The Center of Southwest Studies will host a special presentation, 100 Years of Silence: The Aniknuche Incarceration, covering the so-called “Posey War” of 1923 that impacted and displaced Ute and Paiute communities across San Juan County, Utah. Special guests, Shaun Ketchum, Jr (Paiute and Ute Mountain Ute), director of the 100 Years of Silence project and direct descendent of William Posey, along with author, and environmental and public historian, Jedidiah Rogers, PhD will explore this powerful, largely untold chapter of American history—one that forces us to rethink what we know about “the last Indian War” and the resilience of a people who refused to disappear. In this centennial year, the voices silenced for too long are finally being heard.
About the 100 Years of Silence Project
Ute Elders, storytellers, artists, and musicians weave narratives to showcase the indomitable spirit of the Ute Mountain Ute people over the last century. The “Posey War” led to the weeks-long, forcible internment of around 80 Ute women, children, and men in a barbed wire cage in the streets of Blanding; the murder of two Ute men; the loss of access to traditional Ute land in the Bears Ears area; and the coerced enrollment of Ute children in boarding schools. The 100 Years of Silence project seeks to promote healing by sharing the Ute perspective on the “Posey War” incident, and to showcase their legacy of endurance.
