1 10 216 https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/50ea85ad24331df9b3ff35658f308fab.jpg f44fea20cd0593a471a46c07a71fa0be https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/741a280c08c42d5477ff0c7f65361d81.mp3 700be3f617acef54c6e666c5799acc0f https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/7e64cc10e92831d6f105c84359f87a6f.pdf 04e4f8ae3aa99df48d6011ef7d5521ac PDF Text Text The Bank Robbery By Rosemary Aiken This story is true and based on the facts as I remember them. It was high noon on a hot, summer day, Monday July 3, 1989. The bank lobby was crowded with customers at the Norwest Bank in Ignacio, Colorado. There was quite a buzz of conversation and you could hear a baby crying. I was a loan officer at that time and had left my desk on the south side of the bank and went behind the teller line to our documentation vault. As I was leaving the vault, I noticed the teller to the left of the vault motioning me to stay inside. I backed into the vault and a minute later a teller walked past the door. A masked man had her by the arm and was holding a pistol to her back! She was carrying a sack and I saw her empty the cash from the teller drawer into that sack. The robber was wearing a floppy, brown hat and a bandana covered his face. They walked back past the vault and I lost sight of them. The thoughts that went through my mind were swift. My first thought was to become invisible so he couldn’t see and shoot me. Then I thought, “No, it’s a joke. It’s not really happening.” Then I thought, “I wonder if I could sneak up behind him and hit him over the head with our check protector or one of the metal boxes containing our money orders and cashier checks. That thought left as quickly as it appeared. I remained in the vault for a few more minutes and I noticed the deadly quiet that had overcome the bank. The baby had even stopped crying. The robber again passed in from of the vault door, but this time he had a different teller. I later found out he had asked the first teller if she had a car and she wisely said, “No.” That was not so lucky for the second teller who he grabbed. He told her to get her keys. The only male employee, also a loan officer, got up from his desk and walked across the lobby and started talking to the robber. The robber kept shouting at him to shut up and go sit down. He finally told the employee, “If you don’t want blood all over the bank, you’ll sit down and shut up.” As stated before, I finally saw the bank robber and the teller pass in front of the vault door. They headed out the side entrance of the bank. When they were out on the sidewalk the robber asked the teller where her car was. At that point the teller realized she had grabbed her teller window keys and not her car keys. They could not re-enter through the side door because it locks when it is closed. The front door was also locked by a bank employee as soon as they left the bank. There was an old Dodge pickup idling outside where the robber and teller had exited and he forced the older couple out and forced the teller into the truck. Morbid curiosity had made a couple of us look out the side door and we saw them race away and head south on highway 172. We later realized how stupid we were to look. He could have decided to start shooting at us! �The Ignacio Police Department is just a half block north of the bank. We later learned that one of a police officer had started running down the street to the bank, pistol in hand, tripped and fell and the loaded pistol went flying down the sidewalk. Much later we laughed at how that was something Barney Fife would have done on the Andy Griffith Show. Before the bank was locked a male customer had left the bank and got into his truck. When the robber sped past heading south, he followed, a safe distance behind. When the robber got to the top of the hill by the Ignacio Cemetery, he slowed down and ordered the teller out. She later told me she was shaking so hard she couldn’t find the door handle. The robber then reached across her, opened the door and pushed her out. The bank customer, who was following them, picked her up and took her back to the bank. The first responder, after the robbery went out over the radio, was a Southern Ute Tribal Wildlife officer. He came upon the abandoned truck just a mile or so past where the robber had dumped the teller. The robber was running across an open field to the east of Highway 172. The officer took aim, but because another vehicle was heading towards Ignacio, and was in the line of fire, chose not to fire his gun and put others in jeopardy. Several minutes later there was an exchange of gunfire and another officer said all he could remember was bullets whizzing past his head. The robber was not captured that day, but was apprehended sometime later in Abiquiu, New Mexico. He was brought back to La Plata County, stood trial and was sentenced and placed in the Colorado State Penitentiary. The male loan officer kept telling me after the robbery and before the robber was captured, that he recognized the voice, but just couldn’t place it. I guess it was kind of like watching an animated movie and not being able to place the voice until after the final credits are being rolled. We also found out that customers had recognized the hat the robber was wearing as it belonged to his wife and she always wore it around town. About nine years later, the teller that was abducted in the robbery was contacted by the FBI and was told the robber was being released. I am now the manager of the bank, so I called my FBI contact and he confirmed that the robber was getting out of prison. He also told me the robber could not come into the bank or contact any bank employees. I have been told he still lives in the Ignacio area. Another bank robbery occurred several years later. But, that story will have to be told at another time, by another employee who was actually there, because I was retired by then. And I’d like to tell you a few fun facts or two fun facts about the bank… When I first stated working at the bank our shipment of cash from the Federal Reserve Bank in Denver was mailed from them to our post office. The postmaster would call us to let u know now it was there. Two bank officers would walk across the post office, while a third employee would watch from the inside of the bank. Now an armored vehicle with armed guards delivers the cash from the Federal �Reserve. I guess, since it is a federal offense to rob the post office, that’s why it was originally shipped by mail. They figured it was the safest way to get to the bank. Also, after the robbery, the entire lobby area was remodeled. The teller line was moved to the south side of the bank, next to the cash vault and totally enclosed in walls and locked doors. If you would like to pursue this robbery story, I’m sure the Durango Herald has archived all of what happened during the robbery, what happened during the trial and what happened after he was released. Transcribed by Liz Wheelock February 2016 � 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 Voices of Ignacio 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 "The Bank Robbery" by Rosemary Aiken Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Subject The topic of the resource Bank Robbery; Ignacio; Colorado; 1989; History Description An account of the resource The written summary of a bank robbery that took place in Ignacio, Colorado on Monday, July 3rd, 1989 by an employee that worked at the bank at the time named Rosemary Aiken. