The Mesa Verde Foundation strives to provide exciting and educational experience through our tours and events. Tours provide those seeking deeper experiences at Mesa Verde National Park and the greater Ancestral Puebloan region with in-depth experiences. Our events provide ways for people to engage further with the Foundation in communities throughout the Four Corners region.
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!
After two years of pandemic-related interruptions, the Fall Tour is back! Join tour leaders Dr. Andrew Gulliford, Professor of History and Environmental Studies at Fort Lewis College, and Christopher Lewis , expert basket weaver and fiber artisan of the Zuni Pueblo, for a four-day tour of Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde, one of 12 original UNESCO World Heritage sites, is home to thousands of ancient artifacts of Ancestral Puebloan tribes. During these four days, you will visit cliff dwellings and get an in-depth look at the history of the Ancestral Puebloans who lived at Mesa Verde. Tour cost includes guided tours of some of Mesa Verde’s most iconic sites, 3 nights’ lodging (based on double-occupancy), six meals, an exclusive reception with the Park Superintendent at the superintendent’s residence (built by Jesse Nusbaum in 1921 on the rim of Spruce Tree Canyon) and a private viewing of artifacts from the museum’s collection with Dr. Tara Travis.
Tour Leaders
Dr. Andrew Gulliford
Andy is Professor of History and Environmental Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, where he teaches courses on wilderness, national parks and environmental history. Andy is the author of America’s Country Schools, Sacred Objects, and Sacred Places: Preserving Tribal Traditions and Boomtown Blues: Colorado Oil Shale, which won the Colorado Book Award. For the centennial of Mesa Verde National Park in 2006, he edited seven new books on Mesa Verde published by the Durango Herald Small Press. His most recent book, Outdoors in the Southwest: An Adventure Anthology (University of Oklahoma Press, 2014) won two New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards as well as the Colorado Book Award.
Christopher J. Lewis
Christopher Lewis lives in the village of Zuni Pueblo in western New Mexico. He is a member of the Badger Clan and a child of the Corn Clan. He is a fiber artist and basket and textile scholar. Christopher has worked the last 11 years to revive basketry in Zuni. He has also collaborated with other Pueblos to revive their textile arts. Christopher is a Native Scholar on the Cedar Mesa Perishables Project. He has studied Ancient Perishables such as baskets, textiles, wood and feather work from the Greater Southwest housed in major museums.
Tour Cost
$1,300: Non-member, per participant
$1,200: MVF Fellow, per participant
Early Birds who register by July 1st, will receive $100 off the registration fee.
$65 per night single supplement for guests not sharing a room.
50% deposit required to register and hold your place.
The tour has limited capacity and will fill up. Register now!
To register, or for more information, contact the Mesa Verde Foundation’s Executive Director, Shannon Clifford, at 303-321-3120 or by email at shannon@mesaverdefoundation.org
“Tribal Consultation: What is it and how does it affect Mesa Verde and other National Parks?”
Presenter: Troy Eid, Co-Chair of American Indian Law Practice, Greenberg Traurig LLP, President, Navajo Nation Bar Association & Mesa Verde Foundation Board Member
Moderator: Monica Buckle, (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) Mesa Verde Foundation Board Member
Date: Tuesday, May 10th at 4:00pm MDT
In this presentation, the Honorable Troy A. Eid of Greenberg Traurig, LLP – co-chair of the firm’s American Indian Law Practice Group, former United States Attorney for Colorado under President George W. Bush, and former Chairman of the Indian Law and Order Commission under President Barack Obama – will discuss the origins of tribal consultation and how it applies in practice at Mesa Verde and beyond.
When Congress created Mesa Verde National Park in 1906, the Park was carved out of what had previously been a portion of the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation. This tribe and many others have historical and cultural ties to the Park’s lands. Additionally, several other tribes, including the Hopi and Zuni Tribes, are descended from the Ancestral Puebloans who inhabited the area.
As sovereigns pre-dating the U.S. Constitution, Native American tribes retain their own inherent powers of self-government, subject to the overarching control of Congress. All executive branch departments and agencies of the U.S. government – including the National Park Service – have a legal obligation to consult with Native American tribes on a government-to-government basis whenever federal decision-making affects tribes’ interests.
Accordingly, National Park Service and other federal officials have a continuing obligation to consult with tribal leaders before making federal decisions affecting their tribal governments and citizens. More specifically, a series of Presidential executive orders and policies, which tribes may enforce against agencies through federal court litigation, require that such consultation be “meaningful” to be legal.
Troy A. Eid (rhymes with “side”) co-chairs the American Indian Law Practice Group at Greenberg Traurig, LLP (www.gtlaw.com). He is the President of the Navajo Nation Bar Association -the largest legal services organization in the country that directly serves a Native American tribal government – and is the former United States Attorney for the District of Colorado, appointed by President George W. Bush. During the Obama Administration, Troy chaired the Indian law and Order Commission, the advisory board to the President and Congress for strengthening public safety for all 574 federally recognized tribes.
Troy is frequently selected as a mediator to resolve disputes between Native American tribes and energy companies, and between tribes and state governments. He also represents tribes and companies in federal criminal and civil investigations. He was named the 2022 Lawyer of the Year in Colorado by Best lawyers in America and is ranked as one of the nation’s top 10 experts in Native America law in the latest Chambers USA Guide. Before joining GTLAW, Troy served on the cabinet of former Governor Bill Owens as Chief legal Counsel to the Governor and as Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Personnel & Administration, responsible for Colorado’s 72,000-employee state workforce and civil service system.
Troy grew up in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, and is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of Chicago Law School. After college, he served in the Reagan Administration as Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Troy and his wife of 32 years, Allison H. Eid, a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, -met at Stanford as undergraduates. They have two children. An aging yet optimistic ultramarathoner, Troy holds Master’s Division titles in trail races ranging from 10 k to 104.8 miles.
The webinar will be moderated by Mesa Verde Foundation Board Member Monica Buckle (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma).
**The Mesa Verde Foundation Webinar Series “Conversations from the Mesa” will be taking a break for the summer months. We will return with new and interesting topics on September 13th, at 4:00 p.m. (Mountain Time). We look forward having you join us in September.**
To sign up for this webinar, click HERE.
“Conversations from the Mesa” Past Webinars
**Note last 3 webinars are featured below. For additional webinars, please visit our YouTube page by clicking HERE.**
Results of Archeological Surveys and Testing for the Mesa Top and Cliff Palace Loops Roadwork: April 2022’s webinar with Christine McAllister, Archeologist, Mesa Verde National Park
Virtual Behind-the-Scenes Tour of the Mesa Verde National Park Archive: March 2022’s webinar with Tara Travis, Supervisory Museum Curator Mesa Verde National Park and Yucca House National Monument
What It Takes: Stabilizing Ancestral Pueblo Architecture at Mesa Verde: February 2022’s webinar with Stephen Matt, Mesa Verde National Park Ranger and Preservation Archaeologist