Women have lovingly made cradleboards and baby carriers for generations.
This unique cultural tradition is an amazing demonstration of love between a mother and child.
Our tribal cultural advisors explained to us that cradleboards allow babies to better see what is happening in their surroundings and to have good eye contact with persons speaking to them, compared with laying babies on their stomachs or backs.
Traditionally, they wore them on their backs, leaving their hands free for other work.
But sometimes they also leaned the cradleboard up against a tree or the hung the strap over a low branch.
Many mothers continue today to use cradleboards.
Some are made traditionally; others incorporate newer materials such as cotton fabric. In both cases, they continue to be made with great love and reverence.
In Cortez, Colorado, near the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, the local hardware store sell the wooden board that is the base of the cradleboard.
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