BY JIM MIMIAGA
Bluff, Utah — For generations, the Allen Canyon band of Ute Mountain Utes have made a name for themselves creating artistic wedding baskets out of willows and plant dyes collected from the remote canyon in southeast Utah.
The clan accesses the traditional area from their base on the White Mesa reservation.
But the Utes and other tribal leaders say those and other ancestral sites are at risk of looting, vandalism, energy development and recreation impacts because they are often located on public lands.