Karma Grayman, a Shivwits Band language educator and culture keeper with the Southern Paiute Tribe, is set to give a presentation on the history of the area in and around southwestern Utah this week as part of Native American Heritage Month.
The presentation, which is free and open to the public, provides an essential opportunity for residents to learn more and understand the history of the Southern Paiute homelands where up-to-date residents now reside, organizers said.
“During this modern time, our Paiute language, stories, songs, history, traditional lifestyle, and Indigenous homelands have been nearly forgotten and lost due to the practice of assimilation,” Grayman said. “Our elders have foreseen the time when our children would no longer know who they are, speak their language, nor carry on some of the traditional ways.”
Grayman said she wanted to assist youthful parents and tribal people recall what they were taught when they were younger and pass it on to younger generations, in addition to helping other area residents to know more about the Paiutes and the history of the land.
“I want to bring awareness of the Paiute who are Indigenous to these lands, to the people who are new to this area,” Grayman said. “We have a history not written in books.”
Scheduled for 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 18, at the Dunford Auditorium in the Browning Learning Resource Center at Utah Tech University, the event was organized by Conserve Southwest Utah and the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at UT.
Organizers with Conserve Southwest Utah, a local nonprofit advocacy group, encouraged the public to come for a unique opportunity to learn more about southwestern Utah from the perspective of the Paiutes and their histories.
“As an advocate for our local natural and cultural resources, Conserve Southwest Utah acknowledges that the public lands we work to safeguard are Southern Paiute homelands,” said Sarah Thomas-Clayburn, CSU’s Community Outreach and Partnerships Coordinator. “We encourage Washington County residents to listen, learn and celebrate Indigenous culture, knowledge and ancestral homelands this November and beyond.”
Tyson Fullmer, an Ancestral Homelands Conservation intern with CSU, said that as an Anglo-American student, he was anxious to learn from Indigenous neighbors like Grayman.
“Why wouldn’t we want to learn from the wisdom and perspective of a people who have been successfully stewarding this land since time immemorial?” Fullmer said.
For more information and to RSVP for additional Native American Heritage Month programming, including the Shivwits Toy Drive Fundraiser, visit conserveswu.org.
