To our guests, supporters, partners and volunteers, I would like to share with you a small window into the history of the land that our organization rests on. I appreciate you taking the time to read this brief acknowledgement, and encourage you to do what you can to understand the history of the land that you live on as well. It is my belief that healing cannot take place in separation from our Earth. The only path forward to healing as a community is through understanding both the joy and pain that is held in the heart of this land, and in the hearts of the indigenous people that persist in their fight for the right to protect and connect with their home.

 

We live and work on a sacred mountain known as Tava, or “Sun Mountain” to the Tabeguache people. Tabeguache is one of 10 bands of the Nuche Tribe (known commonly today as Ute). The Tabeguache band lived in the mountains of Central Colorado, and held Tava as a sacred ceremony space. Every week we use the same passage to transport guests from Colorado Springs to Rocky Mountain Ascent that the Tabeguache used every year to return to their sacred home. They called this passage the “doorway to the red earth mountains”. This land was also visited by the Kiowa, Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe people.

 

The Tabeguache lived relatively undisturbed on this land until the Gold Rush attracted settlers to the region to extract from the Earth. The dirt road that we drive on every day was constructed as a train track used to transport gold extracted from the mountains to the plains. Through the Ute Treaty of 1868, that was eventually broken by the US government, the Tabeguache were forcibly removed from their home and sent to a reservation on the Western slope. The official underground gold mine (a popular tourist attraction today), was established in 1891, which led to the establishment of the town of Victor the same year, and the town of Cripple Creek in 1892. The open-cut gold mine, which you can view from our land, was initiated in 1990.

 

Tava mountain was named Pikes Peak by the US government in 1890, named after Zebulon Pike (who attempted and failed to summit Sun Mountain during his exploration of the Louisiana Territory in 1806). 

 

The fight of indigenous people to protect and maintain connection with their land is not just an event of the past, but an ongoing process. The forced disconnection of native people from their land in Colorado continues through restricted water rights, government refusal to honor historic treaties, extraction and pollution on sacred land, limited access to sacred sites, gentrification, lack of representation in public policy, erasure of history, and more. We are currently living in a process of colonization and forced displacement. 

 

Rocky Mountain Ascent’s mission is to reconnect all children to the natural world. It is important to see our collective history with clear eyes, and to support the efforts of our fellow human beings in maintaining this sacred connection.

 

It is my sincere wish that integrating this awareness into our organization and programs does not serve as an absolution of responsibility, but rather as a doorway to connection and tangible change. Thank you for supporting our vision of a future where all people can exist in sacred connection with this land that has gifted us everything.

​​

To learn more about the two federally recognized Ute Tribes, visit:

https://www.southernute-nsn.gov/

https://www.utemountainutetribe.com/

​

With love,

Tanner Harrold

Executive Director, RMA​