The Changing Roles of Women in Tribal Culture

Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk is a shining example of what it means to work for Indigenous sovereignty, environmental justice, and gender equity and inclusion. She has been at the forefront of these initiatives in the southwest and has represented her Tribe as an everyday leader and previous member of her Tribal Council. A member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Regina grew up in southwest Colorado. Regina has always had a close connection with the land and currently serves as the Montezuma Land Conservancy’s (MLC) Cross-Cultural Programs Manager. She is a former co-chair for the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition, education director for the Ute Indian Museum, and serves on various organizational boards in support of advocacy and natural resources.

Trees, Water & People (TWP) has been honored to work with Regina, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and MLC on the Tribe’s Traditional Harvest Planning effort, which aims to improve ecosystem resilience in native plant communities on Tribal lands and improve access to private ancestral lands for cultural harvest. Regina has been instrumental in this effort and will author the Traditional Harvest Plan as part of her Master of Environmental Management degree from Western Colorado University in Gunnison, Colorado. Though it is easy to focus only on some of the more commonly harvested plants, throughout the planning process Regina has also advocated for the protection of plants that are traditionally collected by women. Willow, for example, can be used to make cradleboards, which is traditionally a woman’s task in Ute culture. Other plants collected by women are important for traditional ceremonies, as Regina stubbornly reminds us: “Sundancers wouldn’t have the means to cool their bodies without the efforts of a woman. Sundancers would not have a meal to eat without the efforts of a woman.”

Regina and her daughters use red willows to protect future generations

Women’s roles in Tribal culture are complex, and small things like cultural harvest can be overlooked. But Regina is making strides in both the small things and the big. She spends much of her time traveling, sharing Ute culture with others through storytelling, Ute song and dance, and building community through shared values. 

Along with Regina, TWP is supporting an ongoing effort to help reconnect individuals from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe to ancestral homelands in Gunnison, Colorado. In the summer of 2022, Regina joined members of the Gunnison Climate Working Group on a field tour of habitat improvements made to improve climate resiliency and brood-rearing habitat for the federally-threatened Gunnison’s sage grouse. During the tour, a connection was made - one of the cultural dances practiced by Ute people was originally inspired by the Gunnison’s sage grouse lek or mating display. But many dances today have never witnessed a lek firsthand. Together, we are exploring ways to bring Ute dances to Gunnison to view lekking sage grouse, and possibly even share their dance with members of the Gunnison community.