1 10 12 https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/9ceb87890bfca639bf41f7cb21bbc6bd.pdf e4d9929ba37084f4f7d05d4da52d4917 PDF Text Text Adela Quintana (Abridged) I'm Adela Quintana. My maiden name was Mascarenas: Adela Mascarenas. I was born in 1923: August the 261\ 1923. I was born on just over the other side of the ni>ver from Rosa until I was three years old and then we moved to Silverton. My parents: Serestino Mascarenas and [?] Quintana. Three years we stayed in Silverton and then my parents moved back to Rosa and bought a ranch where the Navajo Dam is. We stayed on that ranch until I got married in 1940. All those I spent on my dad's ranch. Back and forth we went to school in Rosa from the ranch. After I got married, I married[?] Quintana, I stayed in Rosa until they built the Navajo Dam. I had all my family in Rosa except one. I have a great big family, a family of 10: five boys and five girls. My husband went into the service when I had my first little baby, Nadi Quintana Silva (she's Silva now). He stayed in the service for about three years. He never did get to know his first daughter until returning from the service. We moved to Ignacio and we stayed in Ignacio from 1960 until now. All my family is scattered all over. I'm happy and blessed with my family and that I don't have any trouble with my family at all. My husband, he was sick all this time after he came from the service. He stayed in hospitals on and on, and on, for years and years. I had to raise my family and find work for myself. All my family finished high school, finished college. I have a girl who's a doctor. All my kids have pretty good jobs. My oldest daughter is working in Washington, D.C. for the government. One of my sons is an architect in Castle Rock [, CO], and one of my sons is the Town Manager here in Ignacio. I have a daughter that is married to a doctor and she lives in Farmington. Another daughter is married to a schoolteacher and she lives in Arizona. My oldest daughter lives in Denver. One son I have in Philadelphia. He was in the service a long time and got out. A daughter works as a secretary over in Bayfield. They all have pretty nice jobs. I moved from my ranch. I had five acres that I bought in 1960. But, I couldn't handle the ranch and the five acres by myself So, I moved to town. I'm living here now. I'm closer to everyone, to stores and to church. I can still do my driving to go to church. My family will check on me once in a while, see ifl need anything. I've been real blessed with my whole family. My father used to work in the gold mines in Silverton. Finally he moved and continued being a rancher. We raised cattle, sheep, pigs, all kinds of animals. The first time l started school was in Rosa. Matter of fact, I started in Allison for one month. I was old already when I started: I was eleven. But, I passed several grades in one year, and my teachers kept giving me classes so that I could catch up. I graduated from the eighth grade when I was 18. I graduated from the eighth grade when I was supposed to be graduating from high school. Then I just started working after I finished the eighth grade. I worked painting houses, cleaning houses, on the ranch in Rosa and Arboles ... around those places. I have three brothers and one sister. �Page 2 of3 I didn't get any compensation from my husband, because he was mentally ill. The first time he came, he burned all of my papers. I had a hard time to get my papers back. I had six of my children before I got any compensation from the government. The four last ones are seven years apart and I started getting compensation. With that I paid for their school (for the four youngest ones). For the other ones, I supported them by working everywhere I could work. No welfare, just working. Restaurants, stores in Arboles and Rosa, painting stores in and out ... real hard jobs that I used to do. When we moved to Ignacio it was a little better, because there was more work and I could make a little more money. Three or four years after we moved here they sent me to Oklahoma so that I could get a degree to teach Head Start. I got my degree and came back, and my oldest kids took care of the youngest ones. I worked for three years at the Head Start. I was the first one to start working at the Head Start ere in Ignacio. After three years I started getting compensation for my last kids. When I got compensation, they said I couldn't work anymore with the Head Start. I worked in the restaurant and for seven years at Peaceful Spirit (I was a cook). But, I did pretty good and I'm very proud of my family. I never did have any problems with my kids ... never, with the law or anything. So, I'm grateful for that. My husband died in 1990. He stayed in the veterans' hospital. I was all by myself .. my kids were all out and working. But, I've always done all of my work, all kinds of work. I wire my house, plumb my house. I did everything and saved a lot of money doing all the work myself Sometimes I have a little trouble with the electricity here. But, I have a son who's a pretty good worker with electricity. (He works for the casino in maintenance.) So, I take advantage of him now that I'm getting older and I can't do it. But, I'm still doing all right. I have 26 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. I see them often. For my [80th] birthday they gave me a big, big surprise, and I wasn't expecting nobody. I thought I was going on vacation somewhere. They turned around and brought me back home. Someone had gotten sick, and when they brought me back, this house was packed. 58 were in this house when I walked in. I'm telling you it was a shake for me! I should have known better what was going to happen: that they were going to surprise me for my birthday. I am 80 years old now. When we were living on the ranch we didn't have church except once a month or once every three months. But, in Rosa we had a celebration on the Thirtieth of August for Santa Rosa. We used to make a big dinner, we had a real nice Mass, we'd walk around the church and carried the saint. At night we had luminarias on the church. We had a rosary the day before Santa Rosa's. It was very neat to do that. We didn't always have the celebration on Santa Rosa's day, because we didn't have a priest. But, we had it whenever a priest came in September of October. For Christmas we used to have our Midnight Mass (not in Rosa but here in Ignacio). We had the Posadas. The Posadas is a group of people and we go door to door and sing songs. Posadas is like when Joseph and Mary went door to door asking for a place for Jesus to be born, then finally he was born in a barn. We used to have a lady who did it [Posada] in Spanish, read it in Spanish. We had Posadas until she couldn't do it anymore. We have San Ignacio Day here in Ignacio with a parade and all. WE used to go around the church walking with the saint, but lately we haven't been doing those things ... short of help, short of people who can do it. There used to be really nice celebrations, really nice dinners. We'd bring bands to play for San Ignacio and �Page 3 of3 dancing in the night. We used to have two days of parades: Saturday and Sunday. But, now we just have one day, because we don't have enough help. We celebrate San Ignacio at the end of July. I do all the laundry for the Church. Sundays we have Mass I go to set up everything for the priest to have Mass. At 9:30 I open the church for the people to go in. The month of December is my month for cleaning the whole church with a group of four ladies. For many, many years I've done these things. I used to do it in Rosa, in Arboles, in Aztec; when we moved there for a little while. My husband got sick over there [in the service]; he lost his mind. He was 100% mentally disabled. He used to go for four months, one month, or nine months in the hospital. I would go and get him, but take him back because he was pretty bad, especially as he got older. He had Alzheimer's really bad. I took him to the hospital, because I thought he was a danger to the family and to myself Finally, at the end I just couldn't handle him. So, I took him to Albuquerque. That's where he died. I knew my grandparents. Pedro Quintana and Juanita Quintana were my mother's parents from Rosa, NM. My grandma had a big family, too. On my father's side were Emanuel Mascarenas and Maria de Jesus Mascarenas. They had a big family, too. They were just across on the other side of the river. The Mascarenas family came form Clayton [, NM], and they bought a ranch right here on the other side of the river. My mother was a Quintana and I married a Quintana. So, I got my mother's name, but they weren't related. I have a lot of cousins. I can't even count them. *** This house belonged to my son-in-law and my oldest daughter, and I don't own nothing. All I have is just my little Social Security. I don't want to own nothing more. I want nothing more; I divided my money to all my kids. Just my car, so I can drive while I am able to. That way, when I die, I won't have nothing. I won't have to worry about this or that, because it's all settled. That's the way I've worked my life. I have a lot of stories, a lot of long stories. But, it's too much. I was a sheepherder ... I was everything. But, long, long stories. *** Interviewed by Michael Miller (VISTA) on January 28th , 2004. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael Miller Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2003-2004 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of twelve biographies written by VISTA worker Michael G. Miller of prominent people in the Ignacio community. Based on interviews conducted by Miller between December 9, 2003 and March 15, 2004. Some contain the additional attribution "for the Ignacio Historical Society." Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Miller, Michael G. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Adela Quintana Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2004-01-28 Subject The topic of the resource Quintana, Adela; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Adela Quintana written by VISTA worker Michael Miller and based on an interview conducted by Miller on January 28, 2004. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Quintana, Adela Extent The size or duration of the resource. 3 pages https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/c87cfe96f50f865ce81969db59a99464.pdf 10bab603218f4beca6714a9c2cfd002e PDF Text Text Anna Mae Alires -(Navajo) My name is Anna Mae Alires. I was born in Shiprock, NM. I am 72 years old. I had been in boarding school most of my life. I ended up here at the Ute Vocational School back in 1946 and graduated on my birthday in 1950. After that I worked in Durango cleaning people's houses. Then, I got married and had a daughter, but I got divorced about a year after that. I entered Fort. Lewis College (the old Fort Lewis in Hesperus). I lived in Durango and rode the school bus to the college every day. I just went a couple of years there, and then I got a job at Mercy Hospital for about a month until I applied for a job here at the Bureau of Indian Affairs [BIA]. I was hired as secretary for the Branch of Education. When I was going to school here it was a vocational school where we learned how to cook, how to sew, how to be a homemaker. They boys learned farming: they took care of the garden and the chickens, and milked the cows. In the fall they would bring in the vegetables from the field. The girls would learn how to can. The boys would kill the chickens so that we could learn how to clean and dress them. We learned how to cook in our home economics class. Then, I graduated and I left. In '55 I got my job here at Bureau oflndian Affairs with Branch of Education. I really don't remember when they integrated with the public schools. Instead of going to school here at Ute Vocational, they started going down to the public school. We just stayed open to let them board and room here. We took in students (Indian students) from Crown Point area; that's in NM, and Ute Mountain. But, I enjoyed my work with Branc·h of Education. We dealt with the children and everything, and there were some that were ornery; we'd have to deal with them. I would have to take them home and tum them over to their parents, and their parents would have to return them to the school. Like I say, I enjoyed that work, but then it closed in '81, September 1981. The dorms closed entirely, and so I transferred over to Branch of Forestry up 'til 1990. I retired from there, but while I was working for the BIA, I had a part-time job as a dispatcher for the Southern Ute Police Department. I retired from that job on August .-.ro23rJ~2002. I came up here from St. Michael's in Arizona, and I really wasn't too happy there. It was a boarding school, too. The food wasn't that great. So, when I came to Ute Vocational this gal named Elsie Watts (she was from Ute Mountain) said, 'if you want to, you can room with me,' because here there were two to a room. When I was at St. Michael's it was a big room with a bunch of beds; you didn't have that much privacy. When I came here she said you can room with me, and I went up to the room and there were only two to a room; that was really something. And then she took me over to the dining hall. I was amazed, because the food ... I could not believe they were serving salad, mashed potatoes, gravy, meat, and all that. It was so different from St. Michael's. I really liked this place, because it was homier than that place. I had fun: I was a cheerleader (Elsie and I were). And, you know Stella Santistevan? I was a cheerleader with her sister. I stayed, because I liked this part of the country. So, I got my jobs here and I stayed, and all of my children were raised here. We don't know too much about our traditional way of life. I was orphaned when I was ... When I was born, my mom died. My dad didn't want me to be ratSed on the Navajo Reservation raising- sheep-; he didn't want me to have-a dozen kids raising �Page 2 of 3 sheep. He wanted me to get out and get educated, to get off the reservation. This German lady, she was on her way to take a bunch of children to Good Shepard Mission in Arizona. They didn't have any parents and it was an orphanage. My dad was late in bringing me in and she couldn't wait, so she took the other babies. But, when she came back I was in a room waiting for her. She never gave me up: she kept me, raised me until I got married. I was happy to have her take me, but I was never able to learn my language or to really learn about their traditions until later. When I was young it didn't really interest me, but now it does. I've been reading about the Navajo traditions and the Ute culture. I'm finding a lot on the Internet now. There is a lot on the Internet that you can read. We couldn't speak in our native languages at the Ute Vocational School. If you talked in you native language, you were punished (I was punished). I did learn a few words, and one was, 'shut up.' I would say that to the instructor and I got punished. They'd make you stand in the comer or something. But, all the time that I was going to school, we weren't really severely treated, we weren't treated harsh or anything. At Fort Lewis I wanted to become a secretary. I studied shorthand, typing, grammar and al that. And, then, I had to take other courses: Western Civilization. I don't remember what others, but I just took it long enough to where I'd be able to get a job. I didn't graduate or anything, or get a degree. I've got three children: one girl and two boys, and they were all raised here in Ignacio. I have got 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. They're all being raised here in Ignacio except for my youngest son's children; he moved to Cortez. That's about it, I retired and I'm enjoying my grandchildren. I was telling my children; when I was growing up, working and trying to raise them, I really didn't spend too much time with them. Because, they would be at school and I would be at work, we'd do our chores, and then they'd get ready for bed. Sometimes I took them to the movies. But, it seems like I'm spending a lot of time with my grandchildren, and I'm really enjoying it. All parents go through that, you know? (Especially when you're a single parent.) I've been telling my children what I went through, and I tell my grandchildren about how it was when I was growing up. I always dept a diary, and I started putting it on my computer. I told Tom [Anna Mae's son], 'if any of you guys are interested, make a copy and read it.' It is a diary from when they were growing up. I would write the funny little things they'd say. Now I'm retired, living in the Senior Center's apartments. I had a half-sister, I didn't know here, and I knew I had brothers. When I was here in Ignacio, at the Ute Vocational School, I found out I had a brother, and my cousin got him to write letters to me. He couldn't speak English, so he had somebody that would write for him. And then, all of a sudden, I didn't know what was going on. He was working in Portland, on the railroad. Two years later, after I got married, I asked my cousin what happened to my brother. She told me he had died in a railroad car fire. I said I didn't even know: nobody notified me. Then I found out that I had a half-sister, and I didn't meet her until after she had children and after I had children. There was a girl at the school here that was related to her husband, and she came and told me that my sister is back in Shiprock. She went to school at Riverside Boarding School. I don't remember how many years it was, but I loaded my kids up, went to Shiprock, and found her. Her kids were-as- s-mall as- my kids-. &he-doesn't know much about our father, �Page 3 of3 because he died when I was six years old and she was three. So,she doesn't know anything about my father. My foster mother didn't know much about my father, either. My son and I did go down to see my cousin a couple of years ago to find out more about my family. But, she didn't seem to know, either. She did tell us my clan name. The Navajos have clans. She told me what clan I came from. But, I don't know any of my relatives now. One time she got me down there to meet my grandfather. I went down to Newcomb (between Shiprock and Gallup) and met my grandfather. But he was elderly, and he couldn't speak much English and I couldn't speak Navajo. I remember him crying and she was translating for him. I don't know really if he was from my mother's or father's side. I wish I had paid more attention now that I'm older. My maiden name is Todae: on my birth certificate it's spelled T-0-D-E-A; my foster mother spelled it T-0-D-A-E, and that's how I went. I had brothers and sisters, a few of them died from tuberculosis; that was bad on the reservation back then. But, I didn't know them because I was the last one born. They told me they died of tuberculosis when I was a young child. Interviewed by Michael G. Miller, VISTA worker, on January 161\ 2004. