Indians in Denver

By Cindy Yurth

Navajo Times/NAM

DENVER — Funny I never noticed this when I was growing up here, but there are Indians all over the place in Denver.

Most of them are painted on walls.
I just walked three blocks from the Art Museum, where there’s a reception going on for Native leaders attending the Democratic National Convention, to find batteries for my camera. I came across a sculpture, a mural, and a poster depicting Native Americans.
Every gift shop has Native-themed jewelry and souvenirs, though in this part of downtown, they’re probably made in China.

Yet, at the Native American policy forum here just a few hours ago, attendance by the public was sparse to non-existent. There, Denverites could have met a variety of Indian leaders from around the country discussing the themes so crucial to Indian Country: health care, economic development, education.

If they were as interested in Natives as their art indicates, they could have learned a lot.

Perhaps Denverites prefer their Indians two-dimensional.

I grew up in Littleton, a very white southern suburb maybe 15 miles south of here. We learned in civics class that we were in Arapahoe County, but it wasn’t until I was in college I learned the Arapahoe were the Native tribe that once occupied the area. I never actually met an Arapahoe; in fact, I don’t think I have to this day. I think their reservation is in southern Wyoming.
Many counties in Arizona, where I now live, are named for Native tribes. I live in Apache County, although the part I live in is on the Navajo Nation. I have met a few Apaches. But it wasn’t until the 1970s, after a drawn-out lawsuit by a Navajo woman, that Natives on reservations in Arizona won the right to enjoy county services like law enforcement and road maintenance.

Of course, naming places after whatever we displaced there is nothing new. Developers do it all the time: Quail Run, Deer Springs, Apple Grove Estates.

What does it mean when we like to decorate with people and animals, but don’t care to encounter them in person?
I don’t know. But when a speaker at the forum called indigenous people “the invisible Americans,” I’m not sure he got it quite right.

Visibility is one thing. Getting people to listen to you is another.

Photo Credit: Cindy Yurth

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