UTE CULTURALLY SCARRED TREES
by Celinda Reynolds Kaelin. Copyright 2003
Throughout traditional Ute ancestral lands, hundreds of culturally scarred trees have been identified. In the Pikes Peak area, these have been mapped and recorded by the Pikes Peak Historical Society, the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Sanborn Western Camps/The Nature Place and independent experts such as archaeologist Marilyn A. Martorano.
These culturally scarred trees are of several different types: (1) the Peeled Bark, or Medicine Trees, (2) the Bent or Prayer Trees, (3) arborglyphs or Message Trees, and (4) burial markers or Burial Trees. In deference to the Ute Nation, I will use the terminology that my Ute consultants use. Their lexicon generally refers to the different trees by functionality.... Click HERE to read the complete article on Ute Culturally Scarred Trees.
Click on the links below to see a larger version....
