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Skyler Lomahaftewa is a Basalt resident and a member of the Uncompahgre band of the Ute tribe. In the winters, he gives snowboard lessons at Aspen Snowmass and in the summers, he does audio-visual work for events like Food & Wine and the Aspen Ideas Fest.
Every year around this time, Lomahaftewa goes back to the Northern Ute Reservation in Utah, where he grew up, to prepare for the annual Bear Dance. Now he’s trying to bring the spring tradition back to the Roaring Fork Valley.
“I often think about my connection here to this Valley as historical Uncompahgre Ute homelands, and being a Bear Dance chief,” he said. “This is where the Bear Dance was born, in these Rocky Mountains.”