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael Miller Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2003-2004 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of twelve biographies written by VISTA worker Michael G. Miller of prominent people in the Ignacio community. Based on interviews conducted by Miller between December 9, 2003 and March 15, 2004. Some contain the additional attribution "for the Ignacio Historical Society." Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Miller, Michael G. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Anna Alires Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2004-01-16 Subject The topic of the resource Alires, Anna; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Anna Alires written by VISTA worker Michael G. Miller and based on an interview conducted by Miller on January 16, 2004. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Alires, Anna Extent The size or duration of the resource. 3 pages https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/aabae97023dd0d087a464de99a4c692f.pdf 7661f6ebed4876be2c5ea861e26f5893 PDF Text Text Annie Bettini (Southern Ute Tribal Elder) Somewhere around here: I don't really know where I was born. I wasn't born in a hospital. I was born in somebody's home. No one ever told me where I was born, and I never '- -a'ske"d. ''At thanime, ybu didn't ask qirestiofis. -'Septemo1sr 1,cl:1~22 fAnnte·s'bfrtn'da)'j. My dad's name was Hickey William. My mother's name was Isabelle, but I can't remember her last name. She was Spanish, and my dad was full-blooded Ute. I have one sister, Arabella, who lives next door to me here. I have another sister, Mary-Anne, who lives in the mobile home right over here. I had a brother, but he died. I guess there was a girl before I was born, but she died. My mother and father separated when I was five, or something like that (I can't remember), and I was raised by my grandmother: Dorkis William. She raised all ofus, all three us. So, we grew up with her. I had a half-brother, who passed away about six years ago, I think. And, I had a sister who passed away before he did. Then, I have two sisters left. I didn't get to know them until I was way up in my thirties, I think. So, I finally got to know them. We've basically lived around here. The Weasel Skin Bridge is named after our family. Our family name was 'Weasel Skin' until they changed it to 'William.' I grew up speaking Ute totally. Then, when I went to school I began to speak English language. I started off school down below here, there was a one-room schoolhouse down by a place called La Posta. I started off school there until I don't know how old I was. They had the boarding school in Ignacio and they transferred us over there; which was very hard on us. I don't remember, it must have been around ... See, in those days we didn't start school until we were six. In those days they didn't require children to go to school at five. We basically started at six. But, we were kind of devastated to be taken away from home. But, in the course of time I got used to it. We graduated from there; they called it the Ute Vocational School. But, you know, school wasn't half as hard as it was in those days. We just learned the basics, and I don't remember all that I learned. I don't remember having trigonometry. We had fractions, but we didn't get into all that other stuff I guess it was just the basics. After I got used to it [boarding school life] I just took it as it was. It did something to me that bothers me today. It made me become insensitive to me grandmother and to my dad. I wanted to get away from this life that we had. We were poor, we were very poor. We didn't own any furniture. We slept on the floor, we ate on the floor. We only had one chair and one little folding bed. When I went to boarding school it showed me all of those things. I guess it kind of made me go away from all of that, and made me forget about my grandmother and my dad. Then, from there I went on th work in Denver. As a young person I Didn't realize that was the wrong thing. To me, now, it was wrong: I became insensitive. That's the way I looked at it. From that point on I went into the Army, and I found out that that wasn't what I really should have done. There was a lot of discrimination there. That kind of shocked me, too. I wrote letters back, and in those letters I wrote my dad things I didn't like about it. He started to work things out and talked to some of his neighbors to help him get me out of there. I came home for a little while, and then I found out I wasn't happy anymore. I needed to work and I needed to support myself My grandmother and my dad couldn't do it. I realized that there were things there that I could have that would make life easy for me. In a way it was good and in a way I regret those days. Ifl had stayed around home, I don't know what I would have done. Basically, go out there taught me a lot, taught me how to take care of myself; how to look after �Page 2 of6 my own needs. Yet, at the same time, I forgot my grandmother and my dad. I'd come home and visit, then I'd go back to my work or wherever. I worked in Nevada for a little while. To this day I have a regret ... It's in the past; I can't go back and re-do anything. But, then, I began to realize that I would have to support myself and do other things for myself So, that was part of growing up I guess. I worked in a laundry. I worked in the school in Ignacio for a while. After I got out of the service I went to Nevada and worked in the boarding school there as a matron (looking after the kids there). Then I came back over here and worked at the boarding school (the boarding school was still there) in the 40s, I think. After that I got married, and then we went off to California. We came back and lived a little ways from here. We built a little house over there, but my husband couldn't find a job. He was not a tribal member; he was Italian. He worked in the mines with his dad for a while, but the wages just weren't very good. So, one of his sisters lived in California, and she said, 'Come here. You can find good work here.' So, we moved over there. Lived over there for quite awhile until he passed away. I came back here after he passed away. I didn't have any ofmy own [children]; I had miscarriages. I adopted a little boy. My sister-in-law had a boy when we were living here. She had a baby boy out of wed-lock. She gave him to me to take care of (she was working and she really didn't have a way to take care of him). Finally, she gave him up to me. 'Here, you can have him.' She even said, 'We'll even go through adoption with you.' At the time it cost too much, and we didn't have the money. We just raised on our own until my husband passed away, and then I adopted him. I raised foster children, too. I raised about twelve. I don't know where they all are. Some of them have passed away. There are few out there that I don't know where they are. The daughter I have is my adopted daughter. She belongs to one of the Ute ladies in Ignacio. She lives not too far from here with her husband and her children. We lived in Buena Park, CA My husband found work there. He became a foreman for a mobile home construction place. Then, he passed away in California. After he passed away, we moved over here. Then my son passed away in 1972; he had cancer of the bone. We had sheep ... sheep and goats. We herded sheep all over the hills here. At that time, there were no restrictions anywhere. We could go anywhere, except we couldn't go over into that fence that is privately owned. Sometimes the goats and sheep would get in there, and we'd have to go over there and chase them out. There was alfalfa there and alfalfa bloats the animals. We just roamed all over. Went fishing. Played. We didn't have any toys that I remember. We played with rocks, and mud, and sticks; whatever we could find to play with. We had pets. We had animals like a goat or a lamb for a pet, kitties and doggies; those were our enjoyment. I only remember my grandmother got me a little doll for Christmas one time. My dad got me a little teddy bear. I don't think the other kids ever got anything for Christmas. We didn't know what Christmas was all about. We didn't know what the holidays were all about. We didn't get to the Sun Dances or the Bear Dances often; once in a great while, maybe. We had to travel over there by horse and buggy or wagon. My dad didn't have a car until a little later on. He bought a Model T Ford. He had to go to work far away, too. Sometimes he had to go to work in Towaoc and sometimes he worked around here on the farms. Sometimes they'd have to clean ditches; now they don't do that anymore. He found odd jobs here and there that didn't pay very well. �Page 3 of6 We would go to Ignacio once a month for commodities. That would last us. We had to use it very sparingly. Then we had our goats and sheep that we could kill: not in the summer time. My grandmother was very hard about that, because the meat spoiled (we didn't have a refrigerator). Not what I have here today: nothing ... nothing. Sometimes we were ragged. They had the C.C. camps [Conservation Corps]. They worked up in the hills. One day this man (I remember his last name, it was Aspen; like the trees) came and he said, 'Come here, girls.' We were kind of afraid to go. My grandmother was there. He said, 'I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to measure your feet.' I said, 'Measure my feet? For what?' So, he measured our feet and he measured my grandmother's feet. The next day or so he came and he brought us tennis shoes, because our shoes were all wore out. From that point on he kept an eye on us. When we needed something, he even would bring groceries at times. He was a very kind man. I remember his kindness very well. I guess he just felt sorry for us or something. I basically grew up around Spanish people and Anglo people. Most of our neighbors are Anglos. They helped out. Sometimes they would take my dad to town if he needed to get groceries. They would pick him up and take him to town. They were very helpful. Dad grew wheat, at times, and they'd come and thrash his wheat for him. Then my dad would take the wheat to, I don't know if it was Cortez, but they had a milling place. He'd take it and have it turned into flour. Then he would come back with sacks of flour; which we stored in a big, upstanding box. So, that kind of kept us with flour through the winter months. Our diet was basically meat, beans, and potatoes (meat when we could get it, depending on when it was not winter time). When we went to Ignacio they'd give us cans of meat, and that helped during the summer. We'd pick berries (chokecherries) and grandma dried it. Sometimes there was a vendor that came from New Mexico with chili, with fruit or something. He was a tall Anglo man. He would stop by, then he would leave (grandma always had a little money from the sale of goats). He always had watermelon and cataloupe ... stuff like that. She would buy one or two, then he would give extra. He did that for about three times. He didn't come every week, but each time he would leave extra. The last time he came he wanted one ofus girls, and Grandmother got so upset at him. She started talking in Spanish (she knew some Spanish). She just chased him: 'I don't give my girls to nobody! Here, take you stuff!' He took it, and she was so upset. He wanted one ofus. I don't remember, I think he was after Arabella. He said, 'If she won't go ... ' Then he grabbed me like this, and Grandmother said, 'No, no, no.' She got a stick and she was going to hit him. I don't remember all that he said (our English wasn't all that well yet). He wanted to take one ofus with him [laughs]. All in all, we didn't complain. We took life as it was and we were happy. I don't know how Grandmother ever felt, because whe was a quiet person. My dad was quiet. He wasn't home much; he was out trying to earn a little biut of money. He had to buy hay for the sheep and goats. We sheered the sheep and got a little money off of that. We sold some young goats for people from Durango, especially the Spanish people. They would buy goats off ofus. Then the wool from the sheep kind of helped out at times, too. Of course we had horses. In the winter time, Dad had to feed them and buy hay. That's why he worked for some of the farmers around here: maybe they'd give him a bale of hay with money besides. Then, he raised a little bit of hay down on this side of the river [Animas River]; there's a piece ofland there that's kind of flat. He raised hay, cut it, and we'd pile it. In those days you had to pile it, and we'd help him as big as you please. We had horses to ride ... we enjoyed that. My dad used to dance the Sun Dance; up to a point. We'd go over there ... I had two of my aunts living with us at the time. My grandmother would go over there (the family took turns �Page 4 of6 going over there). The family had to be there. Once in a while we got to go. I never wanted to stay home. I always wanted to be with Grandma. I didn't really want to stay with my aunts, except one aunt was good to me. The other one was kind of mean to me, so when she stayed home forget it: I didn't want to stay home. But, I could stay with my aunt Margaret. We used to do a lot of things: we used to make candy or whatever. She had a talent, but she passed away rather young. She had a talent of making things out of whatever we had: like mixing together sugar and peanut butter and making it into candy. She just had a talent that was amazing, but she passed away. That I enjoyed: I enjoyed staying with her, because she could just put things together. My other aunt was different; she was kind of grumpy at times. My grandkids are a quarter Ute. Their father is Anglo; he works for the Finance Department in Ignacio, for the Tribe. His name is Brian Ross. They live right over here. The boys love spending the weekend with me, especially the little one. They call me, 'Nanni.' The girl is the oldest (she's eleven), and she's as tall as I am. She comes home from school to me, and the boys go to the Academy. Their mom teaches at the Academy. They're real good kids. I had them for a whole summer, when my daughter was going to school in Boulder. They were good. We'd go to the grocery store and people would just come and say, 'Oh, your grandkids are so well behaved.' Or, we'd go out to a restaurant, and they were just so good. Of course, we've taught them about the Lord, that there's a Creator. We tell them that He expects us to behave; expects us to respect and to love others, and to care about others. I didn't come to know the Lord until I was in my late thirties. But, I have to say that knowing God has been a great help to me. He has sustained me through life: kept me going, kept me strong. I don't have any major health problems, just my feet. All in all, I have to give God credit for just being in our lives. We just feel that the Lord was there for our little, little boy. Their house is in area that has lots of rocks and sagebrush, and there're rattlesnakes over there. One Saturday, the kids were out playing around and dad was working out in the yard. The little boy goes to his father and said, 'Dad. Look. Baby snake.' Guess what it was ... a baby rattler. We feel it was a miracle that that little rattler didn't bite him. His dad flicked it off his hand and, he happened to have a shovel, killed it. We tell them to watch themselves. But, that was just a miracle in itself I was coming from town and I stopped at their house. My daughter came running out, crying. I thought something terrible had happened. She said, 'Cody had a baby rattler in his hand, and I'm just thanking God for not biting him.' So, we believe that God is very present if you connect with him. There has to be a relationship there. I give God for my strength and for just sustaining me, because it's kind of lonely living by yourself You get up by yourself, eat by yourself, go to bed by yourself The kids come, but they have their own home. And, He provides you with other people, other believers that you connect with. That helps. That's a big help in my life. I say to myself, 'I want my grandkids to keep on going to church, to keep on building their relationship with the Lord.' So that they, too, will know that there's someone who will protect them and help them along life's way. I think my belief in God, and knowing that there is a Creator there, has really helped me. It made me overcome the regrets that I had. Sometimes I get to where I feel as though someone is telling me, 'It's in the past. There's nothing you can do about it now.' It's now that counts. It's now, what you do, that counts. I've been involved in translating the Bible into Ute language; mostly it's on videos. I'm becoming a songwriter, too. A Native American tune will be coming to me and I don't have words for it, so pretty soon words will be coming out of the Bible, the Scriptures. We have some that we've recorded on CDs. Some are in Ute and some are in �Page 5 of6 English, because I have to do it in both. That's something good that I'm doing. I feel like the Lord is blessing me. He's blessing my family, too. I just have to give God credit. Truly, we have a Creator. Truly, there's somebody out there that takes care ofus. So, I'm happy about that, because I know one day I'll be going over there. Ifl can just do what the Lord wants me to do here, then He'll accept me. Last year I involved myself