Table Of ContentOne Voice Rising
Sage near Clifford Duncan’s childhood home in Whiterocks, Utah.
APRIL 15, 1991
One Voice Rising
The Life of Clifford Duncan
C L I F F O R D D U N C A N
with L I N D A S I L L I T O E
PHOTOGRAPHS BY George R. Janecek
FOREWORD BY Forrest Cuch
THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH PRESS
Salt Lake City
Copyright © 2019 by The University of Utah Press. All rights reserved.
The Defiance House Man colophon is a registered trademark of The University
of Utah Press. It is based on a four-foot-tall Ancient Puebloan pictograph (late PIII)
near Glen Canyon, Utah.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Names: Duncan, Clifford, author. | Sillitoe, Linda, 1948-2010, transcriber. | Janecek, George
R. (George Rudolf), 1946- photographer (expression) Title: One voice rising : the life of
Clifford Duncan / Clifford Duncan and Linda Sillitoe ; photographs by George R. Janecek.
Description: Salt Lake City : University of Utah Press, [2019] | Identifiers: LCCN 2018048122
(print) | LCCN 2018050697 (ebook) | ISBN 9781607816874 () | ISBN 9781607816867 (cloth
: alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Duncan, Clifford. | Indian healers--Biography. | Ute Indians-
-Biography. | Ute Indians--History. | Native American Church of North America. | Ute
Indians--Religion. | Indians of North America--Poetry. Classification: LCC E99.U8 (ebook) |
LCC E99.U8 D79 2019 (print) | DDC 979.004/9745760092 [B] —dc23 LC record available
at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018048122
Errata and further information on this and other titles available online at UofUpress.com
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Earth Teach Me
There is a road in the hearts of all of us, hidden and seldom traveled,
which leads to an unknown, secret place.
The old people came literally to love the soil,
and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of
being close to a mothering power.
Their teepees were built upon the earth
and their altars were made of earth.
The soul was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing.
That is why the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of
propping himself up and away from its life giving forces.
For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply
and to feel more keenly. He can see more clearly into the mysteries of
life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him.
—Chief Luther Standing Bear
Contents
Foreword by Forrest Cuch ix
Preface by Carolyn Janecek xiii
Introduction by Linda Sillitoe xv
1. Indian Healing Ways 1
2. Early Reservation Days 5
3. The Bear Dance 10
PHOTO ESSAY: The Bear Dance, Whiterocks, Utah 15
4. Early Childhood 23
5. Indian Religion 30
6. The Other Side 33
7. Change on the Reservation 36
8. Indian Rodeo 42
9. Military Service 45
10. The Sun Dance 48
PHOTO ESSAY: The Sun Dance, Neola, Utah 57
11. White Ways 61
12. City Living 63
13. Peyote Meetings 71
14. Modern Living on the Reservation 76
PHOTO ESSAY: Clifford Duncan at Home 80
15. Kennedy Years, Johnson Inauguration 93
16. Father’s Death 97
17. Medicine Man 100
viii
PHOTO ESSAY: A Lone Teepee, Neola, Utah 106
18. Divorce and Remarriage 116
19. Museum Director 123
20. The Human Side of Things 128
PHOTO ESSAY: Artifacts, Heirlooms, and Acquaintances 133
21. Painting 147
22. Healing Ceremonies 149
23. Government and Peyote 156
24. Powwow 161
PHOTO ESSAY: Powwow, Fort Duchesne, Utah 171
25. This Man, Jesus 217
26. Culture Clash 227
27. Science and Religion 238
28. The Return of the Uncompahgre 244
29. Indian Way and the World 248
30. The Olympics 254
31. The Hospital 258
Foreword
Forrest Cuch, March 2017
The Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation has had
many great people, inspiring leaders, and powerful medicine peo-
ple. Clifford Duncan was one of them, as was his great-grandfather
John. Clifford was born and raised on the Ute Reservation located
in northeastern Utah. He was a participant in the historic pattern of
mid-twentieth century reservation life in the area referred to as the
Uinta Basin. First came his strong traditional upbringing in a Ute
family living in the northern portion of the reservation, near the base
of the Uinta Mountains. They had a rural livelihood, filled with riding
horses, long stays with relatives, and learning Ute ways. Then came
exile in the federal boarding school system, followed by the many
turns of young adulthood, city living, and eventually a return home.
As the old people say, “We all return home sooner or later.”
With adulthood had come marriage and a brief urban lifestyle.
He was a trendsetter as an early stay-at-home dad when his wife was
working in the medical field in Salt Lake City, Utah. His life would
take many turns. He returned home to the reservation and served in
numerous roles in tribal government, from tribal councilman on the
governing Ute Business Committee to museum curator; all the while
serving as Native American Church spiritual leader (Roadman) to the
Utes and eventually ambassador to many members of the religion
in Utah and the surrounding area. Although he was cautious of the
