Radio: Exhibit shares story of Ute people in Colorado homeland

The historic Wheeler/Stallard Museum on Aspen’s west-end is home for the exhibit called Seasons of the Nuche: Transitions of the Ute People. Nina Gabianelli is giving today’s tour. She’s the Vice President of Programming and Education at the Aspen Historical Society. She says at one time, the Ute nation included seven tribes across parts of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.

"What this exhibit does is actually talk about the transitions they’ve gone through, from pre-contact to the early contact years with the Spanish and trappers, and then with the removal of them from Colorado and now, their lives today."

The exhibit weaves through the upper floor of the museum. You walk by black and white photographs, written timelines and several artifacts. The exhibit opened in 2012 and has won two national and one regional award for its leadership in history. Now, fifteen new artifacts are on display. Gabianelli points to a decorative, rawhide parfleche bag.

"We just put this new piece into the exhibit," says Gabianelli