Story

The Ute Indian Museum

Expanding to Share the Stories of Ute People from the Past and Present

The Ute Indian Museum is being designed in consultation with three Ute tribes – Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, and the Ute Indian Tribe of Uintah and Ouray Reservation. 

The Ute Indian Museum celebrates the history and the living culture of Colorado’s longest continuous residents and features one of the most extensive collections of Ute ethnographic objects in existence. The State of Colorado has appropriated $2.9 million to renovate the Ute Indian Museum building. The expanded Museum will make connections between past and contemporary Ute life and culture and the Ute peoples’ history of adaptation and persistence. The 60 year old exhibits will be replaced with new ones unfolding around a central theme of geography and highlighting Ute cultural survival, political self-determination, economic opportunity and the celebration of the Bear Dance. The Museum will be available to the community as a regional gathering place.

This December 2nd, 2015 marked the official groundbreaking for the Ute Indian Museum Expansion. The groundbreaking is a celebration of a major step towards opening the new 8,236 square foot building, slated to open Summer of 2017.

Over the next year and half, History Colorado will be celebrating the opening of the expanded building and enhanced site as well as installing new exhibits and educational programs.

This post will be the first of many that will provide insight to the details of the site transformation and program rollout. Please check back to this blog and our other social media streams as we progress into this very exciting time for the Ute Indian Museum, the three Ute tribes, the community of Montrose and History Colorado.