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Show Cedar City 133 Development Agency's Public Works Impact Project, a program in Southern Utah to provide training and jobs. The Nuwuvi were to be in complete control of these complexes. They were designed to be central meeting places and job training centers. They also were to have areas for the display and sale of beadwork, leatherwork and other products made by the Nuwuvi. The Cedar City band has established a construction company in the complex on their colony. It was hoped that these complexes would help make up for the loss in economic status that had resulted from termination. Effort is still being made to bring them into full operation. The Cedar City Nuwuvi still keep the traditions of their ancestors. They make beautiful cradle boards and intricate bead, feather, and leatherwork, including dance costumes, moccasins, gloves and vests. Traditional stories still are told. One story is about a hill near Cedar City where there is a pool in which water babies live. At night, the water babies cry out; they cry to call the Indian babies to come into the water with them. The Indians can't go there because of the water babies. The Sundance is still performed when a Nuwuvi becomes a man. The Sun God blesses the dancer with manhood. Those who participate cannot eat or drink water. Sometimes the dance lasts for a week. The Cedar City Nuwuvi continue to live in the valley around Coal Creek, where they have lived since long before Escalante found them there in 1776. The white man arrived and their lives came under his control. In Cedar City that control most strongly was represented by the Mormon Church, a fact which has made it easier for the Cedar Nuwuvi to be ignored by the federal government. For many years the Nuwuvi continued to farm in their old traditional manner along the Coal Creek bottomlands even though this process came under the control of Mormon representatives. The expansion of Cedar City finally made farming impractical. After being moved by local community leaders, the Nuwuvi colony has become isolated from the view and contact of most Cedar City residents and visitors. Yet the Nuwuvi cling to their self-respect and their traditions. Clifford Jake, an Indian Peak Nuwuvi who now lives at Cedar City, expresses this feeling well: It don't matter how you talk, what you do, if you're a Paiute you should be proud of it. . . . I'm a Paiute Indian and I'm proud of it. |