Milestone.

Photograph © Jeremy Wade Shockley/SU DRUM

I have officially reached the one year mark as lead photographer, reporter and photo editor for the Southern Ute Drum Newspaper. One year since I was hired on by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe to cover events spanning from Ute Culture to the political workings of a Sovereign Nation. One year marks 24 issues of the Drum in print, and 56,640 images in the archive!

Things are just getting started.

For those unable to peruse the Drum firsthand alongside your morning coffee, please take a minute to check out the Drum online and keep checkin' in as we roll out our first issues for 2010! Visit the Southern Ute Drum online RIGHT HERE.

Cheers, Jeremy

The Forth Season: Old Ways.

Photographs © Jeremy Wade Shockley 2009. All Rights Reserved.

This is my grandfather, James W. Shockley. He is a hard old man, a worker, and a real bad ass-the sort of guy that would make John Wayne seem soft, lazy in comparison. Born in a small town on the panhandle of Texas he was witness to the end of the Great Depression and is no stranger to hardship, or the old ways.

He brakes the standard rule, for he is a jack of all trades and has managed to master a few. Perhaps his only real enjoyment out side of family and hard work would be his one week of elk hunting each year, which he never misses. Dub, as he is called by his friends, still manages to hunt the high ridges and deep, rugged forest at the age of eighty, shoots straighter then most, and processes his own meat. Enter the old ways, very few have the know how or take the massive effort required to clean, butcher, and process big game for themselves.

Set in the dusty barn of my youth is a large meat block, and under that table is an old portable heater that buzzes when turned on, emitting a strong burned smell from its many years of service. My grandfather boils water to clean the surface of the large wooden table and sharpens various knives on the heavy whit stones which lay off to the side. The largest pieces of the animal are butchered first, leaving the finer cuts of meat till the end, each one carefully wrapped in clean white butcher paper and labeled by hand.

A large steel Hobart grinder turns all the small cuts and second choice meat into sausage. Dogs gather from near and far to bicker and fight over the scraps turned out for them, the larger dogs carry away the bones and ribs as if victorious in their own hunt. The warm water and what little heat is radiated from the space heater make winter conditions in the barn bearable as the hours of labor drag on till the last package of meat is neatly stacked in the icebox.

Knives, rifles, clothing and boots are all cleaned and stored until the following year when the weather turns cold once again and the Fourth Season opens for young men and old hunters.

The Forth Season: Blue Skies.

Photograph © Jeremy Wade Shockley 2009.

Four Mile.

Photograph © Jeremy Wade Shockley 2009.

In an effort to get out of the house and soak up some sunshine, I found myself photographing some friends bouldering outside of Buena Vista over the weekend. Whenever I am somewhere new, different I am almost instinctively drawn to explore the surrounding landscape, be it urban or natural.

The trademark of any good journalist I suppose would be curiosity followed by dedicated observation. I had only moments to spend with Chad and his climbing crew before heading back into town, but this single image of ritual preparation for the climb summed up that afternoon amongst friends. The white chalk takes the sweat and slip out of the climbers hands thus enabling a better grip on the steep and often treacherous rock face.

Images from the Forth Season are still being edited and should post soon!

Cheers, Jeremy

Spotlight on Wes Studi.

Photograph Jeremy Wade Shockley/SU DRUM

Wes Studi Graces Fort Lewis College
By Rachel Beckelhymer

Wes Studi strutted onto the stage with all the air of a true movie star. He had every reason to feel proud, as the honored lecturer at the 2009 Fort Lewis College Native American Presidential Lecture Series, at the Community Concert Hall in Durango, Colorado. The annual lecture in honor of Native American Heritage Month highlights a Native American luminary, and Wes Studi was up to the challenge as he spun yarns for a packed house on Thursday evening, November 5. After sharing the colorful stories from his life, he stayed to pose for numerous photographs with school children, Southern Ute Royalty, and many happy fans.

