The Southern Ute Bear Dance Powwow will be held Friday and Saturday at the SunUte Community Center in Ignacio. Registration will start at 4 p.m. Friday. The Gourd Dance will be held at 5 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday. The Grand Entry will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday.
In conjunction with the Bear Dance, the Southern Ute Museum will celebrate new photographs of wolves donated to its collection Saturday with speakers, short films, food and wolves for the public to meet.
Jim and Jamie Dutcher, nationally known experts on wolves, donated two large photographs of the predators to the museum that will be unveiled this weekend, said museum exhibits preparator Jed Smith.
As part of the event, Braiden Weeks with the Ute Tribe in Utah, Diana Tomback, a professor in the department of integrative biology at University of Colorado-Denver will speak. Prepared remarks from Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk of the former Ute Mountain Ute Tribe council member and former Bears Ears INtertribal Coalition Co-Chair Bears Ears Coalition will also be read.
The unveiling of the photographs will take place at 1 p.m. Short films about wolves will be shown from 1:45 to 5 p.m. Soup and chili will be served old-style in buckets for residents to take with them from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. The wolves from Wolfwood Refuge will be in front of the museum from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.
General information about Bear Dance will be available at the museum as well.
Admission to Bear Dance and museum activities is free.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