quite a bit with the Academy. I went into the classroom and showed the children how to make generic cradle boards. I made it out of cardboard and material, and talked about it (the history of the cradleboard and how women used it; how it was helpful to them). But, this year I haven't gone over there at all. *** Basically, I'm thankful I have a home. I'm thankful that I have a warm place live; thankful that I have enough to eat; thankful that I have my health. I don't have to cimplain about anything. I really don't need the money. I've always had to live on as little as possible. Money comes and I save it ... I don't spend it. I don't have nothing to spend it on. I spend most of my money on my grandchildren. When they need something, I'm here to help them. But, as far as needing anything more: I don't need anything. I have a nice car to drive. What more does a person want? I don't go gambling, because I feel like that's just throwing your money away. The best thing to do is to just spend it on your grandchildren and have a little enjoyment yourself. I don't go to the General Meetings anymore, because all they do is argue and complain. We shouldn't. I think most of the Ute people were poor, and now we're 'prosperous'. Sometimes I hear people say, 'that money is ours.' It isn't ours until it's in my hand, it's in my name, and it's in my bank. As long as it's there, I don't claim it; it's not my money. Ifl have to go chop my wood in the hills, I will. You know, we did it when we were kids. My sister and I even used to hitch up our dad's wagon when we ran out of wood, and go up in the hills to gather wood. We'd bring those big, long logs, and we'd chop them. I'm old but I can still chop wood. I may get tired faster, but I can still do it. There's no use complaining. There are too many things in this world that are happening, that are terrible. We're not even secure in this country anymore. We just have to pray to the Lord that He'll keep His hands upon us. But as far as complaining, what's to comlplain about? *** One thing my dad taught me about money: don't ever borrow money, or anything from anybody, unless you have a way to replace it. And, if you borrow money from anybody, you have to pay it back. I've kept to that. My grandmother always told me, 'Some day you are going to have things. Some day you are going to live the white man's ways. But, I want you to remember this: take care of what you have. Always take care of what you have.' And, I have. Those two things have been a big blessing to me, and I try to teach my grandchildren that: take care of what you have, and respect your family, respect all the people around you; no matter who they are. So, those things I've always held on to, and that was a good lesson. They stick out right in front of you, as big as your face. �Page 6 of6 So, you could say we are pretty close. I've taken Cecilia [her daughter] as my very own. She feels the same way, too. One time I mentioned something about her being adopted. Oh, she got so upset. She said, 'Mom, you are the only mom I've ever known. I don't want you going around telling people I'm adopted.' And I said, 'Well, I'm sorry.' I thank God for her. She came into my life. Otherwise, I feel old; I wouldn't have any little ones hanging around. *** Interviewed by Michael G. Miller (VISTA) on March 15th, 2004 in her home. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael Miller Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2003-2004 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of twelve biographies written by VISTA worker Michael G. Miller of prominent people in the Ignacio community. Based on interviews conducted by Miller between December 9, 2003 and March 15, 2004. Some contain the additional attribution "for the Ignacio Historical Society." Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Miller, Michael G. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Annie Bettini Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2004-03-15 Subject The topic of the resource Bettini, Annie; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Annie Bettini written by VISTA worker Michael Miller and based on an interview conducted by Miller on March, 15, 2004. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bettini, Annie Extent The size or duration of the resource. 6 pages https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/2a0d9045a3b07548f6ebf6f4d4aafa47.pdf 08ce23f4a3724c07aa8244ae8f78fa25 PDF Text Text Cleo Garcia Cleo was born in Blanco, New Mexico on May 1st, 1924. She moved to Ignacio, CO when she was four years old with her parents, grandpa, and aunts. She grew up on a farm about five miles from Ignacio, where her family raised cows, pigs, and chickens. "We used to come to Ignacio once a month, or maybe twice of month, to get groceries. The town wasn't very big then. My grandpa used to sell wood here to the Indians. I went to school in Ignacio for one year. We used to go to a farm school; it was like five miles away from home. A one-room school. I think I went there for four years, and then I went over here for a year in Ignacio. I didn't graduate [from high school]. We didn't move here [to Ignacio] until I was nineteen. I moved here with my aunts and my grandpa. We didn't have no water, no electricity, no nothing there [on the farm]." When Cleo moved to Ignacio she went to work cleaning houses. She said, "I didn't know very good English, and I still don't." Cleo's grandfather and aunts raised her. "I had a bunch of brothers and one sister, but they stayed in Blanco. I came with my parents, my grandpa and aunts over here. I don't know why, but I did. We used to plant a lot of corn and beans, make a big garden over there. It was dry land, but you know, it used to rain once in a while. So, we used to go about our things. We had chickens, and we had horses, cows, and pigs. They were just for our own use." Cleo married Frank Garcia shortly after she and her family moved into Ignacio. They had one daughter, Patricia, and Cleo has a grandson. "I remember there used to be a hardware [store] not tCXifar from here. And, I think we used to have one train station. But, we had to come here from the farm on a wagon, horses, because we didn't have cars then. We used to come to church on Sundays on a wagon, real early in the morning. It took us about a couple hours, I guess. We used to walk too, sometimes, or on horseback. My aunts used to tell me about the Great Depression, but I don't remember it. My uncle used to have one of those little cars, you know? We used to ride in the back, because they were small cars, real small. What did they used to call them? Model Ts. My uncle used to have sheep. I worked while she [Patricia] was little. I worked for farmers, you know, doing their housework. I was a dishwasher and a cleaning lady. My husband used to work for the farmers- out in the fields, bailing hay, stuff like that. My daughter went to school here, she graduated from here [Ignacio]. She has that little store up there [on Goddard Ave.], the thrift store. They also sell new clothes. Her husband works there, too. My grandson is working in Bayfield, he's working for some employer. They make buttons, but he's a receiver. I think he makes the orders, he orders things. �We used to celebrate San Ignacio. We used to come for San Ignacio. That used to be a lot of fun. Oh, they used to have dances, they used to have church in the morning. Sometimes they used to have a carnival. I worked at the Senior Center for nine years. I used to clean the place. Then I moved from there and went to the library. I worked there for about five years. I liked that job; it was nice. My boss and I used to get along good; she was good. She's no longer there. Then, I was old enough to get Social Security so I didn't work no more.11 \ Interviewed by Michael Miller (Americorps*VISTA volunteer) for the Ignacio Historical Society, December 15th, 2003. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael Miller Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2003-2004 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of twelve biographies written by VISTA worker Michael G. Miller of prominent people in the Ignacio community. Based on interviews conducted by Miller between December 9, 2003 and March 15, 2004. Some contain the additional attribution "for the Ignacio Historical Society." Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Miller, Michael G. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Cleo Garcia Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2003-12-15 Subject The topic of the resource Garcia, Cleo; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Cleo Garcia written by VISTA worker Michael Miller and based on an interview conducted by Miller on December 15, 2003. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Extent The size or duration of the resource. 2 pages https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/e14e14edfb22871f56916380bf8cb06e.pdf 2105be8e535755314dfc28d91ec87934 PDF Text Text Ethel Smith I was born in Collbran, CO, Mesa County, September 1i 11, 1908. I went to a country school, one room school, and then I road three miles horseback to high school. And, I graduated from Collbran Union High School in 1926. [After high school] I started in school in Gunnison, CO, and I went five and half weeks. I road on the train from Grand Junction to Montrose, and then on to Gunnison. I was homesick at the end of one semester, so I went back to Grand Junction, and then on to Collbran in the fall. My parents sold their property and we moved to Missouri. I went to school at Missouri Teachers' College in Springfield, MO. My friend came down from Collbran to MO. In the spring we decided to quit school and go to Marysville to pick strawberries. We found out from the school that they needed teachers. So, we decided to take the teachers' exam. The last exam was on MO history-I looked at her [my friend] and she looked at me, and we got up and walked out. My folks came back to Collbran, after a year in MO. I took the CO state teachers' exam, and taught my first school north ofDebeque, CO. Then, the next year I went to Hayden and taught at a rural school on a cattle ranch. That's where I met my cowboy boyfriend. We were married in 1931. I taught at rural schools, here and there, for the next eight years. Then I taught my last year of school in Uravan. My husband was working in the mines down in Arizona, and our son was 18 months old. So I went down to AZ, and we lived there until 1944. In 1944, we traded our house in AZ for a ranch southeast ofBayfield, CO. My husband was in a later draft [for WWII], but he was "frozen" in the mines. He worked in the copper mines in Jerome, AZ. If you worked in that big copper mine, you were "frozen" [from the draft]. When we moved to CO, then he had to get an agricultural status or he would have been drafted. In the fall [of 1944 ?], somebody had heard that I had taught school. And, so, the school board came up and wanted to know if I wanted to teach at the Pink school, which was about two miles south of our ranch. My son was in the fourth grade [at that time]. I taught there for two years. Stuck in the mud, rode horse back. .. I taught all grades, one through eight. One of my students, who was in the fifth grade, sent me some pictures. I had one picture from when I taught there (from '44-' 45 and '45-' 46). She sent me some pictures, because she went to school there in '41-'42 and '42-'43. Then, I went to Bayfield. There [in Bayfield] I had the seventh grade. Then they unified the districts, and the students started corning in on buses from out towards Pagosa Springs. I had the seventh grade for two years upstairs in the old Bayfield building. When the gym was finished there were two rooms above it. So, I taught over the gym for nine years. You know, the kids never paid any attention to the noise, and I never paid any attention to the noise. There were basketballs-Bang, Bang, music downstairs (under the two rooms), but I don't think anyone ever said anything about the noise. �I did go to Mesa College in Grand Junction one semester, when we came back from MO. So, I had no college credits you might say. College teachers came from University of CO, CO State University, from Western State, from Adams State. There were classes at Fort Lewis [College], and I just started taking classes. So, in 1957 I had a degree: BA degree. They paid $1,000 more in Ignacio, and we were still on the ranch. So, it was about halfway between Ignacio and Bayfield, and I came to Ignacio. And, do you know the story about Benjamin Franklin paying too much for his whistle? Well, I paid too much for my whistle when I came to Ignacio [to teach]. It was the second year that Ignacio schools had been consolidated, and the buses had started to bring the kids in. At the end of the first week I told my husband I wasn't going back. I told the principal that I was not going back. I had one raunchy class: over age Spanish kids. They had been retained in the first grade, they had probably been retained in the third or fourth. At the junior high up here, if you failed two classes, then you were retained in that grade. I had Spanish kids (junior high) sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years old. Five teachers had resigned the year before. So, I told the principal, "I'm not coming back Monday," and he said, "Oh yes you are!" So, I went back on Monday, and a Mr. Ackerd from MO met me at the door. He said, "I'm taking that raunchy class of yours upstairs, and I'm sending you ninth graders that don't know enough to tie their shoes and come to school. You won't have any trouble with them." And, I had a tough principal, I'll tell you, a tough principal. I was in junior high [in Ignacio] until 1961. I saw a bulletin in the teachers' room that said there was an institute over at the University of Nebraska in Guidance and Counseling. I had no idea what it was all about. But, I applied for it, and I had told the superintendent that I had applied for it. And, he said, "Well, go ahead and apply for it, but you won't get it." That [the institute] was for second semester. I applied for it and was accepted. I called him [the superintendent] and told him I was accepted, and he said, "You can't go unless you get somebody to take your place." I was teaching math in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. Jake Candeleria, who owns Candeleria Heights up here, went to high school with my son. He came up and said that he had just finished college at Adams State, and was wondering where Larry [Ethel's son] was. I told him that he was working over in Mancos, and Jack said that he was desperately in need of a job. He said, "I'm so angry with Mr. Powell (the superintendent). I went down to talk with him, and he said that he didn't have any job for me." I said to Mr. Candeleria, "Well, what's your major?" He said, "Math." So, I let him have my job so that I could go to the institute in Nebraska. That was in '61, and the institute didn't start until February. I was on my way the last day of January, and we didn't get out 'til the last of June. When I came back, Mr. Powell gave me the job to start a guidance program. After Sputnik, these institutes were set up by the government in science and math. After that ran the gamut, they thought that all of these people needed guidance and counseling. So, the government started these guidance and counseling institutes, and �they paid us $7 5 per week. I had no more idea of what I was doing than the man on the moon. But, I started the [guidance] program in elementary clear on through high school. Then I was high school counselor. The most that I did was to find out where money came from for kids to go on to school. And, I worked a lot with minority students. I worked with the Indian students a lot. Mr. Dietz, the superintendent at the time, called me and said that Mr. Scott was going to take the Indian students, he was to be my cocounselor and he would take the Indian kids. Mr. Dietz told me to set up meetings with the students and find out who wants to go to Mr. Scott; who was Navajo married to a Ute. He never got an Indian kid, I got all the Indians and he got all the white kids. I would say to them, "why don't you go to Mr. Scott?" They replied, "we don't want to work with an Indian." I retired in '74. I have belonged for many years to Delta Kappa Gamma, an international teachers' organization. They send out a bulletin, and in one bulletin they advertised for a social studies and English teacher at Navajo Community College. You know, I didn't even know what a resume was. You never heard of the word "resume". So, I sent an application in, but they hired a teacher from Canada who had had ESL [English as a Second Language training]. In two years, shwe decided to go back to Canada, anfd the chairperson at the college asked me to come for an interview. I was substituting at the high school [at the time], so I didn't go [for the interview] until spring vacation. I was hired, and was there for 20 years. Well, I'm 95 now and I stayed there 'til I was 88, I'll let you do your math. I came home every two weeks for 20 years. And, you know, I never thought anything about the roads, I never had a flat tire-I couldn't have changed it ifI did. I had my first one up here about two months ago. I have the one son, and he left school when he was a junior and went into the Navy. His ship helped to evacuate the French when they were leaving Indochina. There was a French soldier who had been there for seven years, hadn't been home for seven years, and he traded Larry a gun for a can of beans. He said they were starving. And then, he helped evacuate the Chinese-Cheng Kaichek, you know? He has a lot of pictures. He has a picture of a little girl, who had died, and they dressed her, put her in a chute, and buried her in the ocean. He has pictures where the ship was just crammed with Chinese. He went in when he was 17 and got out three years later. After he got out he went into an agricultural program. He had a friend, who had a shoe shop, and he persuaded Larry to learn to do shoe repair. So, Larry went to Denver (he was married then), to the Emily Griffith Opportunity School, which is a famous school. He went there almost a year, and came back and had his shoe shop. Then he wanted to learn how to make cowboy boots, so he sent to Oklahoma to a junior college. He was there almost a year, then came back. We had the shop over here where the Peddler's is located. My parents farmed, dad was a good farmer. My dad came from the Indian Territory in 1898. He sold his farm, and his older sister, his older brother, and his older sister's daughter and her baby came to Glenwood Springs (on up from Grand Junction). �In the middle of the winter they came to Glenwood Springs, and the climate is about like Durango. I don't know how they got to Collbran, but he played the violin or he played the fiddle, and that's where he met my mother. My mother was born in Boulder. She was 34 when I was born. She was 28 when they were married and my dad was 37. We can't find anything out about my dad's ancestors, because we didn't listen. I didn't listen to my dad. And, I didn't know until long after he was gone, but he grew up with blacks and Indians. I didn't know that after the Civil War, the blacks were encouraged to settle in Oklahoma, to homestead in OK. But, what I remember was they would swim in the creeks, and there was a small pox epidemic. They would line up along the banks and keep the Indians and the blacks from going in the water. Because, you know, then they wouldn't break out, and a lot of them died. There was an old, old Indian who lived up from where my dad lived, and it wasn't derogatory then to say "nigger". My dad always called him "Nigger John", and never thought anything about it. But, the reason my dad came to CO, he had an older brother who came to the San Luis Valley (over by Alamosa). I don't know why [the brother] came to Alamosa. There he met a Mormon woman, got married, had 12 children over the years, and moved to Collbran. I don't know why he came to CO [the older brother?]