The Cherokee actor, activist, author, and Vietnam War Veteran, sauntered to a generous black leather chair, his black leather jacket glistened in the bright lights as he went. “I’d like to make myself more comfortable,” he said as he began to disrobe. He ceremoniously unbuttoned his white shirt and slowly undid his black silk neck scarf. Lounging casually with crossed legs and a microphone poised for storytelling in his left hand, he began.

“Some of you may remember the days when the only phones we had were attached to walls.” Wes Studi shared experiences from his life, like his years in Vietnam, “Not a pleasant experience.” And what it was like when he returned. “I came back at a time where there was a lot of unrest.” He said, but he found welcome in the Indian community. “I think that’s something Indians do well. No matter what people thought about the war, they welcomed us back and realized that, ‘these are our young men’ ”

Born in Oklahoma, at No Fire Hollow, in the Cherokee Nation, his family moved around frequently, “I became a wondering man at that point, at [age] seven.” After the war he attended Bacon College. But, “I never had a passion for what I did...then I discovered acting.” It was in Tulsa Oklahoma, at the American Indian Theater Company. “I went, and I looked in and saw like eight women and two men. “Hey, I like these odds,” and that’s how I got started.”

His first of 60 films was, Powwow Highway. He can be seen as Magua, in Last of the Mohicans, and in the films Geronimo, The Only Good Indian, Avatar, and Dances with Wolves. When asked if he could make any movie, he said he’d like to try Othello, on the Rez. After answering audience questions, he left the stage with a command, “Go out, and live your dreams.”

Visit the latest Southern Ute Drum Newspaper Online HERE to see more on Wes Studi.

The Forth Season : First Storm

Photographs © Jeremy Wade Shockley 2009. All Rights Reserved.

A cold bitter sting was in the air, the environment we had been searching for any sign elk had completely changed. The tables were turned in our favor, guesswork had turned to clear cut tracking.

In the midst of running a herd of elk across a deep ravine, I crossed a beautiful six point shed antler. It would take me almost two hours to circle back around to the elevation where I had seen it, take this photo, and pack it out as my only souvenir for the season.

Elk shed their antlers each spring, the large bones break off against rocks, trees and often times while sparring with other bulls.

Photographs © Jeremy Wade Shockley.

The Forth Season : Mitchell

Photographs © Jeremy Wade Shockley 2009. All Rights Reserved.

I began hunting with Ben Mitchell in the year 2007. We are friends, neighbors, and for five days out of each year, dedicated woodsman.

Ben's patience with my need to document our search for elk seems to have no end. In the early morning light, a single, or multiple, trip of the camera shutter seems to ring through the silence like a gunshot. I feel like the one kid unwrapping a butterscotch candy during final exams. If at times Ben seems to be annoyed by my journalistic pursuits, I fall back and focus my lens on the nature around us and the hunt at hand.

Please take a moment to view some of the images from my first year out with Ben Mitchell and my grandfather James "Dub" Shockley. To see those images enter the photo gallery HERE.

Cheers, Jeremy

The Forth Season : Deadwood

One of my longest running documentary projects started the year I returned from Africa. When my 76 year old grandfather asked me to accompany him on an elk hunting trip into the woods, it seemed natural to document the event. I was acting only as a scout and "Bird Dog" as he would so many times refer to me in the company of others.

He always hunts a late season, and is reluctant to give up the woods he has hunted for so long. An interesting fact about those woods is that the old growth forest was severely damaged by the effects of the 2002 Missionary Ridge Fire, leaving large sections of the once thriving forest dead, and seemingly more stark than the year before.

I made these images on our first day out this year, showing a dead forest that is dangerous in high winds and downright spooky at night.

This photo essay began in the Fall of 2005, I have returned faithfully with camera, and rifle, in hand each year since, developing this story about traditions, my grandfather, and the art of the hunt.

Photographs © Jeremy Wade Shockley 2009.