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9781496247032 Academic Inspection Copy

Red Woman

My Southern Ute Journey from Poverty to Wall Street
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In this singular memoir, Pearl E. Casias tells the story of her rise from poverty to chair of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in rural southwest Colorado. Casias grew up in poverty and was raised by alcoholic parents. She endured domestic violence in one of her marriages. Despite those dire periods in her life, she put herself through college and rose to become a Southern Ute tribal judge. She details her experience in the tribal court, whose jurisprudence is guided by Indigenous knowledge and Ute-centered spiritual rehabilitation. Casias then spent time on the Southern Ute Indian Tribal Council, running the tribe's political and economic affairs, particularly the development of considerable mineral resources on tribal lands. During her tenure, the Southern Utes attracted a significant investment from Wall Street as the tribe became a leading producer of natural gas. Casias's eventual election as chair of the Southern Utes, the pinnacle of her accomplishments, made her the tribe's first woman chair. With unflinching honesty, Casias lays out the problems confronting Southern Ute people, including the harm that centuries of colonialism have wrought on the reservation. Blending her personal story with that of her tribe, Casias describes how, as a tribal leader, she strove to develop positive cultural values within Ute society.
Pearl E. Casias served as the Southern Ute Indian Tribe's chief judge for twelve years. She also served on the Southern Ute Indian Tribal Council and was the first woman elected chair of the tribe.
"Red Woman is a good story skillfully told, perfectly capturing the life of a woman who lived under difficult circumstances and whose difficulties are described in a straightforward way. A person of great integrity and compassion, Pearl E. Casias demonstrates how Indigenous peoples blend tradition and change and how family and community uphold the Ute people despite the pressures of poverty and isolation."--Katherine M. B. Osburn, author of Southern Ute Women: Autonomy and Assimilation on the Reservation, 1887-1934 "The way Pearl E. Casias combines her personal story with the history of her tribe as well as that of the larger world is illuminating. She possesses self-knowledge and an appreciation for justice that have enabled her to become a leader in her society. She writes with a candor that is unusual, almost disarming. I was hooked from the first word."--Margaret Randall, author of Letters from the Edge: Outrider Conversations and More Letters from the Edge: Outrider Conversations
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