. But, people did move about. I have a book on both sides of my mother's family. All I know is that she was Pennsylvania Dutch, but German from way back. My grandmother's grandmother, I think it was, her husband was killed by the nobility in Germany. She escaped, she had an older child who had come to America, but she escaped into France and Switzerland. A single woman couldn't come on the ship to America, so she married a Hessian soldier. But, she couldn't pay the passage for her youngest child, so he was bound out to somebody for the passage. My mother's maiden name was Strock, my maiden name is Barker. I joined the D.A.R. [Daughters of the American Revolution] about 35 years ago. I can go back on either side of my mom's family: her father was a Tylson, and her mother's side, which was Strock. But, Strock had been three different spellings: Strauck, Strack, and Strock. So, it was easier to go back on her mother's side, on the Strock side. My grandfather was English. I go back to the Mayflower on the English side. My genealogy goes back to when they first came to America, and that was the first generation. I'm about the eleventh generation, I think. There is a Tylson reunion in NY every year. They have Larry's name and my sister's four children's names. I had one ancestor who fought at Valley Forge, it could have been a Tylson or a Strock. My dad was born in Coles [?] County, Illinois. His dad was a horse trader, so they moved from one place to another. I can remember that my dad had a brother named Red, because my dad said that he was the only redheaded one in the family. He also had a brother who settled in MO. There was a big family in the Barkers. My son looks like a Barker in the face: they have thin noses and faces. There are no fat ones in that family. My grandson, Kenny, has red hair, and will be 24 on the 31 st of January [2004]. He was born on my way to Nebraska. �I know that this house was hauled up here in 1948 [the house was ordered from a Montgomery Ward catalog]. Thank God that the woodwork has never been painted-this is the original woodwork. There are doors in this house you can't believe. I think there are about 11 doors in here. Interviewed by Michael Miller, Americorps*VISTA for the Ignacio Historical Society, December 9th, 2003. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael Miller Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2003-2004 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of twelve biographies written by VISTA worker Michael G. Miller of prominent people in the Ignacio community. Based on interviews conducted by Miller between December 9, 2003 and March 15, 2004. Some contain the additional attribution "for the Ignacio Historical Society." Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Miller, Michael G. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ethel Smith Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2003-12-09 Subject The topic of the resource Smith, Ethel; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Ethel Smith written by VISTA worker Michael Miller and based on an interview conducted by Miller on December 9, 2003. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Smith, Ethel Extent The size or duration of the resource. 5 pages https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/6513bc73038587c3e5fe20247b50ef34.pdf 4e6de020042a8ba216d9f176353a1b87 PDF Text Text Ida Kent (Southern Ute Tribal Elder) My name is Ida Kent. I was born here in Ignacio off on the reservation. There's a house now sitting on a hill where I was born. I was born at the foot of the fill there. There used to be a big reservoir that people used for their horses. It was a farming area, so that's what they used for their horses. That's where I was born, in a teepee. I was born in 1921; that's what it says on the paper. Graves Kent is my father and Ada [sic?] Rabbit Kent is my mother. She was from Breen, CO; that's where her folks lived. Where my dad's folks were from I do not know, because they moved around and they didn't really have a set place. My mother's parents had a lot of sheep, so Breen, CO was country that they took up and they lived in that area. And, she was born there. Her grandfather was Rabbit. I really don't remember his name, but they called him Mr. Rabbit. Anyway, he lived in Breen, CO; it's right south of Ft. Lewis. My parents were both Southern Ute. My brother is Bonny[?] Kent and my sister is Isabelle Kent. They're both gone, but they've got children. Bonny's children are Phoebe, Richard Kent, and Emmanuel [?] Kent. Those are the three that are here today. Isabelle's children are Charles Kent, Cynthia Kent, and Betsy Kent. The two girls are up in ... they're working in ... I don't remember. Charlie is around, but I don't know where he is. Those are the three of hers. My children are Albert Kent and Ida[?] Ray Kent (that's her name); she lives down in Albuquerque. My son lives here in Ignacio. I didn't get married until about 1963. I went to the public school in Ignacio until I was in the fourth or sixth grade. I liked the girls, which went to the public school, from the Indian school. I'd ask them, 'what do you do at that school?' And they told me what the girls did. I liked what I heard, so I asked ifl could go to the Indian school. I asked them if it was possible for me to go to school with the Indians. They said, 'sure you can go to the Indian school, but it won't be like the public school. There are a lot of things that are different.' I said, 'I just want to go to be like a girl, to sew or to be a homemaker,' and they laughed at me. But, anyway, I went to public school up to third or fourth grade. So, I went to school up there. I know the sewing machine (the electric sewing machine). I know the electric iron. There were a lot of things I learned that were so useful. Washing clothes: I had a couple of tubs of hot water and washed our clothes on the weekend and be ready for school the next week. I enjoyed going to school at the Indian school. I learned to do many things, like the sewing machine. I sewed my own dress that was torn. I forgot to take my finger away from the needle and sewed my finger right here [points and laughs]. But, nobody was there to help me except for a lady who said, 'what are you doing? Sewing your finger through the needle?' I said, 'I was too slow,' and they said, 'yeah, it's too fast for people like you who don't know how to handle themselves.' That's what I did. Things that were electric were kind of hard to use, but I got used to using them. It was all right afterwards; I enjoyed being there. �Page 2 of3 How many years was I there? Well, they took me when I was in the fourth grade. I must have been in there for four years until I changed back to public school. I didn't want to go back, but my dad said I should go back to do more lessons. I was doing sewing anyway; that was to be my life. Going to school. .. I didn't do so good. But, I went back to public school. I think I just ~w&W ~ clt,-'atkt rherr when-I wasLlrr rhe-tlimir gra1ie-fqui:t- scllooT'- -I hat wa'sn" t 'ri:ghr, .Jambrly'dad was so mad at me. He didn't think I should be punished like any other person. He wanted me to, but he didn't. So, I quit and didn't go to school no more. After that I had my little boy: Albert Kent. So, he's about 70 years old, I think. I'm not quite sure; I've forgotten how old he has become. All that time after I quit school I went back to work at the dorm. I worked with the boys and the girls as an attendant. There were a lot of things I learned that were well worth training for. I didn't become anything that was a better life, but it was a good life in a way. The time that I was sick I couldn't go back to work, so I decided I better quit. They let me quit, and that was in 1975. I spoke English all that time, because I was working with those people. The Navajo don't have the same language, so we spoke in English together. So, practically, I just lived the English way. Once I learned it I lived that life. Maybe it's not the best story I should say, but it's the best I have. *** I used to dance. I'm not one to say I'm 'it'; I don't know all about it. But, when there was a dance I'd go dance. When there was a Bear Dance I'd go dance. There was the Round dance, so I Round danced. I would do the Gourd Dance when they would have it at our Ute Fair. They used to come up and do that, so I danced now and then. People are, as you'd say, members. But, I didn't become a member and only the members could dance. *** I know just part of my grandparents. Oh, what was his name ... John Russell; that was my mother's father. He lost his parents, too, when he was a baby. A lot of people were still roaming then. They didn't have a place to stay, but they said this was tribal land. So, he lived around here. When he moved out to Towoac that's where he met my grandma. So, that's where he stayed, and they lived together. How long I do not know. Anyway, he was gone again. I guess at that time people could give it up and they got something else. That's the way he was: he was a roamer. He had other children, too, after that. So, I don't know too much about them. I knew my father's parents. I knew my grandpa. It was my grandma that I knew that became a landowner on this side of Oxford. I knew the area, but I can't think of it right now. Anyway, that area was big enough, so my grandma took up that. She had my dad, my aunt ... Amy, Mary, my dad. I guess my grandpa passed away up in Utah, where he was from. His parents were from Utah. He passed away, so I just know my grandma; her name is Isabelle ... her name was Ruby Stone Kent. She married John Kent; who was my dad's father. He was from Utah. My mother's were from Breen, CO. �Page 3 of3 *** We had horses ... wagons and horses. So, we more or less rode wagons and buggies or horseback. The first time I rode in an automobile was when I was going to the dorm. I don't know if it was a tribal thing that took us to Durango to buy clothes or what. But, four of us girls from the dorm, from Ignacio went to buy some clothes. Instead of a bus, it was a truck that took us to Durango. I kind ofremember a little bit about that. One of the girls was saying, 'When I'm able to go on my own, I'll be buying me an automobile so I can drive.' As we were coming out from Durango the road there wasn't as it is now. Anyway, we were going down the road and got a flat. We had to get off the truck. We used to tease that girl and laugh. She said, laughing, 'When I get a flat I'll be walking home with my bags.' We were laughing about dragging our stuff home, because not more car. Oh, boy. I don't even remember the girl's name we were laughing about. But, it was so funny. *** We learned to make a garden by a group of girls and boys of the same grade. They were saying, 'this is how you do it when you go home and have a home: you make yourselves a garden. These are things to eat ... like potatoes.' There are a lot of things that they taught us that are useful for eating. We also had rabbits and onions. They were good, too. *** You know, I should have given a thought ( maybe a long time ago) as to how I would put my story together. But, I didn't even think about it. I'm at a loss now to tell my story fully and, maybe, differently. That's the best I've done. *** Well, at least they [Ida's grandchildren] will know that there were a lot of things that were different then than it is today. And, it was really hard to have things, because you didn't have money. We had things we could us at that time. At that time we didn't have electricity, but we still traveled on horses. Not much of anything that you would call was precious to us except horses and wagons and a home; that were teepees or tents. (Not many of us had homes except teepees.) But, I guess it was very useful, because I came out of it. [Laughs]. In a way I'm glad I lived then. Now, everything is different and easier than at the time that I was little, or at the time I became knowledgeable of myself Now things are a lot better than what they were a long time ago. It was all learning and hardship and all, but we really learned to live. And, we were always happy to be together with our family. Let's say, I'm very happy to be with my people that are here today. And, that's about it, I guess. Interviewed Michael G. Miller (VISTA worker) on January 23, 2004. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael Miller Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2003-2004 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of twelve biographies written by VISTA worker Michael G. Miller of prominent people in the Ignacio community. Based on interviews conducted by Miller between December 9, 2003 and March 15, 2004. Some contain the additional attribution "for the Ignacio Historical Society." Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Miller, Michael G. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ida Kent Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2004-01-23 Subject The topic of the resource Kent, Ida; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Ida Kent written by VISTA worker Michael Miller and based on an interview conducted by Miller on January 23, 2004. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kent, Ida Extent The size or duration of the resource. 3 pages https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/25d99f8b3b18bc4a91f7517106d26511.pdf f0f2fa1d2290e406eb0a52a3326ada58 PDF Text Text Neil Cloud (Southern Ute Tribal Elder) My name is Neil Buck Cloud; I'm the NAGPRO [Native American Graves Protection] coordinator for the Southern Ute Tribe at the current time. I was born at Towaoc, CO. At that time the Southern Ute Tribe did not have a hospital here [Ignacio]. So all the mothers had to go over to Towaoc to give birth; that's where a hospital was. We didn't have a hospital. A year or two later Taylor Hospital was built; which functions as the Southern Ute Tribal Building. It's an old building. Then, when I was born over there, I came back. We didn't have roads like this. It used to be gravel roads. It was winter and they said they had to deliver me. They walked part of the way, most of the way, through all that snow. Where the current BIA building is, there used to be an old building that was made originally out of wood. And, that burned down with all the tribal records. Finally, they built another one right under it. There's a tree still standing there that you will notice in old pictures. The museum currently has pictures of the Utes standing there. That was the old BIA building. When they built the new BIA building that was in 1940 ... somewhere in that area. And, when I was growing up, I used to play there; I remember that as a boy. We used to play, at that time Billy Rock and I, we used to play in the foundation; that's what I remember. At that time, our fathers were the Southern Ute Tribal Policemen. And, if you look right off north there, the jail is still standing there: the little cement building that you see. If you look north, it's still there. There were houses towards the south; those were the houses where our parents lived. And, there were a few sheds (warehouses) a little bit to the west ofus, southwest. Two buildings I think it was, or three ... huge: we used to all go to there and play. There used to be a whole mess of sheep pelts in there. During that time the tribe had sheep (we owned the sheep). Also, during that time, individual families had sheep and there was a Southern Ute Sheep Association, also, which we owned together. Every spring we used to take them up to Williams Creek and north ofVallecito Dam in that National Forest area. We had trouble with bears, and we had to have a quota [of sheep] for the National Fore st. We had to purchase 30,000 more. So, I don't know how many total we had, because there were several families. But, over the following ears, we kept saying that bears killed our sheep. Finally it added up and we had bucks. I guess they got old also, because they died. We had, I don't know 50 or 100 head of bucks, and we kept them separate. Well, that's my experience. During the time when I heard these stories, the Indians were still riding horses at that time. Well, there was a store there next to that office that burned down; where the Ute Park entrance is today. A little south of there was