Ute Elder to teach local 4th graders

MONTROSE, CO—The Bureau of Land Management Uncompahgre Field Office is working with the Uncompahgre Plateau Project to provide Pomona Elementary School 4th graders the opportunity to learn all about wickiups, a temporary dwelling made of arched poles covered by brush, bark, rushes, or mats used by nomadic Native North Americans. Ute Elder Clifford Duncan will teach the class how to construct a wickiup on BLM public land off of Dave Wood Rd., Thursday morning, May 5.

This project is also intended to incorporate Native American culture into the Uncompahgre Plateau Project’s upcoming Ecology and Management of Pinyon-Juniper and Sagebrush Communities Conference, scheduled for May 16-19 in Montrose. Wickiups constructed on Thursday will be featured on the conference stage and in the lobby, and conference attendees will see another being built onsite by the children.

For more details on the May 5 field trip, contact BLM Archaeologist Julie Coleman at (970) 240-5303. More information on the upcoming conference can be found at www.upproject.org.

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Editor’s Note: Field trip location 6.9 miles up Dave Wood Rd., 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.