00:00.00 archpodnet Recording. 00:01.31 alan There in archaeology podcast land this is your host Dr Alllan garfinkel for episode 1 one 6 of your rock art podcast and we're blessed and honored to have Johnnyvaldez of the paute shoshonene nation a a. Highly placed and sophisticated gentleman who's um, going to share insights and wisdom on the nature of his his background and the perspective that native people have on the heritage resources. Johnny. Are you there. So I know that you had said you'd like to kick us off with ah a bit of a blessing. 00:42.00 Johnny valdez Um, ah yes I am. 00:51.23 Johnny valdez Yes let's do that yes I am Johnny Valdes I am more mo one. The punu wasat I am the father of lightning I have spent a great deal of time with the ute tribes. My my heritage is southern ute I am also ah pueblo on my mother's side. So I've got a lot of rich history and I would like to start us off with a little blessing I've I've heard so many of the podcasts and and they're wonderful. Um, but 1 thing I've always hoped that people would do is give give a blessing not just to the things that we're going to address but to all the people that are out there listening to that we we start started out in that way and we start our blessings like this you want them. Grandfather in a good way. We come together to speak about things that are so important to us about lives and people who came long before we did the great peacemakers and warriors of the past. They've touched our lives and. Appreciate what they've done to bring us to where we are today. We also want to say good blessings to those that we've taught who will take it on to the future who will take all the things that we've ever learned and improve them help us to understand them. 02:22.10 Johnny valdez And we know they struggle all of these young ones now because they have a real difficult time they're living in multiple cultures at one time so grandfather in a good way helped them and to all those people that are listening and all those people hear this in years to come I Hope that you you get to hear this. And the best way that you can and realize that we are native people when we are still here and that we have good love and we think good things of people that we don't even know all of you are important to us too because you're part of the world of the great spirit and we appreciate all that you have. To offer as Well. There's much to learn from each other. So Thank you grandfather in a good way. The way. Go Ah Oh thank you and that's all. 03:17.22 alan And then Johnny. Thank you creator and thank you for the blessing of you being with us and I humbly appreciate your reaching out to me because I know you have quite a distinctive background and um, a lot to share with our listeners. So. But don't we kick it off Johnny with maybe ah, a bit of a short bio telling people about your background and how what your role is with the ah native nations is that be okay. 03:38.38 Johnny valdez Um, sure. 03:45.14 Johnny valdez Well, yeah, absolutely I am from what we call the cloud family you whatchika is how you say it in in Southern Ute we are ios tech in so it's a little bit different in. and Mountain Ute and northern ute and paute and shoshone. But when I say wukka people recognize that that means cloud well my family um my great grandmothernd and great grandfather were 2 very interesting people that you've probably seen on. Um. Television shows or movies pictures of this big handsome black gentleman standing next to next to native people is John Taylor he is my great grandfather. He was a he was a warrior from the days of the civil. Civil war he fought for the one hundred and eighteenth colored infantry of Ohio and he moved into our area. He was a buffalo soldier eventually in the 1860 s and seventy s and eventually he he met up with my great grandmother kitty cloud. Color carnita she was part spanish and ute and just a ah wonderful woman and was the chief's adopted daughter her parents black cloud and pink cloud were very interesting people living in that era that. 05:20.78 Johnny valdez We hear so much about between the 1830 s and the 1870 s and their father. My. Great great! Great grandfather quioda and his wife bullet they sign treaties with Mexico in 48 and then again. With the United States in eighteen forty nine so I have a pretty rich history in that in that background there. My great grandfather John Taylor was an interpreter for the utes helped them with a bunch of the water settlements and land settlement deals and also with organizing. The way that they operated with the government interactions between the tribes and the indian agents of the time and then his their daughter kitty and John's daughter Uturpi Taylor was my grandmother who was a wonderful woman. She was born in 1899 passed away in in 1993 at 94 years old and I got to know her very well I was born in 67 so her and I got to spend quite a bit of time together and she was a wonderful woman with um, all kinds of. Of cultural history and and just a ah beautiful understanding of many cultures. She spoke spanish and english and ute and moved in and out of all of those cultures very easily and very fluidly. Um, she was a cattle and sheep. 06:53.79 Johnny valdez Person and took care of a ranch that my father did most of the work for my and so she was on many committees for our tribe and helped with enrollment and membership but she was also one of the very first council members of our. Female council members of our tribe. So very interesting and powerful woman. 1 of her sons so 1 of her younger sons was my father Sylvia Valdez he passed away just a few years ago we had him for 91 years and eleven months credible man he was a 30 year chair of the committee of elders he spent a lifetime working for the government he grew up in in government schools and then he stayed there and and helped kids transition and he taught guitar and. Basketball and all kinds of sporting stuff. Baseball incredible coach and he was even more so a connected person to people. He spoke 7 languages because of his time at the boarding schools. He could turn and speak to somebody in Pueblo. Turn around speak to somebody else in ute turn around speak to someone in Navajo and then talk to his friends in Hopi and then return around and talk to me in english just amazing. So I come from a very rich history I was a little kid that sat at all the fires and and listened. 