a warehouse. The Indian agents used to say that Hans Aspas was the one who had it, or one of them. And, over a period oftime (when he was in charge), the way the story goes, he used to get the wagons that were given to us by the United States Government. Over that period he accumulated a lot of money. And, that's how Ignacio became the little city of Ignacio. That part is just hearsay, you see. I just heard it and didn't see it for myself I just heard the people talk about it. �Page 2 of9 One thing is very important according to the story of how Ignacio was built. First, it was supposed to have been built in Tiffany, CO; which is about 15 miles southeast oflgnacio. And, something happened over there and they moved it to this area: the Pine River area. Well, there's a slaughterhouse where the Town is supposed to be, over the hill. I've been there, there's a lot of debris. The first one (I forget the Spanish guy's name), he was the very first guy to build a saloon. The pieces of wood that you find are part of the foundation of that saloon. And then, during that time, something happened. They moved to where the current Ignacio is, and he had to move his saloon back down. That's why there are pieces of debris there; I've been there. I don't know what condition it's in now. If you walk on over, there's a creek there. If you walk along, there's still trash from that period. There's a big question about that: how Ignacio came about and why they moved it. I never knew, never was told. That's why I say it is hearsay ... I wasn't really involved. It happened before my time, way before my time, about the time when the allotments were being created. But, I did see the Utes riding their horses right in front of that big building that they call the Legion Hall. Right across the corner from there was a drugstore, as I remember. And, I remember the druggist's name: it was Britt, and I remember that because he sold ice cream. Us little guys used to go get ice cream there. Every time we went to town that was the first place we went to. And, right across it was the Legion Hall; it's still standing today. That's where the Spanish people put on dances. That was the only big building and that's where they used to have dances (right next to the police station, where the hitching post was). That's where the Utes used to tie their horses and their wagons. There used to e a whole bunch of them where the station is today. Also, the Ignacio High School was built where the grade school is. It was a tall building: two stories. That's where the Anglo kids went to school and some of the Ute kids went there, too. I went to this one here (we had an Indian school, also). The boarding school. .. during the early days we lived so far from the school that we were all scattered all throughout this reservation. We didn't have no buses during those days. Some of them had to ride horseback when they went to school. Some of the Utes went to school over towards Mesa Mountains; which is about a good 10 or 15 miles from here. There was another country school over there. Some of them had to suffer every winter riding horses to get to school. And, there's another Indian school up over northeast from here, about 15 miles out. But, there's a little country school. .. some of those people went to that one. It was muddy and they had a rough time being out in the country. That's why the Bureau of Indian Affairs built this Indian school. According to my dad, who went to school here, this boarding school was ... I still remember it; it was functioning a few years back. But, they built an additional part to it and it got bigger. Whereas the old one was funny looking: narrow and long. It was divided: one side was the girls' section and the other side was for the boys. There was a sign there, when it was built, and I remember seeing it. I believe it said, '1889'; that's when my dad went to school, when he was a little guy. They said his dad came and got home and never told them he was putting him in school. According to his story, he just thought he was going for a ride with his dad and he was happy. But, he left him at that boarding school and he cried. When he was over �Page 3 of9 there, I guess he cried so much that when one of the girls got him, they calmed him down and took care of him. He was the littlest one there. That's the way he was healthy about telling that story; I remember that part. 'My dad did me wrong by not telling me,' he'd say. 'I'm still mad at my dad (which was Edwin Cloud).' I remember him [Edwin Cloud], too, vaguely. He had braids, but I really didn't know him too well. They just pointed him out and said that's my grandfather. That's how I knew him. But, I never did know him too well, because he lived down by Spring Creek and I lived where my mother lived ( down three miles south oflgnacio). My mother's maiden name was Buck: Molly Buck. My grandmother was married to Antonio Buck, Sr.; he was the son of Charlie Buck. Actually, 'Buckskin Charlie' was not his real name. His real name was Charlie Buck. That's where the misconception comes out. Not very many people know his real name. 'Charlie Buck' would have been his name in the Census, if there were any when he was born. That was way before the creation of this reservation. Well, he used to live in Colorado Springs. That's where most of the pictures came out of; they were taken over there. But, he was moved here. Some of the Utes didn't have no birth certificates, because they were born at home. While he was growing up, he also served as a scout with the Fourth Cavalry. The cavalry, the soldiers had to keep the Utes in the interior of the reservation, to isolate them (so the Government said). He did serve with the Fourth Cavalry. (I don't know where they were stationed). As a scout, I guess he used to kill deer for the soldiers to eat. He'd butcher them and skin them; he'd save the hide, and right then he'd start tanning it. When the soldiers saw him that's how his name was created: the soldiers called him 'Buckskin' and used his first name as his last name. I guess he liked his nickname. Being a scout is king of a prestige position, important. He felt he was an important guy, so he kept the name. I don't know how many years he served with the soldiers, and that's how he became 'Buckskin Charlie.' Only we family members knew his real name: Charlie Buck. The Tribal Council, for a while, continued to claim that the family of Charlie all died off But, there are still a lot of them living. They even have a newspaper clipping telling about his commission in the Fourth Cavalry. Now that's not the Fort Lewis ... I don't know if that's the same bunch. With the creation of the reservation we were moved so many times. When my grandfather was living in Colorado Springs there was still a spring over there. The Garden of the Gods: that's where they lived. He roamed the whole eastern Rockies, all the way up to Boulder. He was there when the first covered wagons came across the prairie. What they call west of Boulder, these big rocks, high hills, it's called ... they called them ... I'm mixed up about them. Well, there's a Ute trail up there. It's a high place and that's where he was watching the first covered wagons coming across the prairie. He had never seen anything like that, so he waited for it ... a whole bunch of Utes waited for it. At that time, looking east you could see way out across the prairie: 80 miles ... 100 miles out, I guess, from that high point. So, they waited all day. Finally, it came to the foothills where the Colorado University is. And, they came down to meet them (they were curious to meet them, I guess). While he was there he met the wagon master and told the wagon master ... he said (well, I guess through sign language), �Page 4 of9 'these things [wagon wheels] aren't going to make it through those steep hills (which were mostly horse trails).' Some were almost 45 degrees steep. He told the wagon master, he said, 'this is the end of your trip, your travels. Your wagons will never make it over the hill.' 'You might as well plan on staying here,' he told them. 'Make your home here and we'll protect you from the enemies that come around.' There were Sioux to the north, Arapahoe and other tribes that claim that that's their homeland. They could stay on one condition: he told the wagon master, 'if you're going to stay here you have to build a house of wisdom (is what they called it).' I wrote a composition about what I heard. So, that was the beginning. The 'house of wisdom' later became the University of Colorado. So that's why it's there; it was that mutual agreement during that first encounter. That was Charlie Buck in that area. Let's see ... Denver was being built at that time. And, during that time there was that militia, Colorado Militia, which was in authority. While Denver was already being built there was another little town southeast of Colorado called Centennial. All that San Luis Valley was nothing but creeks and was home to the beaver. And there was a trapper, a Canadian trapper I think, that came into that area. All that San Luis Valley clear up to Nebraska (the Platte River) was the home of the beaver. Also, according to his [Charlie Buck's] description looking east, that whole valley was just black specks. The way he described those black specks was they looked like the flies in the fall time. Those were the buffalo, as far as he could see. I remember that description. That's how he described it. In the wintertime, when it gets cold, the flies have a tendency to come into your home and land on your wall so that it's dark ... that's the way he described it. Also, according to that picture, Centennial was a small town. Well, during that same period the Colorado Militia was out. The Colorado Militia was sponsored by the City of Denver. They were, I believe ... according to the story, separate. And, they were the ones that created the massacres in that area. Of course, in that movie it depicts that other guy, and they try to decommission the one that was supposed to be in charge. So, there was a friction there. But, according to the story, later they add the one that was authorized to be the commander in San Luis Valley had a fight with the Colorado Militia commander. So, he was chased out of that country, because he killed people in cold blood. They saw that happen right in the streets of Denver. When a wanted Indian was walking in the streets, he shot him in the back. That was the turning point: the pioneers didn't like the style of his torture. When the man was trying to turn himself in and he just shot him in the back, is how he confronted him. Well, what brought it out was in Cripple Creek they found a lot of gold. First, that was where our reservation was big, and they discovered the gold in Cripple Creek. Well, they said, 'move the savages out West.' So, we were rounded up and we were moved. Our first agency was built down in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There were Spaniards in that Santa Fe area, also the Pueblos were too close. And, the Utes being hunters and picking berries didn't fell good being cooped up in a tight place. There was all that friction: the Pueblos were having trouble with the Spanish, too. A lot of things were happening down in New Mexico. The Utes didn't like it, and I guess we were moved to La Vida, back to La Vida. Well, we were there around Trinidad; there're Ute names in that area. I guess when we was there we were moved again, to Pagosa. Well, we were supposed to become farmers and self-supporting. �Page 5 of 9 Okay, Pagosa Springs is a high-altitude little town. That's when the Fort Lewis was built there, the first Fort Lewis. I believe the Fourth Cavalry, and maybe the Eighth too, that bunch ... Later I heard the Buffalo Soldiers were attached there, too. When we were there we complained to the government that we cannot grow food. Vegetables would rot. Besides, it was too cold for the vegetables. So, we were moved to this area where the Pine River is. Well, I've got to go back. When we was in the La Vida area, there was a river called 'Los Pines', which is still there today on the map. Okay, when we were moved from Pagosa to here, this Pine River Valley, it was called 'Los Pines.' So, today we have two Los Pines Rivers. That Spanish name followed us here; I don't know how that happened. It followed the Utes. So, today this Pine River Valley is known as the Los Pines River, but some ofus prefer to call it Pine River. Well, that's when the creation oflgnacio happened, because where I live (three miles north oflgnacio) there's that Spanish trail; it goes across my field. From Santa Fe all the way up, it goes across Ignacio Peak right there (that's where we call Cedar Ridge). I think it follows the railroad tracks here ... the D. & R.G. [Durango & Rio Grande0 that used to run through Ignacio (it runs quite a ways close to Oxford). It goes straight west, all the way to Weasel Skin Bridge. That's where the Spanish trail went. And then, from over there (the Weasel Skin Bridge is located on the Animas River), on the west side of the river it goes straight north; right where the Southern Utes are building the A-LP [Animas-La Plata Project]. Well, right where that [Home] Depot is ... the new store ... that Wal-Mart ... right south of there, there was a highway, and on the left side was a big rock as a marker for the Spanish trail. It went west, northwest, right where the A-LP is being built. And, it goes all the way west. Somewhere east of there it goes toward Delta, and then one goes south towards Towaoc. That's the way the Spanish trail went: it goes all the way up north to Grand Junction. And, as I was saying, there was a third route that cut west, a short cut they called it. The one that goes through Palisade, that was the short cut to the one that went to the gold fields of California. This one over here by Mancos Creek, we called it 'Target Tree' in the Ute language; that's what it translates to. There was only one tree. But, the way the elders came up with that they called it 'Target Tree.' So, that's what it's called today. Well, actually, when the Utes came through they always shot that tree. So, during that time it had a lot of arrows stuck up in it. When the Spanish words came to this area, the Ute language got mixed up with the Spanish. Like 'caba' and caballo,' and some other names. So, what we're speaking here is not Ute: it's colloquial, mixed, a hybrid language. We lost our language a long time ago. There's a bunch ofUtes up near Ouray that still speak the original Ute language. Eddie Box, he's still alive today, he knows some of that ... the old words. There are different words for the same things. There are a few here who are still alive. Clifford Eagle is another one that I know who might know some of those original Ute words. The ones over there at Ute Mountain have more speakers. But, the language has changed; the Ute language has changed its color. Today, according to the young generation (I listen to the radio, the Ute word of the week), parents don't teach their kids the correct way. I was involved with the language. The real Ute language is spoken softly. The suffix in a word is the tricky one. These words sound alike, but the suffix changes. So, when you hear that word you have to be careful with the tail: there's a little sound added to it. �Page 6 of9 *** My father's name was Julius Nash Cloud. He spent most of his time at this Indian school. And, this school during that time only went up to the sixth grade. So, he stayed here year-round, I believe, until he got to the sixth grade. From there he had to go to seventh grade, but there was no seventh grade school nearby. The only place there was a seventh grade was in Santa Fe: Santa Fe Indian School, and that's where he was transferred. So, during the early years he was so far away he had to ride a horse to come back. It wasn't as easy as today, when you can drive a few hours to get down there. But, during that time it took weeks, maybe, just to go the one direction. Well, he stayed there all the years. During the summer, when he didn't have school, they used to take him to the San Luis Valley to make spending money. Over there they used to pick beets. When he was there, that's when World War I broke out. So, during that time he was at the right age to get drafted ... he got drafted into the Army. He never cam home: he was too far away. But, the government made it a point for him to come home. I guess they had the automobile then. But, the government had him come back and say good-bye to his family. I guess he came back for a week, just to see his morn and dad because he was going. He went overseas. That's the part I translated for him, because the Ute Museum has a story on him. I didn't know what he experienced. I read what he wrote. Some of the things that he described weren't really the way he described them in his report. The real thing was that the feelings of the soldiers ... the farmer that he was with, the Anglo farmers, because he was drafted they were all bunched together and they had never been outside of the United States. It was the first time they had ever been in the East. And, they had that funny feeling about being moved over the ocean. They never saw an ocean that big before. Some of them cried and some of them didn't want to go. They were scared: they didn't know where they were going, nobody ever told them where they were going. They were just being herded onto that big ship, like cattle. Maybe, according to his story, it would have been all right if they were told. But, there was a vague idea there was a war going on with Germany, and a lot of them didn't know where Germany was, either. That's the way the soldiers were. That's why they were crying for their families. That's not the way it is today, because we have a lot of tourists. We go touring around the country, to see the country. In the early days it was so hard to travel, so we had to stay within our home area, within a three-mile radius, or five mile or ten mile radius of our homes. Durango was 20 miles away and that was kind of difficult, but the D. & R.G. (that little train that came through here) took some of the people to Durango. It also went all the way around to Alamosa. That