Media Links

Learn more about DARG's research, education, and outreach

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Colorado Experience, Rocky Mountain PBS, 2019

Join in the urgent search for the endangered archaeological sites of the “wickiup” homes where the Ute Indians once lived when they were free to follow the seasons all over their land of “the shining mountains” … and where they returned even after they were forced out of Colorado.

2019 Western Colorado Heritage Award Winners, Museums of Western Colorado

Museums of Western Colorado (MWC) Heritage Awards recognize those who have contributed significantly to the community by preserving, researching, and supporting our historical and paleontological legacy. On March 5, 2019, the MWC presented awards to two DARG research associates, Nicole Inman and Michael Piontkowski. Nicole and Michael have been conducting archaeological and historical research with DARG since 2003. The Historian Award, which recognizes distinguished and long-term contributions by an individual, group, or organization to the public understanding and appreciation of Mesa County and Western Slope history, was presented to Nicole for her book, Images of America: Plateau Valley, which focuses on the history of the Grand Mesa and communities of Collbran, Plateau City, and Molina. The Archaeological Award, which recognizes distinguished and long-term contributions by an individual, group, or organization to the public understanding and apprecation of Mesa County and Western Slope archaeology, was awarded to Michael for his contributions to the knowledge base of the region's archaeology. (Read more...)

To get a copy of Nicole Inman's book, Images of America: Plateau Valley:click here

2014 Stephen H. Hart Awards for Historic Preservation, History Colorado

12th Annual Governor's Award for Historic Preservation: The Colorado Wickiup Project. In 2003, with funding support from the State Historical Fund and the Bureau of Land Management, the Dominquez Archaeological Research Group (DARG) began conducting a documentation and information-sharing project for all known Protohistoric/Historic aboriginal wooden structures in the state, known as the Colorado Wickiup Project. Since then, researchers have identified more than 300 sites with over 800 wooden features and more than 50 sites with over 300 wooden features. (Read more...)

2014 Governor's Award for Historic Preservation - Colorado Wickiup Project from History Colorado on Vimeo.

Durango Herald, March 14, 2019

By Jonathan Romeo
A race against time to document Native American shelters: Project aims to record historic Ute structures in Southwest Colorado. For years, archaeologists have been documenting hundreds of wooden shelters left by Native Americans in northern Colorado, in a time-is-of-the-essence project as the land reclaims the historic structures. (Read more...)

The Daily Sentinel, February 11, 2018

By Bob Silbernagel
Indians used different technique to hunt buffalo in the mountains. Buffalo jumps — sites where Indians chased animals over cliffs so they could gather meat, hides and other parts of the creatures — are well known in the archaeology of the West. In the mountains of western Colorado, however, buffalo jumps were rare. Instead, native people employed another technique for trapping and killing bison, the animals commonly called buffalo in North America. (Read more...)

Rangely Outdoor Museum, The Wickiup Project, July 1, 2017

The start of summer brought a great addition to the Rangely Outdoor Museum's displays. The outside grounds now house a recently built Wickiup shelter. The Wickiup stands over 10 feet and was built by a group of archeologists, Colorado Mesa University students, and Dan Fiscus and his family. The leader of the Wickiup project, Curtis Martin, works as a research archaeologist in Grand Junction, Colorado, at the Grand River Institute and Dominquez Archaeological Research Group Inc. He is one if the leaders of the Colorado Wickiup Project, a project put on by the Dominquez Archaeological Research Group Inc. to find, document, research, and teach about the Wickiups that are found scattered throughout Colorado.(Read more...)

US Dept of Agriculture, Archaeological heritage of Colorado's Ute Tribe part of national forests' history in Rocky Mountain Region, Feb 21, 2017

By Michael Stearly, Rocky Mountain Region, US Forest Service
There are small piles of fallen wooden timbers on national forests in the Rocky Mountain Region that tell a story of the area’s past. They are part of aboriginal wooden structures known as wickiups, a conical-shaped dwelling used by native people.
These relics are known to be part of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe of southwestern Colorado and are still in use for ceremonial purposes. The relics are part of the tribe’s legacy of living on these lands and are a part of the cultural history on the Grand Mesa - Uncompahgre – Gunnison, San Juan, White River and Rio Grande national forests. (Read More...)

A Western Wiki-pedia, May/June 2015

By Eric A. Powell
Researchers believe that Native Americans have been building the conical wooden shelters popularly known as wickiups, which usually leave no trace in the archaeological record, for at least 12,000 years. In the arid Mountain West, however, many of these structures, some of them recently dated to just hundreds of years ago, are still standing. The Colorado Wickiup Project, led by archaeologist Curtis Martin, has been documenting and dating these temporary dwellings, and has created a database of more than 400 in northwestern Colorado alone. (Read more...)

Western Digs, January 11, 2015

By Blake De Pastino
Hundreds of 19th-Century Wickiups Recorded in Colorado Mountains. In the mountain forests of western Colorado, archaeologists and tribal members have recorded scores of sites that contain the remains of hundreds of wickiups, cone-shaped wooden structures built by the Ute, or Nuche, people more than a century ago. (Read more...)

The Denver Post, 2014

By Tom Noel
Noel: On the trail of Ute wickiups in Colorado. Colorado’s oldest continuing residents, the Utes, arrived centuries before the Arapaho and Cheyenne came in the early 1800s or the Spanish in the 1700s. The Utes prevailed in Colorado but traveled lightly and left few traces. (Read more...)

Indianz.com, Tribes help document historic wickiup sites in Colorado, March 24, 2014

The Colorado Wickiup Project is now wrapping up an 11-year study in partnership with History Colorado's State Historical Fund, the Ute tribes, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and the National Forest Service under the leadership of the Dominguez Archaeological Research Group.(Read more...)