Ep.42: Thinking about living in and relating better to this place

This episode begins with some reflections on my experience and
relations to people of place and to being mindful of where one
lives, especially if one’s immediate ancestral ties lie
elsewhere. I think about responsibilities and possibilities of
relating differently and better to where I currently reside by
digging deeper beyond the dominant understandings of Indigenous
people and issues here in Utah. I highlight a variety of sources
by Indigenous folks in order to respect their capacity and
listening to what they have already shared by reading what is
already available and putting in some work to better understand
it. Topics include remembering Soonkahni (Salt Lake Valley),
Indigenous identities and cultural politics in this place and
remembering a more complex and nuanced reality outside of our
current cultural climate crisis. I work through different words
and terms and where they derive from along with a range of
meanings. This episode concludes by thinking about Farmer’s
historical observation of a shift from an aquatic age to a
hydraulic one that underpins various issues currently faced right
now in this place. An overarching theme is a practice of
respecting elder cultures and perspectives in order to more
meaningfully relate to place.


Terms: Soonkahni (Salt Lake Valley in Newe Taikwa-Shoshoni
Language), Piapaa (Big Water, Sea, a name for the Great Salt Lake
in Newe Taikwa), Pia Okwai (Big Flow/River, a name for Utah’s
Jordan River in Newe Taikwa), Newe (The People), Neme (The
People), Nuuchiu (The People), Nuwuvi (The People), Diné (The
People), Awahko (Sucker fish in Newe Taikwa), Paa Kateten (One
name for Utah Lake in Newe Taikwa).


Suggested Reading List: History and culture - Darren Parry’s Bear
River Massacre; Forest Cuch’s (Ed) A History of Utah’s American
Indians; We shall remain – Utah documentary series; Dora Van et.
al’s History of Unita Valley Shoshone Tribe of the Utah Nation.
Non-Indigneous writers/producers - Black hawks mission of peace
by Philip Gottfredson and The Black Hawk War Utah’s Forgotten
Tragedy documentary film; Utah’s Black Hawk War by John Alton
Peterson; On Zion’s Mount by Jared Farmer; Place and Personal
Names of the Gosiute Indians of Utah by Ralph V. Chamberlin.
Linguistic – Drusilla Gould and Christopher Loether’s An
Introduction to the Shoshone Language; University of Utah’s
Shoshoni Language Project.