was a big help to the families: the train. Yeah, I rode on it too, by the way. It was kind of a smooth ride, but all you could hear was the sound of the wheels: the clink-clink. Kind of neat ... it was better than riding on a wagon: all that rough riding. The train was real smooth, but all you could hear was the wheels all the way to Durango. The clink-clink and then the whistle: that's what I experienced. *** I finished here ... that's when it was called the Ute Vocational School. It was like home to me, because that's where I got adapted to that life. Yes, I did graduate from there. There were Navajos here, also. There was a day school for the parents, and then during that time there was a school bus. Some of those buses would come everyday to the school, but some ofus we stayed there. There were no school buses that went into the areas where some ofus lived. Not like today: now we've got a whole mess of school buses down in Ignacio. There were other kids, �Page 7 of9 Anglo kids, who were in the same fix. They had to come the hard way: they'd walk or they rode a horse in. Some of the lucky ones, if they could drive, had their parents bring them in everyday. It was the same for us up here: the buses brought some of us and dropped us off at the school, and some ofus had to stay; which was easy, because we didn't have to put up with those kinds of hardships. So, I just adapted to it, and that's why I say that it was my home. I got used to the routine. Well, I don't know, it wasn't cruel like what I've been hearing on the news with the other Indian schools in the United States that were really rough. The kids were roughly treated. That must have been before my time. Yes, we were disciplined. The best part of growing up is being disciplined if you can't behave, because there are rules to follow. As ling as you follow those rules, though, you're all right. Well, when I went to the service I had a piece of cake in the service. I went in '55; I was drafted into the Navy. Well, I was in Boulder during that time. I got six deferments. At first it was a police action [in Korea], but then the United States never declared war. During that period they never declared war officially ... not like in World War II. World War II was when I was over here and kids were disappearing. But, I didn't know there was a war with Japan; that's where they were going. And, a lot of the Navajo kids that were here were orphans. During World War II we had to go through their trunks. The matron was here; that's who signed as their parents. So all their belongings, when they got killed in the South Pacific, came back here. Greg Pinto was one that I remember; he was one of the big boys. Greg Pinto and several others never made it back. He was killed overseas and the only thing that came back was his trunk. But, I didn't understand those things really too well: why they [the trunks] were all coming back. That was during World War II. But, the United States declared war on Japan right after December 7th; that was official. That's how I perceived it: the United States didn't declare war on another country [Korea]. There was no chance for us to go over there and fight, because we had no alibi to shoot somebody. That's the way some ofus perceived it. I got on the U.S.S. Conway (aircraft carrier): Seventh Fleet, 10477. That aircraft carrier was a ship that never traveled alone. We had the whole Seventh Fleet, a whole armada; which was like a big city on the sea. We made it as far as the tip of South America going overseas. We got there on Christmas Day until finally we got the dispatch. Then, we had to go to the Philippines. So, we did an about-face. Well, I didn't exactly stay two years like I was supposed to. I came out after 18 months, because the government said we could be dismissed early. Well, I wasn't officially out: I had to be in the Reserves. I am classified A-1, which means I can still be called back. So, even today, I guess if they need me, I could still get in ... in case of an emergency_ I have a friend ... a colonel (retired), and that's what happened to him. That's how I know that the United States government is calling people back. Well, ifwe don't have to go through all that boot camp, then those ofus who are in good physical condition can still go back. According to our aptitude tests those who are up there have to train the others. �Page 8 of9 Well, with most ofus draftees (I was with a Texas Company), most ofus came out of colleges. When we got into the regular Navy, the career sailors just hated our guts. They felt like killing us, because we got in there and took that aptitude test for rank. For most of us we passed it: it was a piece of cake for us, and that was they reason they didn't like us. They wanted us out. Whereas, they had spent 16 years trying to make that same grade over and over. That was the friction. Then, the government says if we re-enlist we'd be given so much rank, be given so much money. It was on some of our minds. But, we would have never survived due to the condition, because that was how they felt [the career sailors]. We didn't want to stay. We'd rather come back home. Those ofus in college could make a living back here, not in the military. Besides, we weren't even at war. Now, that deal with the Marxists in the 60s, I didn't understand that too well in the beginning. The draft-dodgers were right. I came to my senses. If you get drafted, you have to go or spend five years in the penitentiary; which is better than feeling guilty. There was no declaration of war behind your back. We had no justification. If the United States had declared open war on another country, then we'd be justifiable ... have a justifiable condition to back it up. There was no justification for it, and a lot of them got killed for nothing. When I went in I didn't have no insurance, either. If you died at sea, which was supposed to be hazardous duty, you got extra money. I didn't get my G.I. Bill, either. A lot of us didn't get it. We were just there, and when some ofus got out we didn't have no insurance. Nothing ... not even a G.I. Bill. Today you've got to be crippled 30% to get any compensation. But even that much you can't get anything. The Agent Orange guys are creating big hospital bills, the kids are coming out deformed, and the government won't do anything for them ... giving them the run-around. The military is fine all right. The Navajos, the code-talkers, make it sound like it was a violent situation during World War II. But, there was a justification for that: the United States declared war on Japan. Whereas in our situation, there wasn't. So, why? And, besides, we were drafted; we didn't volunteer. That was the first time the Navy ever drafted. We still had to serve our six years. I finally got my discharge in 1961. Well, you have to be pretty tough to get up there on the aircraft carrier. I was in the S-1 Division, which was the backbone of the whole Fleet. I can go anywhere: Dispersement, Personnel. .. I was in the electronics part of it. The ones that really go through strict training are the submarine guys, because they have to know what to do. Well, we were trained the same way. We used to operate almost all the anti-aircraft guns. We had the '58-Dutch' anti-aircraft. I kind ofliked to operate that: the '58-Dutch.' Well, we had the regular anti-aircraft, too. It's funny .. .ifthe man on the radar got shot, we just filled in. That's the way it was. For loading, if one of the men went down, we just switched over and took his place ... until we all got wiped out [laughs]. Well, it was teamwork. I didn't have to be taught all that stuff over again, because I already learned it in the boarding school. I already knew how to wash my clothes. That's why I say it was a piece of cake. If one ofus messed up, we all got punished together. In the Navy, ifwe got punished, we had to go march at two o'clock in the morning all the way up to reveille. By that time we were so sleepy. Then, we were taught in a classroom with a screen, a projector; that's how they lectured us. Well, I tell people, for eight weeks I was a 'dumb Indian,' an 'idiot,' and some other �Page 9of9 Afto..- ts ~rarlna+1·on 1 bu"d "'"ill"'" On+ +l-..,+ nrnc, vvu~ O" 1v .p,....,. 1· ah+ nr.c>olrs uu 1., a11+l-.at r>hang d that'" nrhat vv tell these people. I'm not hot0headed ... I can take it (I took a lot of them). J.J_U, J. \..I~ • .J..IU.L, l,UJU,l, J.J.J.J .l.VJ. 0 V b 1-L VVVVJ."-- • LVJ. L J_ l,J..l. \..IJ..l J.J. 0 V .•• J_ ~ I experienced the military and the boarding school, but that other stuff about Ignacio is just hearsay; I didn't experience it myself People talked about it and I listened to them. Of course, when I was a little guy I didn't listen. I didn't think it was really important. But today, I would k11ow ifl had listened. I didn't do what I was supposed to ... I feel guilty. I though all the people I k11ew and saw were all still going to be alive, forever. That's the way I perceived it. All the people that I had contact with, I thought they were going to be around forever. I thought everything was going to be the same. Come to find out, they're gone. *** Interviewed by Michael G. Miller, VISTA worker, on January 30th, 2004. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael Miller Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2003-2004 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of twelve biographies written by VISTA worker Michael G. Miller of prominent people in the Ignacio community. Based on interviews conducted by Miller between December 9, 2003 and March 15, 2004. Some contain the additional attribution "for the Ignacio Historical Society." Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Miller, Michael G. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Neil Cloud Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2004-01-30 Subject The topic of the resource Cloud, Neil; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Neil Cloud written by VISTA worker Michael Miller and based on an interview conducted by Miller on January 30, 2004. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cloud, Neil Extent The size or duration of the resource. 9 pages https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/17b9951c6baea3ec76b0d39f5df501c7.pdf 6566efc2482fbcb0af3ca79806db3541 PDF Text Text ------ - - - - - - Norman C. Wright (Abridged) I was born in Red Wing, CO, probably southwest of Pueblo 35 miles. I was born there and stayed there until 1937; I was born in 1915. I grew up right around Rye, CO and Rattlesnake Buttes (that's well-named, because there were a lot of rattlesnakes there). My dad homesteaded. He must have homesteaded about 1910. At that time he was a forest ranger. I started school in Rattlesnake Buttes. We left Rattlesnake Buttes and went to Avondale, CO when I was a seventh grader, and we stayed there for five years. Then we went back to Rye, CO. We left Rye in the fall of 1937. My cousin and I came across here on horseback; we drove a bunch of horses. We were raising draft horses, at that time, and were selling teams of horses. My cousin Ralph Brier and I, we were over that pass ... what's the name of that pass? Anyway, the first day we got into the horse trade and traded until we were broke. We stopped and slept in a haystack that night, in Gardner, CO. The next day we went over Musket Pass. We probably had 40 head of horses: colts, mares, and broken horses, saddle horses We came over right above the sand dunes in the San Luis Valley. We stayed there the third night at a ranch, came on through to Alamosa, and stayed the fourth night in Alamosa. Then, one day, my dad started and brought seven milk cows alone to drive with the horses. I just blew my stack Well, the cows went dry on the way over here. We were going to this place over here on the Florida River; it was called the CJ Bar Ranch at that time. We stayed there, let's see, about five years. Then we went back to Pagosa, and I stayed there 18 years. I came down here 46 years ago this fall [2004]. That's all my time. I was all breaking horses, and I never had a tractor until I was 25 years old. They never had any. Tractors didn't come out until after World War II. I bought two little tractors; I thought I would get two. And, I thought it would take them what a horse could do, but they did what four horses could do. So it will be 46 years since I came here this November and I've been here ever since. I bought this place here in 1960 (I had leased it). I have this territory: about 800 acres ... lots of walking, lots of irrigating. I had registered cattle here, registered Herefords. I stayed in that and I had some good bulls, but then the exotic bulls started coming in, the foreign bulls, and we couldn't compete against them. Now we cross breed them [Herefords] with black cattle, and that's a disgrace to me but you have to do it. That's what the people, as well as what the feedlots want. My father was John Washington Wright, and he was born and raised in Wentmore, CO. My mother's maiden name was Ethel Lois Churchill. (My middle name is Churchill, and I am a fourth cousin of Winston Churchill.) She was raised in Wisconsin. She came to Colorado and got her degree to teach at the teachers' school in Wentmore; where she and my dad met. My father was a forest ranger, then he homesteaded a place southeast of Walsenburg out in the dry land around Rattlesnake Buttes. It seemed like I was there forever. But, it was well named: lots of rattlesnakes. We lost three wean-er colts (suckling colts). They are quite inquisitive and they see something. An old horse knows the buzzing of that tail, the rattling, like a person and it will just scare you to death. But the colts, they don't know yet, they're real inquisitive and they'll go sniffing around. Killed three of them. �Page 2 of 4 I have been in the cattle business all my life. I tried shearing sheep here on this place once, but coyotes ... coyotes and dogs. So, one year I got rid of them [the sheep] and got my cattle back. We had a permit, east of Bayfield, for about 1,200 acres. We had 226 head of horse, and I sold that ranch. I sold it because I was hard up: couldn't make ends meet. It wasn't much. You couldn't raise a calf for what you'd get out of it. So, I stayed here and had a chance to sell that place up there for a crazy number: a million and a half [dollars]. That seems crazy, don't it? That was in ... right recently ... about 1998, something like that. I was able to pay back some old debts, but I still wanted to raise cattle. I gave half of the ranch to my youngest son, and this half I've kept after and I will give over to my two grandsons (they're both grown men, now). I also have a great-grandson. Four generations on this ranch, the Wright Ranch. It's still known as the Spanish Forks Ranch, because that's what it was when I bought it. The name came from a man that lived in Spanish Forks, Utah. He loaned money on this place some way or another and foreclosed on it. So, he called it the Spanish Forks Ranch and that was in the 1920s. I have two sons. I had a daughter, but she passed away. My oldest son lives in New Mexico, just on the other side of the line. And, Wayne, my other son, lives here. My oldest son has been more into construction. He's living down here, and he had a heart attack about four years ago. He's getting old too, you know. I'll be 89 this fall, and I feel like a kid. I can't walk; I get to where my legs give out. You've got to have a good spirit. It's kept me going from the times when I thought I was going to lose everything. I believe in the Lord, and I trust in the Lord to see me out just as he saw me in. My mother was a Baptist. My father was a Presbyterian. So, I'm a Baptist now, and there're a lot of differences among Baptists. In 1939, I married and went on my own. But, in 1942 I lost her (she passed away), so I went back home in Pagosa for two or three years. Then, I married a girl and we lived together until she passed away. Then, I met this gal and we've lived together for the past ten years, almost eleven. She's my third wife. Third time's a charm. But, I had to get married both times ... I sold mostly wean-er stock. I sold the weaning calves off of the cows, generally. Somebody else put them in a feedlot. My cattle always did good in the feedlot. I went for the stretch-ier type of beef, rougher type cattle. My dad was more of a smooth, pretty yellow [cattle] feller. But, I thought a Hereford was supposed to be good and wide, so I bred them to be good and wide. Some of the Herefords went to a pretty yellow-red, and they went smaller and smaller. A 1,200-pound bull would be a mature bull. I have cows that are 1,200 pounds. The bulls I used as sires I bought out of Canada, and those are big type cattle, good-doing cattle. They could stand bad weather and everything. So, I had a man in Washington who I bought the bulls through. The Anxiety Fourth was a bull, purebred breeder out in Hereford. But, they went for the short-type. The first Anxiety Fourth were good cattle, but the breeders kept getting them pretty and yellow, and fat and easy. But we don't want fat ... we want muscle. That's how I built cattle: with muscle gain and not fat gain. You don't want fat, because you throw it away. That's what the cattle are today. The Limousine and Charle are both French cattle, and that's what they went for. The Americans learned from those breeders in foreign countries that you've got to raise �Page 3 of 4 muscle instead of fat. The muscle is what you eat and what's good for you. The fat you supposed to throw away. The feedlots are mostly in eastern Colorado, and down through the Arkansas Valley there are lots of feedlots. But my cattle, well it depended on who bought them. A man in Pagosa bought mine and would sell them to the feedlot. They gained 3 1/10 pounds per day on grass all summer long. So, he bought my steers, but he wanted to get them smaller. He put less into them, but we still raised good cattle. We've had to sell off our cattle: two years ago there was not feed in this country, and you couldn't afford to ship it in; it made it too high. The government finally brought it to Alamosa, but that cost us $25 a ton to get it here besides what it already cost. So, that