Standing just north of Ignacio, the Southern Ute Vocational School-Head Start Building has been a fixture on Tribal Campus for roughly a century. Following careful consideration of several aspects of this project, Tribal Council approved the demolition of the Ute Vocational School-Head Start building via Resolution on Sept. 5, 2023. Demolition of the school began Monday, Oct. 14, major demolition was completed by the end of the following day. For generations the school has made both positive and negative impacts on Ute and other Indigenous students; a holdover from the BIA boarding school era, where students actively attended the school until 1981. The building has been repurposed since that time to reflect educational, governmental, and community needs, up to the closure of the Southern Ute Head Start Program in 2019.

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Historical images from the Southern Ute Drum Archives

Photography | Jeremy Wade Shockley

Video and Editing | Conrad Thompson

A Production of the Southern Ute Drum Newspaper