San Ignacio Fiesta

Saturday on Goddard Avenue

At 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 25, 2026, the Southern Ute Veterans Color Guard led the San Ignacio Fiesta Parade up Goddard Avenue in Ignacio. That morning the parish wrote on its Facebook page: “It is because of them, and the many others brave soldiers, that today we are able to celebrate our Annual Fiesta and proudly celebrate USA 250 and CO 150 Anniversary.”

The sidewalks were filled. Behind the color guard came the reservation’s royalty. Autumn Sage, Miss Southern Ute, waved to the crowd. So did Shayne White Thunder, Junior Miss Southern Ute, and Starlitt Greany, Little Miss Southern Ute. Kenisha Levato, the Jicarilla Apache Nation’s Youth Powwow Princess, smiled from her place in the line.

The year’s theme was “Celebrating Freedom, Adventure & Faith.” Edward Box III, a Southern Ute tribal member, rode atop a float hung with photographs and belongings of his family, including traditional regalia. The Ignacio High School Class of 1988 turned out under the banner of Bobcat Pride. The church’s own float, decorated by volunteers in the week before, proclaimed that “generations of people have come and gone, but their spirit lives on.” Entrants paid no fee and competed for cash prizes, which the parish mailed out the following week. Oscar of Big O Production played music by the judges. The parish bulletin had said of him, “he’s always fun, so come on over.”

That night the fiesta dance began at 8 p.m. at the Sky Ute Fairgrounds on Colorado 151, the tribe’s grounds, whose indoor arena also holds the Southern Ute Tribal Fair & Powwow. Abel Lucero came up from New Mexico to play. Tom and Connie Atencio sponsored the dance, and parish volunteers worked the floor selling raffle tickets.

Brisket, calabacitas, and a one o’clock drawing

Sunday belongs to the church. St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish stands on State Highway 172. It is a Roman Catholic parish of the Diocese of Pueblo, with missions at St. Bartholomew in Bayfield and St. Peter St. Rosa in Arboles. Its bulletin carries the line “Uniting Cultures in Christ.” In 2026 the pastor was Fr. Agbor “Fredrick” Isek, MSP.

The fiesta Mass began at 10 a.m. The feast day of St. Ignatius falls on July 31. The 2026 bulletin printed the prayer that begins “Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will,” and ends “Give me only Your love and Your grace; that is enough for me.”

Lunch followed outdoors: brisket or chicken with side dishes, with a donation asked. The week before, the bulletin had called for the sides. It asked for fried bread or tortillas, large potato salads, calabacitas, and desserts. It also asked for hands to make Kool-Aid, put up tents, pick up trash, and take everything down afterward.

Variety Express played while people ate at the outdoor tables. There were a silent auction and games, and a bounce house for children, with parents told to watch their own. Raffle tickets sold until 12:30 p.m. The drawing came at 1:00, and the winners were posted the next day.

A chief, an agency, and a church

The fiesta’s saint and the town’s name do not trace back to the same man. A 2024 history by Ron Schermacher of the Ignacio Community Library, published in the Southern Ute Drum, traces the name Ignacio to the Latin Ignatius, from ignis, fire. It adds that a Basque reading gives it as “my little one.”

The town itself is named for Ignacio, a chief of the Weeminuche band of Utes in southern Colorado in the latter 19th century. Schermacher calls this “to some extent ironic,” since the chief was instrumental in the move to Towaoc in 1895.

The country has always been Ute homeland. In 1877 the U.S. Government set an Indian Agency on the Los Pinos River, near where the Denver and Rio Grande was building its line from Alamosa to Durango. A Catholic church was built in the early 1900s. A few years later, in 1908, lots were merged to form the town.

The fiesta’s own counts run alongside this record. A 2014 letter said it had been held in Ignacio for 114 years. A 2021 listing said 121, and the Durango Herald called 2026 the 126th year. The Southern Ute Drum tagged its 2026 coverage as the 80th annual parade, which makes the parade the younger of the two.

Horseshoes, a duck race, and the Matachines

The program has shifted from year to year. Selina Gallero, the fiesta’s secretary, set out the 2014 schedule in a letter to the Durango Herald. She described “an annual community celebration” that “traditionally brings families, classmates, and friends together.”

That July, construction at Ignacio High School moved the parade lineup to the church. After the parade came family events at Shoshone Park until 2 p.m., with “Big O” DJ Service, food, games, and booths. The park also held the 24th annual horseshoe tournament, in singles and doubles, for cash prizes and sweatshirts. There were a SUCAP duck race and a car cruise called Cool Cars on Hot Summer Nights.

The 2014 dance was held at Sky Ute Casino, with Perfeccion de Chimayo playing, and the fiesta royalty were crowned at 10 p.m. Sunday that year brought Mass at 10:30, then dinner, bingo for fun, a bazaar, and a raffle at 2.

In 2021 the parade went on, but no park events or dance were planned. The parish’s listing that year described the town as sitting on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation, its people “Latino’s, Native Americans and Anglos along with a mix of other ethnic backgrounds.” “We love our diverse community,” the parish wrote, “and it’s a time when we all get together and celebrate as a community.” The Sunday Mass was followed by lunch and music, “latino music of course.” The Matachine Dancers came up from New Mexico to perform, and the annual raffle closed the day.