The University of Utah’s logo actually isn’t a drum and feather

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You’ve probably been referring to the University of Utah’s tribal logo incorrectly.

Most fans call the popular symbol displayed around Rice-Eccles Stadium “the drum and feather.” And the feather part is right.

But, it turns out, the only drums are in the Utes’ marching band — not the logo.

The circle in the design is not a drum but is instead supposed to be the circle of life. That’s according to the late Ute leader Lacee Harris, who created it.

“He used to bristle when he heard the logo described as a drum and feather,” notes his 2020 obituary, written by his daughter, Brenna Clark.

Clark confirmed to The Salt Lake Tribune that she grew up hearing her father talk about his logo for the U. that uses his tribe’s name and imagery. The school has had a long-standing agreement with the Ute Indian Tribe of eastern Utah to do so, starting informally as far back as 1972.

Part of that is to use what’s officially trademarked as the “Circle & Feather,” as well as using the Utes name for the U.’s athletics teams. In exchange, the school is supposed to support the tribe’s children in their education. And it has promised to celebrate tribal culture — such as by having Harris, a prominent leader in the Ute community — come up with the design.

The circle of life is a powerful and central symbol in Ute culture, representing birth and death for all people, animals and plants. Attached to the side of that in her father’s logo, Clark said, are the feathers of an eagle, which are sacred birds to Utes and also featured in the Ute Tribe’s official seal.

“The feathers represent the eagle who takes our prayers to the creator,” the obituary added.

The tribe has long supported the use of the circle-and-feather logo and its name at the school. But there has been pushback from others, including some Native American groups, over whether the symbol and the Utes’ nickname should continue at the state’s flagship university.

In 2011, then-U. President David Pershing had said the school intended to phase out using the circle and feather, in deference, and turn more to the Block U. symbol. The school has done that. But it hasn’t entirely moved away from the tribal logo — which is the current largest moneymaker for trademark royalties at the university, according to an annual licensing report from the U.

Pershing said in 2014, when the memorandum of understanding, or MOU, between the Ute Tribe and the university was renewed, that “I thought we might move further away from that.”

He added: “But this agreement is not about the drum and feather,” notably using the popular name. “This is about the name of the tribe, of our teams.”

The U. also notably got the go-ahead from the NCAA in 2005 to use the symbol and name for sports.

And for Clark and her family — as well as others on the tribe, who wear jerseys and hats with the logo, and have it hanging in their homes on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation — seeing the circle and feather her dad designed is a source of pride, identity and perseverance.

Clark is an alum of the U., and her daughter is currently attending the school, too, as a sophomore. It’s a legacy for them that started with Harris and that they want other Ute descendants to follow in — another iteration of the circle of life.

Starting in 1973, Harris served for 14 years as the Indian education adviser to the U. And then he returned to the classroom and earned a master’s degree there in social work.

He also led powwows across the state, hosted shows on both radio and TV to inform viewers about Indigenous culture and served as a chaplain for Native services at the Utah State Prison and the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

Harris was both Northern Ute and Northern Paiute, and was born on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in eastern Utah. He was also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spending his high school years living with a white family as part of the church’s Indian Student Placement Program.

“I’m Nuchee, Northern Ute, first, then Mormon,” he said.

He attended Brigham Young University for his undergraduate degree. After graduating, one historian noted, Harris “grew out his hair, researched and embraced his Ute culture.”

The logo, Harris felt, was an important way to showcase that ancestry on a statewide stage and show people that the Utes were still — and remain today — strong and alive as a people.

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