Utah's 5 tribes getting their due, too

The first installment of the five-part television documentary that was his brainchild and in which he makes a number of guest appearances ran Monday night on KUED.

But by noon Tuesday, Forrest Cuch's phone still hadn't rung.

"Hollywood hasn't made one call," said Cuch. "I'm not sure I'm marquee material."

But then that wasn't the point of the production.

The point was to tell the story of Utah's true natives — the five American Indian tribes indigenous to the state. The Paiute. The Ute. The Navajo. The Goshute. The Shoshone.

As director of the state's Division of Indian Affairs, it was never Cuch's intent to be the star of the show.

He wanted history to be the star.

The impetus for the project dates back three years to 2006 when KUED, the local affiliate of PBS, alerted Cuch about an Indian history series PBS was planning called "We Shall Remain."

The series would be in five parts and be a part of the network's "American Experience," billed as the most-watched history series on television.

But when Cuch reviewed the content of the PBS series, he discovered that there was nothing about the tribes of the Great Basin.

Cuch talked to KUED's producers about the possibility of piggy-backing a local documentary series onto the national program.

Since there would be five parts to "We Shall Remain" and since Utah has five indigenous tribes, they could focus on one tribe every broadcast.

"(KUED producer) Ken Verdoia, bless his heart, said, 'Let's do it,' " recalls Cush.

Years of research and interviewing followed, resulting in the five half-hour local shows that will air every Monday night through May 4 following each 90-minute national presentation.

The opening segment that aired Monday focused on the Paiutes. Next will be the Utes, followed by the Navajo, the Goshute and the Shoshone.

The Paiute documentary followed PBS's "After the Mayflower," which focused on the relationship between the Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620 and the local Wampanoag tribe.

In many ways, the Wampanoag history parallels the Paiute.

First the Wampanoags befriended the new white settlers seeking religious freedom, then they attempted to form alliances with them, and ultimately they were overrun and dominated by them.

The Paiutes went through a similar sequence with the white Mormon settlers.

"That's true, very true," notes Cuch. "The same things happened, and you have the same results."

What's encouraging to Cuch is the same thing that's encouraging to Indian leaders across America: that the story is being told accurately.

"If I were to rate the (Indian) history in our current textbooks, I would give it a four for accuracy," says Cuch.

The series helps explain that the inevitable conflict between Indians and whites boiled down to issues over food and water.