Equipped with a loaner van from Athletics and camping equipment borrowed from the outdoor recreation program, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology Jack Schultz shepherded 17 Metro State students to the Ute Mountain Indian Reservation this summer. There, they camped and worked for the tribe in jobs assigned according to their majors. Some students taught. Others trained young people through the tribe's youth opportunity program. A Metro State nutrition minor worked in the public health office.

"None of these students had ever been exposed to a reservation before," Schultz says. "Most had never camped or taken a cold shower."

The trip was part of the Advanced Anthropological Field Studies course offered by Schultz on the reservation south of Cortez, Colo. The eight-week program not only immersed students in Ute culture, but also in reservation governance and operations.

Elizabeth Hauser, a senior anthropology major who is minoring in Native American studies, worked in the tribe's planning and development office. Her job this summer was to help conduct a feasibility study on whether the tribe would benefit from controlling its legal system versus having it under federal control.

"We interviewed all kinds of people," explains Hauser, "and we determined it is better to return to tribal control for the reason of tribal sovereignty and to improve their access to grant funds."

Experiential education opportunities at reservations such as this are rare, Schultz explains, especially for undergraduates. In fact it took Schultz, who has a long history with the tribe, seven months to get the tribe's approval for this program.

"It was such an incredible experience for them," Schultz says. "The whole idea was to take these Metro State students with book knowledge to perform in a real-life, cross-cultural setting, which they did admirably for eight weeks."

"It was life-changing for all of us," Hauser agrees. "Being put in the situation, seeing the culture for myself…it's one thing to learn from a textbook, but to really see how the reservation worked, it gave all of us a reality check."

Hauser says that in her case, the experience validated her decision to pursue a career in Native American law. Other students received job offers, including one young woman who has returned to Cortez to work for the tribe as a paralegal.

"We helped a lot of people," Schultz says of the program, which he hopes to offer again next summer. "We donated food and equipment to the (tribal) recreation department and, of course, worked at no cost to the tribe. I was proud of the students."

Editor's note: To help offset the costs of this program, donations can be made to the Metro State Alumni Association for the Ute Mountain Summer Program.