Park City High School senior Ella Ehrich is a member of the student council and plays on the tennis team, but she’s also a local history buff.
On her own time outside of school she wrote a research paper exploring the history of the Indigenous communities of the greater Park City area.
“The most notable tribes have been the Shoshone and Ute tribes, which there’s evidence of them in the Park City area directly in the past couple hundred years,” Ehrich said. “I spoke with a local botanist who uncovered a bow and arrow used by an Indigenous group, and that was found in the Kimball Junction area. And there’s just so much evidence like that that just shows how much more history there is that we don’t know about.”
Ehrich later approached Park City government about how the city could recognize the local history.
Working with Park City Mayor Nann Worel, she helped write a resolution recognizing November as Native American Heritage Month. The Park City Council approved the resolution at its meeting Thursday.
“This goes farther than me,” Ehrich said. “If I was able to get this on a really community level, we’d be able to really highlight the history, and I think that being able to tell the whole town about what Park City is and the beautiful stories of Park City, it would be amazing.”
Councilmember Ed Pargian recognized the importance of her work Thursday.
“I think every day we should think about the land that we are on and where it came from, and the Indigenous people that were here before us, and recognize that we aren’t the only people in this world,” Parigian said.
Read the full resolution here.
