Show Ute Indian Recreation Department Has Busy Easter Week Planned With Bear Sunrise Services i Easter weekend has been chosen-as the time for the Annual Spring Ute Indian Bear Dance to be held at With the combined planning of Ouray community the Ute Recreation and this festival promises to be one of the best ever In earlier members of the various Ute bands assembled to celebrate the coming of spring represented symbolically by the emergence of bears from This traditional Easter observances are being added to the The public is Invited to attend the Ouray Bear April 18 through April A nominal charge of for adults and for children will be Easter sunrise conducted by the Reverend Allen of the Whiterocks Episcopal will feature a choir composed of Ute recreation leaders and members of Ute boys' and girls' Sunday morning there will be an Easter Egg hunt for all age groups followed by Field Day events from a.m. to including foot races for shinny for women and a tug-of-war for Prizes will be awarded to the f- Rodeo At Noon Both Saturday and a rodeo Is scheduled from noon to p.m. and the Bear Dance will follow the concluding day of th the Bear Dance will begin about p.m. After the dance tribal members will have a traditional feature of the Bear Dance Randlett has scheduled a Dance for the following May This celebration will consist of the customary a on the final and will conclude with an exhibition war dance and a round Whiterocks will hold a Bear Dance in after school has but detailed plans have not been made at this Is Ute Ceremonial The Bear unlike the Sun which was borrowed from the Sioux is a Ute ceremonial which has been handed down from time Religious in it formerly was the occasion upon which the Utes offered prayers of thanks for the blessings of past seasons and the winter just passed The arrival of spring was celebrated as a renewal of life when sickness and other trials of the winter should be forgotten in the promise of better time The Utes prayed for a bounteous summer with plenty of and wild animals to supply the needs of the The which awakens in the was an appropriate symbol for the renewal of Added to it was believed that bears in the wilderness danced together in pairs in the manner of the Ute Bear which is performed by men and women facing each other and moving forward and backward with a Tribal members recall that not too years group dancing Willie a man i VI woman in costumes representing a male and female bear danced |