Students carry Ute culture forward at Ute Mountain Ute school
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TOWAOC, Colo. — A line of third graders waited outside their culture class as teacher Iyonia Pavisook greeted them with a bowl of burning sweetgrass.
One by one, the students wafted the smoke over their heads and bodies as part of a smudging prayer before entering the classroom.
Kwiyagat Community Academy (KCA), founded in 2021, is the first public school on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation since the 1940s. The charter school serves 75 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, and 99% of the students — and 75% of the staff — are Native American.
“Kwiyagat” means “bear” in the Ute language. The school, which offers Ute language courses, is one of only a few in Colorado that offers Native American language courses. KCA follows state academic standards while emphasizing Ute language, traditional skills and Indigenous knowledge. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe has more than 2,000 enrolled members but fewer than 100 fluent Ute speakers remain, making classes like these an important part of language and culture preservation.
Students take culture class every day. Younger children begin with simple words in Ute — such as family members, animals and body parts. As they move up, they learn to form sentences. By the time they graduate, they are expected to hold a conversation in Ute.
Lessons go beyond language. Students practice beading, making cradleboards, learning hunting methods and understanding how to care for the land. Throughout the school building, signs display Ute words: “bah” (water) above the drinking fountain, “na’achichi” (girl) on the women’s restroom and “puni’ni” (to look at something) on classroom windows.
“Ultimately, our goal is to have culture class all day long,” said Principal Dan Porter.
“We want to see our kids be proud of who they are,” Porter added. “They were forced into assimilation. The boarding school trauma passed down generations still happens. I’ve had parents that didn’t want to walk into the school because their experience in school was so bad. Our goal is to not only help the students, but also the family to realize they have a big piece in education. They need to have a voice in our schools.”
Teachers often adapt lessons to reflect students’ lives. Government classes, for example, connect past tribal systems with today’s tribal government. Staff members also take part in culture learning. Both Native and non-Native employees often sit in on classes to study language or traditions.
“It’s not mandatory but everybody that works here does it because we want to be part of this, and so we’re willing to learn,” Porter said.
At 1:15 p.m., 10 third graders entered culture class after the smudging prayer. Today’s lesson: making a medicine pouch.
Pavisook handed each student a piece of yellow buckskin.
“This one looks like SpongeBob,” one student joked.
“Put the needle through the rough side first,” Pavisook instructed, showing how to sew the pouch. “This needle is specifically designed to go through buckskin.”
The sewing looked simple, but students quickly struggled with their needles and thread. Pavisook and a paraeducator helped each child.
“You’re making my brain hurt,” one student complained.
“That’s what you’re here for,” the paraeducator replied.
By the end, some students wore finished pouches around their necks. Other teachers joined in to help complete the sewing.
Less than 5% of Ute Mountain Ute Tribal members are fluent in the Ute language.
“When I heard that percentage, it broke my heart,” Pavisook said. “I got paranoid and thought, ‘what if we actually lose our language and nobody knows how to speak it anymore?’ Then my grandma came and told me that I can teach the younger generation and they’ll go home and teach what I’ve taught them to their parents.”
Pavisook, 21, grew up in Towaoc with her grandparents. Ute was her first language. She began learning English only when she entered elementary school. She joined KCA three years ago as a paraeducator and now serves as both paraeducator and the culture teacher.
Ute is a complex oral language with many sounds formed in the back of the throat. When Pavisook tried teaching its written form to fourth graders, “it scrambled their brains,” she said, so she chose to focus on pronunciation.
She also brings elders into the classroom, though she noticed some students were nervous about mispronouncing words.
“I told them not to be scared to speak their own language because they should be proud,” she said. “I tell them we’re very fortunate to still have our language.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.