didn't go over very big. Now, the cattle are going out more and they're going to the feedlots. There are not many fed around here: the winters are too bad for them. Down towards Farmington, there's a feedlot or two. Some of them learned that one of the real secrets of raising tender meat is to butcher cattle when ... If they're in a storm, they're going to be tough. That meat is going to be a little tougher than if the weather is good. *** I can remember when I was first going to school. .. the first day of school with my sister. We rode horses there; you didn't dare walk on account of the prairie wolves. The prairie wolf is a smaller wolf than the timber wolf, but they're just as vicious. I remember when I hadn't even gone to school yet, my uncle had trapped one and it broke away from the trap. He and my dad tracked it and I got to go along with them on a horse beside them. I could just barely hold on to the horse. They finally come to it and shot him, and I went over and picked up his tail. It went, "Grrrruff." They said I went and jumped up on my horse. It scared me half to death, and I was about 6 years old (first grader). But, we tracked him. I was on a horse myself; he had a small horse. I learned to ride when I was about five years old ... five or six years old. I learned to ride a horse when I went to school (I started when I was five years old, six that October). It was a one-room schoolhouse. It's still there. My wife and I drove over there, I was writing the story of my life, and I wanted to show her some of those places. That schoolhouse is still standing. That was about three or four years ago. It is in Rattlesnake Buttes. There's a South Rattlesnake Butte and North Rattlesnake Butte. This is North Rattlesnake Butte, near where the post office was. But at the other one, there were rattlesnakes ... they were everywhere. Kids learned to stay out of the brush or anything. My dad homesteaded two canyons close in, but it was right next to the prairie. We had two horses when we came here; we left in the fall of '37. My cousin and I rode; we came over the top of Musket Pass. We couldn't go over Wolf Creek, because Wolf Creek was closed then (they were building a new road). So, we had to go over to Cumbres Pass; which is over here down in New Mexico. We got as far as Ananeda and we heard of a bad storm on the Pass, so my dad put me, the horses and the seven old milk cows on the train. I came over the rest of the way through Lumberton, NM back up right over by the river here, the Pine River (there were some �Page 4 of 4 loading pens there). They got there at 1:00 in the morning, and all day that day and through the next night (it was two days travel by train from way down in New Mexico) I unloaded them here. I got them off the train and got them in a pasture from a farmer/rancher where I stayed one night. The next day I drove them across the Florida River going to the top (as if you were going to Durango). At that time it was all sagebrush; there weren't no farmers and ranchers across there. I drove them hungry cows and horses from early in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon, and I had just one sandwich to eat that morning. I was hungry when I got there, so there were real nice people, who we were going to lease the place from, and I overate ... I got sick. I puked all over the place. I was so embarrassed. They didn't milk the cows the next night, but they were dry ... the cows went dry. I had tried to talk to my dad that they would all go dry, and they were dry. They just couldn't stand that rough abuse. Ranch cows could have, but milk cows can't stand that abuse. So, I had seven milk cows and about 35 or 40 head of horses, and they wouldn't drive together. I didn't have a dog; I had two horses. I left one horse where I could get a hold of him, and I wore two horses riding them, getting them things to not go anywhere else. They would scatter our, and I couldn't keep them together. I was by myself then; my cousin went back with my dad to get stuff and bring it on over here. That was in the fall of 1937: I would have been 22 that fall. I was 22 when I got there, and I felt as though I was 122. We had that place, I think it was, for five years. Then it sold, Land Management sold it and we could not raise the money. We had so much to do on that place. We were intending to buy it, but a rich guy down in Texas wanted to put his money somewhere, so he blew us out. Dad went back to Pagosa, and I went one year above Durango. I went back to Pagosa, but I couldn't find a place to lease, and I had a few stock and I had to find a place. So, I went there and stayed there, then I came down here. It's been 46 years I've been right here this fall. Well, I bought this place in 1960 and that place up there in '66. There's four generations on it [Spanish Forks Ranch] right now and they ought to last a while. Nathan, my oldest grandson is living up there [northern part of ranch], and he has my great-grandson, who's a little over a year old now. He's the cutest little thing I ever saw. He's got grandpa wrapped around his finger. The two grandsons are going to help Wayne, and they're all going to run it together. Interviewed by Michael G. Miller (VISTA worker) on March 5, 2004 at Spanish Forks Ranch, County Road 322. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael Miller Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2003-2004 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of twelve biographies written by VISTA worker Michael G. Miller of prominent people in the Ignacio community. Based on interviews conducted by Miller between December 9, 2003 and March 15, 2004. Some contain the additional attribution "for the Ignacio Historical Society." Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Miller, Michael G. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Norman Wright Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2004-03-05 Subject The topic of the resource Wright, Norman; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Norman Wright written by VISTA worker Michael Miller and based on an interview conducted by Miller on March 5, 2004. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Wright, Norman Extent The size or duration of the resource. 4 pages https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/ef9747f447c50d48e2f9c7fde6dd017e.pdf 62ec3c749fcbae27664d373f5db4f14d PDF Text Text Pearl E. Casias (Southern Ute Tribal Elder) My name is Pearl Emily Casias, and I was born on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation in the old Tribal Affairs building. At the time that I was born in the 40s it was called Taylor Hospital. It closed in 1957; it was a Bureau oflndian Affairs hospital. I was raised by my grandparents: Martha Tree and Felipe Lucero. We lived on an 80-acre allotment approximately two miles north of here [Ignacio]. At the time that I was growing up I recall the streets in Ignacio were gravel. There wasn't any pavement and there were gutters on the sides of the roads. But, it was an interesting community. We had a pool hall, and I recall my grandparents going to dances on the weekends at about four places that they used to have dances. So, t must have been a community thing to have social dances well before I was born and during the time that I was growing up. What is now the Ignacio School District bus garage used to be a dance hall. The kitchen appliance warehouse on Main Street was called Rebus Hall-they used to have dances there. It belonged to Mr. Rebus. Then, they had dances at what is now the Head Start building (it used to be the Ute Vocational School), and on some weekends they would have dances in the gym. After they built the T.P. Lounge, they used to have dances in there, also. So, there were four places where people could go to the dances. Most of the community, and from the outlying communities, would come and they would socialize with each other. Some of the tribal members had bands, so they played for one dance hall or another. Occasionally my grandparents would take me, but it wasn't very often. My grandmother would meet with some of the ladies who lived in La Boca and out in the Allison/Tiffany area. So, it was a social dance, but it was also a chance to meet with old friends and, possibly, to make new friends. I was telling an individual that had moved into this area back in the 70s, that I remember walking to Ignacio with my grandparents or with my aunt because we didn't have transportation. In the summer we'd walk, we'd walk two miles. Sometimes on our way back we'd catch a ride with someone who was going our way and they'd drop us off In the fall and during the winter my grandfather would go on the horse to get groceries, or he'd make arrangements with some of the neighbors and he'd ride into town with them. In the spring and early summer my grandparents would ride horses into town and we'd ride with them. We brought empty flour sacks or gunny sacks, put the groceries in them, then put them on the horses for the ride back. I remember the road 516 (that's the road I live on)-it goes from Highway 172 all the way to Bayfield-it was a gravel road. But, County Road 517 that comes right here in front of the Tribal Building it was just a dirt road. It didn't have gravel. After it rained and the people who had cars went over it, it became packed down. So, it was a lot of fun to take your shoes off and walk on the dirt road. There was a theater in Ignacio; it was called the Ute Theater. It's an empty building and an empty lot right now between the Sidekick Lounge and where a real estate office used to be. Mr. And Mrs. Preston (he was a farmer and drove a milk truck for the dairy farmers around the area) ran the theater with their family at night. I remember we'd come down after my grandfather bought a car-we'd come down on the weekends. My grandfather liked Westerns, so we got to see a lot of Westerns. It was real interesting, because you could buy a bag of popcorn �Page 2 of5 for 10 cents and a soda for a nickel. But, you know, those days are long gone. I go to the movies occasionally and for eight dollars you can get a large bag of popcorn and a soda. That's a far cry from the 15 cents for popcorn and a soda. Yeah, things have really changed economically and, I guess, the whole atmosphere of the small town. It's grown quite a bit. I remember they had two dress shops: part of one of the dress shops is part of the grocery store (the Shur-Value) and it also used to be a cafe. There's a place on Main Street called Nuuciu Bible Worship Church, I guess it's called, and that used to be a dress shop. Then, we had a drug store, which was a nice place to go. They had a soda jerk who wore white pants, a white jacket, and a white hat. His name was Mr. Brits; he worked behind the soda fountain and his wife worked on the dry goods side of the drug store. It was fun to go in there. I remember seeing the little soda table, or the little tables, and they had wrought iron chairs. They had stools at the counter, and you could get milkshakes, chocolate malt, or real ice cream (it wasn't ice milk or whatever). So, it was fun coming to town. I remember the bank: Ignacio State Bank. It was run by the Turners, and they lived a block behind the bank. Suzie Turner was Mr. Tuner's wife, and she was a very good friend of my grandmother's. She helped her balance her checkbook. It was fun going into the bank, because people knew each other by first names and it was very 'neighborly,' for lack of a better word. I remember Mrs. Turner was more than happy to help my grandmother, because my grandmother had a checking account. That was real interesting, because !didn't know of too many tribal members that had bank accounts. So, I always thought of my grandmother as being more progressive than some of the tribal members that I knew. A lot of the tribal elders that were her age or older preferred to speak in the Ute language. It was interesting to sit around and listen to what stories they had to tell. When we'd come to town my grandfather would visit with some of his friends, and my grandmother would sit in the grocery store and visit with some of her friends. So, it was real interesting to listen to their stories. It was a whole different era where children were seen and not heard. That was one of the things that we learned when we were growing up. But, Ignacio has gone through quite a change. For as long as I can remember Lawrence Wiseman owned the hardware store, and as he got older his son, Tom, took over. Saul Padia used to work for him, and Saul's wife used to work at the bank as a teller. She was very accommodating for all the people who came into the bank; she was a very nice person. I think Nelly Price was Postmistress when I was very young, and then later on Mr. Pierson became Postmaster. I grew up knowing them as U.S. Postal workers. Mr. Jones owned The Ignacio Chieftain and The Bay.field Blaze. He was the editor of the newspaper, and his shop was where the Dancing Spirit Gallery is today. The pool hall was right next door to The Chieftain office (or the print shop). It was owned by Dan Velasquez. Mr. Lopez (I can't remember his first name) used to manage the pool hall. When you walked into the pool hall there were pinball machines in the front and there was a freezer, so they sold ice cream cones. It was like a convenience store. You could buy canned goods, soda pop, bread, canned lunchmeats, and pork and beans-things like that. And, there was a dividing half; it didn't go all the way up to the ceiling, and behind that were the pool tables and �Page 3 of5 they had some card tables. They apparently played poker and had interesting card games back there. I remember when we were growing up my brother was a pinball fanatic. He always made outstanding scores in the pinball machine game. So, he hung out at the pool hall a lot just to play the pinball machines. And, of course, my grandfather liked to play cards a lot, so he'd take my brother and they'd go to the pool hall together. I have three children: I have two girls and a son. My oldest daughter works part-time. My son works at the casino; he's been there since before we remodeled and it became a casino. He worked in the restaurant before being converted to work in the casino. So, when he went to work in the casino he worked in 'The Cage', and he's been there for 10 years. He worked in the restaurant for about 14 years before that, so he's been working there for 14, going on 15, years. My youngest daughter works in Durango with the Tierra Group, with the Growth Fund. I had an older brother. He died when I was 16. My mother remarried-she divorced my father-so I had a half-brother, and he died two years ago. I don't have any other brothers and sisters. I just have my children and grandchildren. I have five grandchildren: four granddaughters and one grandson. My parents are deceased and, of course, my grandparents are gone, too. I just lost my aunt three years ago; it'll be four years this summer. So, I'm pretty much the matriarch of my family. I tell my children about the way things were when I was growing up. I've seen a lot of changes. Like I was saying, that family that came to live here, I would tell them that I used to walk to town. He'd say, 'Oh no, people already had cars' and 'That's impossible.' So, I would say, 'It might seem impossible to you, but things on the reservation were slower than in mainstream America.' It was in '54 and '55 that we finally had a water-well dug. We finally got running water and electricity and propane. So, it was the mid50s when we finally got the modem conveniences. It's interesting, because my brother and I both grew up hauling water and wood chips, and he had to bring in coal. As soon as we got home from school we changed our clothes and were busy until dinnertime. Then we had other chores, and then we had time for homework. You know, a couple of weeks ago (when there was a cold spell) my water pipes froze. You go from having no conveniences to the conveniences of today and then, all of a sudden, you can't tum on the tap water because the pipes are frozen. And, you think, 'How did I survive before?' I remember going to town after Halloween, and a lot of the townspeople had outdoor facilities, they didn't have running water. There were two places in town to get water. In one section of town all of the people would go over to where the elementary school is. There was a water pump there. So, they got their water there. And, I think, there was a water faucet at the other end of town. There were two places in town where you could get running water. The townspeople also burned wood and coal. After Halloween most of the outhouses had been turned over. Kids would pull tricks and turn over the outhouses. (Must have been chaos during that time!) I think it was during the early to mid-60s that the authors of Native American Programs made grants to rural communities. That's what provided the possibility of the town to receive funding so that they could put in gutters and sidewalks. I think it was in the late 50s, some time during the 50s, that they paved the roads. It's just been recently that progress has come to Ignacio. I think the Tribe has provided a lot of benefits to the community. Having grown up in �Page 4 of5 the community and with children from the two other ethnic groups, you develop friendships. So, the people that live here, I fell, have good relationships simply because they live here. Who knows? Maybe it's just the people that come here that change the atmosphere of a small town setting. I can walk down the street today and½ or¾ of the people I do not know. Of course, there're still the people that I know, who I grew up with. So, the community goes through some changes. During the summer they have the San Ignacio Fiesta at the end of July. It's to honor the patron saint: Saint Ignatius. What I remember when I was a little girl, we'd go to the church services and some of the tribal members would go and they'd help prepare the feast. The Indians and the Hispanics would have this big feast. We'd have what you would consider a huge potluck dinner. There was no charge. The tribal members would provide some of the supplies for this dinner. Some of the tribal men would assist