08:20.15 alan Um. 08:31.47 Johnny valdez Sing songs and start to learn. You know what it was to to be a ute. Um, even though I'm one eighth and I'm not an official tribal member I'm a tribal person I just had my descendants hunt and and got my elca on Christmas day. So that was good and I took my 3 children my son Jesse my oldest son. Um then my younger son John and my daughter Elizabeth they all came with me and and helped harvest it and take care of the animal and do our blessings and. And prepare it to provide to all of our family and friends and so because of all those things my dad said one day hey John you know chairman Matthew Box is he's the chair now and who's a young guy. He's about your age and he asked me. Didn't ask you. He asked me if you would be the executive officer of the tribe and um, he said I told him you would do it and he just looked at me and I said of course I will of course I'll help my friend and of course I'll help my tribe and so I spent a few years doing that job. Um, which was you know, really rewarding difficult. Um, but a beautiful job of of trying to to help people understand each other and and work in and out of their history and and their understanding of of other cultures as well. 10:04.29 Johnny valdez And try to bring people together and in many years, but my chairman you know started working more with government you know getting the governor of Colorado coming down to our reservation hadn't been down in my year so it was really nice to to get all of that done and be part of that and then. 10:23.43 alan What. 10:23.53 Johnny valdez When I was finished working there I Um I'm sorry, go ahead. 10:28.42 alan Um, what is the geography or the um, the area of your ancestry in in what what parts of and states. 10:39.40 Johnny valdez Well the 3 yote tribes. there's there's 3 of them and it's and so it includes Colorado about a quarter of Northern New Mexico all the way down to abacu. Um it and includes about a third or. 10:43.78 alan Um, Colorado yeah. 10:51.91 alan Are. 10:58.48 Johnny valdez Like almost a half of Utah of the eastern side of the state and up into about a quarter of wyoming so about Forty Million Square miles yeah and we well. 11:03.13 alan Well. 11:10.33 alan It's huge how many yeah native people still live on the reservation or in that area. 11:18.80 Johnny valdez About 700 live on the reservation. There's about 1450 or so yeah, there's said there's about that many that live on this reservation on our sister tribe the yo mountain utes they have about 3000 and the northern us up in Utah have about four or five thousand somewhere in there. 11:28.32 alan Um, okay. 11:37.40 Johnny valdez And we are. We are the people who dominated the central part of the rocky mountains we were. We are the mountain people. There's no doubt about it and we we um worked a lot of treaties to to have other tribes come in and use the land and and provide services back and forth to each other. Do trades and we trade it all the way out into California that's kind of how how I I got in contact with you. 12:03.68 alan Um, and what's your what's your what's your yeah, what's your current role your responsibilities title or the activities that you're engaged in for the tribe. 12:10.42 Johnny valdez Well and in. 12:18.48 Johnny valdez Well, right now. Um I just do contracting for the tribe so we do all kinds of stuff so anything from fixing roads and doing all those types of things but I do a lot of work outside of the tribe myself. Um, my. 12:24.50 alan Um, okay oh my word. 12:34.96 Johnny valdez Myself and my brother we've we've done a lot of work around the world helping with sovereignty. We've become experts in in sovereignty and trusts and native finance and we've helped tribes all over America all over all over Canada in Australia and in Papua new guinea. So. 12:44.10 alan Um, oh wow. Yeah, that's that's fabulous. 12:54.54 Johnny valdez Yeah, it's been been quite ah quite a trip to do that and I've given speeches and discussion about the people and in England and France um italy and everywhere I've ever gone and through through central and. 12:56.60 alan Um, that's a bit. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, fabulous. 13:12.78 Johnny valdez South America so 13:18.34 alan Um, and um I know we were going to talk about perhaps some of the heritage values and the relationship you have with various cultural resources including archeological sites and rock guard and another. Sacred sites or places of of great importance to your tribe. 13:38.96 Johnny valdez Right? You know we I've heard so many of the different podcasts some of yours and and others as well. But yours are are very good because I like to listen to what's being said about the sites when you talk about little lake when you talk about Petra Gilliff Kenya and and the different places that you've gone and the different people you've worked with whether it's the shoshone or the kowaya si or who you're talking to not the only the petrograph glyphs and the pictographs but the basketry and the pottery and. You know etchings on hides and all the things that you go into and the detail that you provide reminds me that it's it's such an important discussion that we as natives have with each other in in our trade work and in our just our discussions in general. Um, we had throughout history our tribe and and other tribes would have certain dances that were sacred just to us and only our people were invited to but most every tribe had dances that were community dances dances where you invited other. Neighboring tribes. You might not be in conflict with the apache or the Navajo for example and they would be invited to come to the bear dance. That's a very cultural dance. Um, my chairman chairman Matthew Box he he is the current and has been the. 15:07.19 Johnny valdez Burdance chief for many years and his as as his grandfather was before him and what's amazing about that dance is. It's just totally socially sure. 15:13.82 alan Johnny let Johnny let's journey. let's let's stop let's stop yeah Johnny let's stop there that's a good place to stop to stop and in the next segment we can get into some of the the greater details and the unique perspective native people have. On these treasured sacred and very significant resources see on the flip-flop gang.