranchers, and by gold and uranium miners.
In 1952, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that Navajo livestock were trespassing on federal grazing lands. In this same year a posse of government agents and local stockmen forced the Navajos, living north of Bluff, across the San Juan River to the south. These Navajo families lost their homes, livestock, and belongings, with no support from law enforcement or the courts. Current Navajo residents in this area, who were children at that time, recall the terror and loss that they suffered.
Since the 1880s, Indigenous cultural sites on public lands in southeast Utah suffered decades of illegal looting, grave-robbing, and vandalism. Matters came to a head in 2009, when three law enforcement agencies conducted a joint criminal investigation in Blanding, Utah, which resulted in the recovery of numerous Indigenous sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony. This action stirred deep resentment in the Blanding community.
Familiar tensions again erupted in 2016 when President Obama proclaimed nearly 1.35 million acres in southeast Utah as the Bears Ears National Monument (BENM), achieved through the collaboration of the US Government and a coalition of five tribes: Navajo Nation, Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Tribe of Uintah and Ouray, and Pueblo of Zuni. The Bears Ears landscape is acknowledged as a cherished, traditional, and sacred land to Native Americans throughout the Southwest. Some southeast Utah residents felt that this action locked out non-Native American people, such as ranchers and uranium miners, even though the BENM Proclamation assured that ranching and mining could continue in designated areas. A portion of the Bluff River Trail passes through the Monument.
Our charter states: The Bluff River Trail reconnects the Bluff community and visitors to the San Juan River through recreation, education, research, and conservation. We have strived to give voice to those tied to this land culturally as well as to visitors passing through. We encourage dialogue and we are open to feedback about this acknowledgement.
