Earlier in July, the Southern Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Ute Indian tribes got together for their annual friendly sports competition for youth. Youth athlete registration numbers soared as this year’s Tri-Ute Games was the first time the event included all three sister tribes since the COVID-19 pandemic, and some registration requirements were opened to second tribal descendants. 

At the Ignacio High School gymnasium, young athletes from the three Ute tribes played volleyball against each other at the annual Tri-Ute games. This year, the Southern Ute Tribe is hosting its sister tribes, the Ute Mountain Ute and Ute Indian tribes, in Ignacio. 

K’ia Whiteskunk is the recreation director for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. She says the three sister tribes’ gathering for this annual event shows unity and gives young people a chance to meet friends and relatives. 

“We have relatives from the other tribes that we don’t get to see. But this is a time that helps youth get to know each other and come together that maybe normally wouldn’t. I think also health-wise, difficulties and different diseases and like diabetes… so keeping the kids active is important,” Whiteskunk said. 

Over at the Southern Ute Bear Trail, athletes in colored shirts run the Ute Warrior challenge. 

Darnell Muniz is a recreation specialist at the Sun Ute Community Center. He’s guiding kids running along the road after they’ve slid down a slip-and-slide. 

“The challenge is having them running about half a mile on our Bear Dance trail all the way to the community park… we have various events like army crawl, slip and slide, and three-legged race,” Muniz said. 

Muniz says that this year’s Tri-Ute games was the first one since the COVID-19 pandemic to see all three tribes reunite. In July 2022, the Ute Games only included two tribes. Temperature checks and COVID masks were mandatory on the host reservation at the time. 

This year, the Southern Ute and Ute Indian tribes opened youth registration for this year’s games to descendants of tribal members. Muniz says over 200 youth athletes participated this year. “It’s bringing these kids together because a lot of them probably don’t know that they have cousins there or relatives in and around those areas, and cousins meeting up, or friends meeting up,” Muniz said. 

The “Ute Circle of Life” flag has been ceremoniously passed on to the Ute Indian Tribe, signifying that next year’s Tri-Ute Games will be hosted in Fort Duchesne, Utah.