in the cooking and what have you. Everyone would sit down and eat together, and they'd have games in the afternoon and Indian dancing. Some of the tribal elder men would come and they'd drum and sing for some of the young people. And, the young men would perform war dances. Everybody just king of got along together. I enjoyed taking part in the community. Then, in the fall, the Tribe would put on, and we still do (I think it's the 84th) Ute Fair. And, that's for tribal members. They'd have games for adults and children, alike. They'd have a baseball game, tug of war (women against women or men against women). It was a lot of fun to watch, and a lot of the tribal members participated. They brought all of their agricultural produce, livestock, and poultry. I saw turkeys, and rabbits, and chickens. I don't think I saw any guineas. The Tribe would provide prizes for First, Second, and Third. They'd have a big rodeo, and just recently they've started have a huge powwow. So it's kind of gone through an evolution. It's been interesting to see the evolution from what it was then to what it is today-it's dramatically different. Everybody came for the entries: from the west side to the east side of the reservation. They'd get people to come in from the community to judge the arts and crafts, the sewing, the canning, the livestock and poultry, and what have you. They'd have horse races and, like I said, a rodeo-everybody would participate in the rodeo. It's quite different from what it used to be; it's gone through a lot of changes. I remember we had a tribal member that was like the Chief of Police for quite a few years, and he worked really well with the Town Marshall. When we became teenagers we had some friends who owned cars; they came from middle class families, I guess. So, we'd ride around with our friends. There weren't any streetlights in Ignacio when I was a teenager. So, we'd turn the lights off on the car and play 'cat and mouse' with the Town Marshall. They would chase us around through the alleys. It was harmless; we weren't involved in vandalism or destruction of anybody's property. It was just playing 'cat and mouse' with the Town Marshall. I'm sure he knew who we were and the kid who owned the vehicle. They, for some reason, never did catch up with us. I went to school here at the Ute Vocational School until I was in the fifth grade. The Ute Vocational School was both boarding school and day school. Some of us were day school students and we were bussed. The Indian students that came from the Navajo Reservation and the Ute Mountain or Northern Ute Reservations stayed in the dorms. Those ofus that lived here were bussed to the school, and in the evening we rode home on the bus. �Page 5 of5 When I was promoted to the sixth grade, I asked my grandmother if I could go to Ignacio Elementary (I wanted to see what it was like to be in a public school). So I went and I enjoyed it. The following year, when I was promoted to the seventh grade, the schools in Ignacio were consolidated. The school closed down and all of the students went to the public school. So, even though they were boarding school students they went to the public schools. The Ute Vocational School became the Junior High School. It was a joint school. That's why it's called "' 'TI-JT So~ they urillzed ute-Ybcatibfial School for fue Junlor H{gii Sclro6lt ?111, 8th,., atl1ci 9111 grades. All of the elementary students went to Ignacio Elementary, and the high school students were in Ignacio High School. Because of the increase in students (because of the school district becoming joint) they received more funding from the State. They built a new high school. It benefited not only the Indian students it also benefited the district. That happened in '57. me At that time they also closed down the hospital. The government gave the hospital to the Tribe. And, so, the Tribe remodeled the building and converted it into offices. That's where we were located until last fall when they finished this building [the Leonard C. Burch Tribal Affairs Building]. My grandmother was Ute and my grandfather was Hispanic. When we were growing up we learned to speak Ute; that was our first language. Our second language was Spanish. When I went to school (I went to school when I was six years old) I couldn't speak English. Of course, my brother learned to speak English (he was two years older than I), because he was in the third grade when I started school. We carried on a tri-lingual conversation. When we'd get home from school my grandmother would speak to us in Ute, my grandfather would speak o us in Spanish, and we'd respond in English. So, they became familiarized with the English language. They could both speak English, but they weren't fluent or proficient. The more we learned the more they learned. (My grandmother was fluent in Spanish.) It's interesting: the first time I filled out an employment application, I said I speak one foreign language and that's English. Most people chuckle when they read my application or my resume and they see I speak a foreign language: English. Interviewed by Michael G. Miller (VISTA worker) on January 13, 2004. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael Miller Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2003-2004 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of twelve biographies written by VISTA worker Michael G. Miller of prominent people in the Ignacio community. Based on interviews conducted by Miller between December 9, 2003 and March 15, 2004. Some contain the additional attribution "for the Ignacio Historical Society." Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Miller, Michael G. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Pearl Casias Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2004-01-13 Subject The topic of the resource Casias, Pearl; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Pearl Casias written by VISTA worker Michael Miller and based on an interview conducted by Miller on January 13, 2004. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Casias, Pearl Extent The size or duration of the resource. 5 pages https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/1c507177d149ffe9f913e6c6fbd8709d.pdf 3f6d3b1594cd7f1850340688f84440b8 PDF Text Text Ruby Garcia (Southern Ute Elder) My name is Ruby T. Garcia, and I live at 1328 County Road 516, Ignacio, CO 81307. I was born on November 24th, 1918 in Ignacio. That was during the war; First World War. My first school was at Santa Fe. We left on the train and when we got to Santa Fe, they told us to go to our grade room. They asked my sister first what grade she was, and she said she was third grade. Then they asked me, and I told them I was third grade. But, I didn't even know nothing; I didn't even know how to read, I didn't even know how to talk English. And, they sent me back to the kindergarten. But, I finally picked up. That's about it at Santa Fe. I've been to different places. I've been to Towaoc Indian School; I was there from the third and fourth. Then I went to school at Ignacio for fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth. And then, I went to Sherman Institute in Riverside, CA I graduated there. I took up home economics, but like I always tell the people, 'I'm a jack of all trades and a master at none.' I came home; I got a job at the hospital. I was a Nurse's Aide. That was kind of interesting; working with sick people and caring for them. Then I went to different places. I went to Salt Lake City and I sewed a lot. Sewed clothes for the Army. Then I went to Salt Lake. I worked there for a while: making swim suits. Then I decided to go (World War II was going on), to go to California and get me a job. They hired me, they said I had to drive. And, I told them I didn't know how to drive. They said, 'Well, you're froze to it. You're going to learn one way or the other.' So I finally learned how to drive a bus. I drove the Italian prisoners to work, you know, there on the field. But, there were MPs [military policemen] on the bus and I wasn't afraid. I'd hear them talk, and I asked one of the Italians if they knew English. And, they pointed to one and they said, 'Oh, they're telling you bad things.' I told them, 'You tell them I told them to shut up or they're going to get out!' Boy they were quiet. I had to laugh at them. We ate with them at the mess hall. They had their own, you know; the prisoners-of-war. But it was interesting. Afterwards I wasn't afraid of them; I got used to them. And then the war was over. .. I came home. Now I'm here, in one piece. I worked for the Tribe. I worked with them for twelve years; with the welfare. After that I worked for the Peaceful Spirit; that's alcohol. I went to training to be a counselor. I enjoyed it. But, then, I got tired of the whole thing. I said I might as well retire, and I retired. Now I'm home and I'm enjoying it: I go to the casino and have fun, lose or win. Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose, but it's fun. I meet a lot of people, I enjoy it; it's something different than to live alone. Living alone, people say, is aweful. But, I manage. I crochet, I do beadwork, I occupy my time, and when I'm tired of that, I go to the casino and talk and laugh and joke with them people. Lately, I've been in poor health. Other than that, I'm okay. My folks come to see me. That's my great-granddaughters [two ofRuby's great-granddaughters and her great-greatgrandson were present during the interview] and that little one is my great great grandson. And thi.s little one [the father of Ru by' s great great grandson], we' re going to send him to dance at the �powwow [Laughter]. They're going to have a powwow pretty soon. They're having two powwows next month; one for the casino and one for Gerald Hall [?]. [M. Miller: What were your parents' names?] I was born out of wed-lock, let's put it that way. But, I knew who my father was; he came to me. My mother's name was Uterpy [sic?] Taylor. That's why my name was Ruby Taylor, because she wasn't married when she had me. But just the same, life went on. Life has been good, and it's still good providing I get off of this oxygen! And, now, they've got me blowing on that thing [points to a medical device] in my mouth. Pretty soon you'll see me like this [makes a bloated gesture], full of air. My daughter's grandson told me, 'Grandma, your stomach is getting big. Are you going to have a baby?' And I said, 'No, I'm full of air.' [Laughs] And he said, 'How did you get that air inside of you?' And I told him through this [points to the oxygen tube in her nostrils]. You know, they're funny. They say, 'no fools, no fun.' Right? That's about my life. [M. Miller: 'What was your husbands name?'] My husband's name was Joe Weaver; the father ofmy two daughters (Arlene and Lillian). They're both married and look at all that bunch of accumulated kids from me and them two girls [points to a wall full of photographs]. There's five generations on there. Quite a bunch, huh? Look at this white-headed woman [points to herself in a generational picture of her family]. [Laughs] There's five generations there; there's this little one when he was small [her great great-grandson]. Well, it's good to be old and retired: staying home; don't have to worry about getting up or nothing. But I hate to get sick. [M. Miller: 'What do you remember about Sherman Indian School?'] I went to school there, I took up home economics. Learned how to cook; learned how to sew; learned different things (canning, all that stuff). I liked it. I even went back to see the place after I finished. Some of the old employees were still there. But, in those days things were cheap. I tell the people, bread used to be 10 cents a loaf You could buy tennis shoes like that for a $1.98. You don't get them for no $1.98 anymore; they run from 60 on down. And other, regular shoes (you know, I call them 'dancing shoes'), they're high priced, too. I think the cheapest is $20. Food used to be cheap. Gas was $.25 a gallon, and look at it now. It's outrageous. It's gone up, up, up. It was hard for the people. Frank B. (he used to be an Anglo), he used to run a meat shop. He used to donate food for the people to have a Bear Dance and a feast. They'd cook out there. Oh, it was nice, but now it's so different. Everything is so high, and I don't ever remember paying income tax. I don't know when that started, because I never paid income tax. Or, maybe I overlooked it, didn't bother to do income tax. But, now, you have to. �That's about the story of my life. I don't know what else there would be. [M. Miller: 'Did you have brothers and sisters?'] I had brothers and sisters. My sister died, my two brothers died, and there's only one brother left: Sylvian Taylor Valdez and me. There're just two ofus left. But my mother ... she had one brother living, Henry .Taylor, but he passed away about three or four months ago (I don't remember). He died. I lost my mother March the 24th, 1994. It's sad; sadness. Now I'm all alone here. I don't like to interfere with my daughters: living with them (sort oflike 'mooching'). I'd rather live alone and live my own life. Get up when I feel like it; eat when I feel like it; go to bed when I feel like it: nobody to boss me. But, my younger daughter tells me (she sees me at the casino), 'Aren't you ready to go home?' And I told her, 'No, I'm having a good time. You go home.' [Laughs] And I stayed down there. Then I called my brother up: 'Come and get me. Come and take me home,' when it's over. But, the casino never closes. The people are still pulling on them machines. The card table, where I usually play, closes up at four. (But they usually close up at 3 :30 to clean up and count the money.) So, I had my days too; go down there. I have won a big jackpot; $36,000. I won about four jackpots for $2,700 and I won several ones for $1,200. But boy they really soaked me for income tax this past year. I said, 'I ain't got no business winning so much. So I quit. I just play cards where they don't take income tax. [M. Miller: 'Did you dance when you were younger?'] Oh, boy. Believe it! I used to do the twist and everything [laughs]. They had a dance down here and my uncle, the one that died that I was telling you about, came over. They were having a dance dontest, and he came over to me and said, 'Come on. Let's dance, let's show them how it's done.' So we went, and we won. They gave us $20, you know prize? But, now, I can't even dance. My leg is still crippled up. That money cart at the casino hit me right here [points to left leg], and since then I've been sick. My leg swells up and then I have a blood clot on this leg. They doctored me on that; they gave me pills. Look at all these pills that I take ... very sickening [laughs]. I used to like it [the Bear Dance]. I used to do the "Forty-nine," the powwow; I used to do that. But, now, I don't do nothing. I stay home, I watch TV, go to bed, eat, go to the casino, and come home and go to bed, then start all over again. I don't go down there every day. Certain times. They were going to give a car away and they called my name, my ticket. They had a lot of them over there get one. They called my name in there, and I won a free room at the casino and two meals for two. I said, 'For two? Where's my better half?' And them guys stopped and said, 'Me!' And I told them, 'No, I'm not going to take you. Beat it!' [Laughs] I know Spanish, I know Ute, and I know a little bit of Navajo and Paiute; I know Paiute. I understand Italian, because Italian is almost like Spanish. Do you think I had an interesting life? �Yeah, I don't want to win too much money, because they said I make too much money and cut it off There's always a trick. They put up a casino where you make money, and then when you make money they want a cut of30% off Gosh. IfI would have known, I wouldn't have played that much. But, when I paly at the poker, then they give me tickets. They give them to me and I sign my name. They called my name and them people hollered, 'There she is!' [laughs] I had fun. My brother's son won the Jeep; he won it. [M. Miller: 'Did you ever serve on the Tribal Council?'] No. I didn't have time for that. I was too busy helping the poor people. You know, helping them to get pensions. Helping them, you know, what needs to be done. After I got through eith that, I kind of helped the people that drink a lot. I used to drink a lot, too, after the war ... beer. [M. Miller: 'Did you serve on the Committee of Elders?'] Yeah, I was the first Chairman. They gave a party when I retired, and they gave me that blanket. That's a Pendleton blanket; costs lots of money. The Council gave me that, and the one that's on my bed, the Committee of Elders gave me that; another Pendleton blanket. But, I'm satisfied. The Tribe gives the elders $3, 100 every month. That keeps you going. It keeps me going to the casino [laughs]. Look at him [Ruby's great great-grandson], he's still looking at me. He doesn't know me too well. Go to sleep, go to sleep [to her great great-grandson]. I'm glad to know that all my tw.o daughters, my grandchildren and all, have finished school and gone on to college. They have even graduated from college. Interviewed by Michael Miller (VISTA worker) in her home on March 29th, 2004. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael Miller Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2003-2004 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of twelve biographies written by VISTA worker Michael G. Miller of prominent people in the Ignacio community. Based on interviews conducted by Miller between December 9, 2003 and March 15, 2004. Some contain the additional attribution "for the Ignacio Historical Society." Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Miller, Michael G. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ruby Garcia Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 2004-03-29 Subject The topic of the resource Garcia, Ruby; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Ruby Garcia written by VISTA worker Michael Miller and based on an interview conducted by Miller on March 29, 2004. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Extent The size or duration of the resource. 4 pages