Hi my name is Dewayne Hendren,

I am the current Southern Ute Brave. I am the son of Hosteen and Danita Baker Hendren. I am very honored to be chosen to represent the Southern Ute Tribe as Southern Ute Brave 2015-2016.

I started my reign in September at the Southern Ute Fair and Powwow. I also was in the fair parade. Since then I’ve been busy meeting many different people. I along with my brothers Nate and Elliott gave a presentation at the Head Start Guys and kids breakfast. Our presentation was about why it is important to know who you are and where you come from. We talked about our family history.

I think November was my busiest month. I attended the Veterans Powwow at the Sky Ute Casino’s Events Center.

The Ignacio high school Honoring our Veterans dinner and show. Both events honored all our veterans. That’s important cause they fought for the people of this country so we can live freely to be and do most anything we want. My Uncle Howard and my Uncle Neil are Veterans and I am very proud of them.

I also participated in the Heritage Day performances at the Ignacio Schools honoring National Native American month.

I, along with my brother Issac and Chairman Clement Frost, helped with the Opening Ceremony for the new ELHI community center building. This was important to me as me and my brothers are a part of the La Plata County Independent Performing arts group who now have a studio in the ELHI Building.

I also attended the Southern Ute Thanksgiving Dinner greeting my Ute people. My family and I traveled to Fort Duchesne, Utah to attend the Northern Ute Thanksgiving Powwow … that was fun cause it snowed really hard.

I also participated at the young bull riders association invitational. At the Sky Ute Fairgrounds welcoming all the young bull riders to our reservation … I really liked this as I come from a family of bull riders, bronc riders and most importantly mutton busters.

I attended the Taste of Christmas starting out the holiday season. We handed out candy canes welcomed people and round danced it was fun.

I went to my first tribal Inauguration, watched my aunt Lorelei and Uncle Alex become council members.

I participated in the Leonard C. Burch Day walk.

I also was present for the Tribal Christmas Dinner.

I also started out this year by attending the Sobriety Powwow.

Oh I almost forgot, I also participated in the Al Rocker “Rockerthon.” Al Rocker was trying to break a world record broadcasting the weather from I think all fifty states. I really didn’t know who Al Rocker was until that day. He visited the Four Corners Monument. It was cold and although we were with our sister tribe the Ute Mountain, me and my brother end up standing on the Utah side of the mounument. Al thought we were from Utah and gave us an Al Rocker flag and hat. It was fun. I later found out it was for the Today Show and that people from all over the country seen me on TV. It was fun but I really liked meeting bigfoot whose sign read he came out of hiding just to see Al Rocker. I thought he was going to be mad at my brother Elliott cause he shot his big toe during the Tri-Ute Games archery competition last summer. But he wasn’t mad he let us take a picture with him.

So this is what I’ve been up to, I will tell you more in my next report.

Thank you,

Dewayne Hendren

Southern Ute Brave,

2015-2016