SPIRIT OF THE PEAKS is a film about the struggle for balance between two worlds. For Hunkpapa Lakota skier Connor Ryan, skiing in Ute Territory has always raised questions about being in reciprocity with the land and its people. As a skier who connects with the land through sport, he empathizes with the injustices that have displaced the Utes and ongoing colonization, erasure and extraction impacting the Ute people. This story connects conflicted pasts to an awakening in cultural awareness that can create an equitable future for Indigenous people and skiers.
I am putting out this episode as a direct response to Utah's annual July 24th holiday Pioneer Day. Pioneer Day celebrates the arrival of Brigham Young and the white Mormon settlers to the lands of the Diné, Hopi, Goshute, Paiute, Pueblo, Shoshone, Timpanogos and Ute people. Living in this state, it is uncomfortable to have folks around me celebrating the arrival of colonizers who brought mass eradication, forced assimilation, boarding schools, and generations of trauma to the Indigenous people who were already living here.
Please take a listen to this episode to hear more about how we can develop a reciprocal relationship with the land, what reclamation to Native culture can feel like, and who are other inspiring Indigenous activists and artists out there right now.
Follow the film:
Watch the film for free: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSwmJMH04Ww&t=1s
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sacredstoke/ + https://www.instagram.com/nativesoutdoors/
Sisters Rising with Willow O'Feral & Brad Heck
Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It with Mariem Pérez Riera
Potato Dreams of America with Wes Hurley
After Antarctica with Tasha Van Zandt
The Zen Speaker: Breaking the Silence with Robin Greenspun & Amy Ayoub
Wild Indian with Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr.
Violation with Madeleine Sims-Fewer & Dusty Mancinelli
Ludi with Edson Jean
Knocking with Frida Kempff & Cecilia Milocco
Workhorse Queen with Angela Washko
Strawberry Mansion with Albert Birney & Kentucker Audley
The Blazing World with Carlson Young
Pleasure with Ninja Thyberg
Superior with Erin Vassilopoulos
Current Sea with Christopher Smith
The Killing of Two Lovers with Robert Machoian
Love and Fury with Sterlin Harjo
Mucho Mucho Amor with Kareem Tabsch
Lovemobil with Elke Lehrenkrauss
Summer White with Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Past Present Feature with Marcus Mizelle
Team Deakins
The Sackhoff Show
You Can’t Make This Up
THE WAYNE AYERS PODCAST