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/916af43c187df0eaf773b6952c3f636b.pdf 7f3432fb882b67ba845f5c344e8c03c9 PDF Text Text (MARY) ADA (Russell) RABBITT KENT Ada Russell was born in a tepee at Breen, Colorado, in 1893. Her father, John Russell, was a member of the Moache Band of Utes. Her mother, Mary (Ada is not certain of her name), died when Ada was very young. Ada had five brothers and one sister, her identical twin. After their mother died, the family began selling the land at Breen. In the legal transactions the names of the twins were reversed. Ada originally was named Mary, but in the documents was called Ada and Ada was called Mary. Rather than disrupt the legality of the land documents, the family decided to continue calling Mary, Ada, and Ada, Mary. A short time later the original Ada died. So the original Mary, now called Ada, has preserved her sister's name for 84 years. Ada came to the Indian School at Ignacio, which she attended for 2-3 years. On a trip back to Breen, when Ada was about 10, she fell from a horse, striking her head on a rock. Shortly afterward she began to lose her vision. She was sent away to several hospitals during the next 2 years. When she was home, one of the medicine men, a sun-dance chief named Cumada, treated her. She credits him more than the hospitals for bringing a full recovery of her sight. John Russell sold the remainder of his land at Breen and moved to a farm just north of the present cluster homes north of Ignacio. Edna Russell and Sarah Pinnecoose are Ada's half sisters from her dad's 2nd marriage. Ada lived in Dulce for 5 years. She enjoyed the train rides between Lumberton and Breen. In 1911 Ada married Graves Stone Kent. His land was several miles east of Ignacio, where the Kents still live. The Kents raised cattle, chickens and horses. They gathered and dried wild herbs and wild potatoes for winter. The government supplied dried rice and beans. Winters were much worse in those days. Snow would pile halfway up the windows. The winter Isabel was born, Ada says, "You couldn't even see the fencepost." During the early years the mortality rate among all people was high. Many of Ada's relatives died of whooping cough and pneumonia. The Kent children who survived to adulthood are Bonny, Katy Seal, Ida, and Isabel. Four of the others died of the flu in 1918. Some died without names because it was not the custom to give official names to the little ones until they were enrolled in the tribe. Shortly after Ada and Graves were married, they started on a trip to Breen. Before they got far, a man came running up to them carrying a tiny, crying baby which he had found deserted in the woods. Ada could tell the little girl was no more than 1 or 2 days old and starving. She took the baby and began thinking how to feed her. The solution was rather ingenious. They returned home, caught a nanny goat and having no bottle or nipple, washed the teats of the goat and let the baby suckle it. She drank greedily. They took their live milk machine with them in the wagon to Breen and got along just fine. Ada soon figured out the baby was the illegitimate child of one of her grandfather's relatives. She raised little Annie (Ada doesn't tell her last name) until she was old enough to go to boarding school. "I went from the goat to the bottle with my own children," Ada says. "I raised my own, part of my grandchildren and never asked any pay because I love children." 92 �,..., ,..., 'l ~ 'J ,..., "My father and grandparents always taught me never to argue or fight with my husband and not to talk about him behind his back. I did what they said and we were happy. That is why it was so hard to lose him when he died." ) J ) ") ) ) ") Ada remembers how people were never alone with their work in the old days. They helped one another plant, plow and harvest. They traded and shared their food so that no one was without the necessities. Ada conceded that life today, though it is very different, is nice because it is a lot easier. She is very grateful to have lived long enough to see her grandchildren and her greatgrandchildren. J She added, "I've never been in jail and never been drunk in my life." We believe her! Ada has been a responsible, good person all her life, the kind of person who helps build up a community and leaves good memories of themselves. ) By Shelby Smith, Translated by Phoebe Cloud in December, 1977 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) . ) _) J ..J J -.J ,.J ,.J -.J ...) J -.J J J -.J J ...J ..) 93 � 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 Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby 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 Ada Rabbit (Russell) Kent Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1977-12 Subject The topic of the resource Kent, Ada Rabbitt (Russell); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Ada Rabbitt (Russell) Kent based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith on December, 1977. Included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. 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, Ada Rabbitt (Russell) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 2 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby; Cloud, Phoebe 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/1e71fd10b9fccce5b752979ece1d6405.pdf db0c131195e3830189486bf23aaba783 PDF Text Text ALBERT & ETHEL MAY (Chambers) ANCELL Albert G. Ancell was born in Collinsworth, County, Texas, south of Shamrock on October 17, 1902. His father, Thomas M. Ancell had been born in Howard County, Missouri in October of 1871, and moved to Dallas, Texas with his parents when he was an infant. After he was old enough to work, Thomas got a job laying ties and rails on the Ft. Worth and Denver Railroad which was building a line from northwest Texas to Denver. While working near Harold, Texas, Thomas found a farm he liked enough to settle down and raise wheat and cattle. "While dad was on the farm near Harold, he married my mother, Lettie. I was the third of four children. Shortly after I was born, we moved to Gaines County Texas on the New Mexico Line near Seminole. It was flat empty ranch country where I grew up. Our nearest neighbors were 8-10 miles away. My first schooling was at a little ranch school. Later I attended 6th and 7th grades at Lovington, New Mexico. During the drought of 1918 I quit school to help my dad drive his 1200 head of cattle to Colorado. He sold the cattle to buy a farm, but later lost it on a mortgage. I started working for wages on the Butler Ranch. In 1926 I headed for California in a Model T Ford. The route I took went through Trinidad, Albuquerque, Silver City and Lordsburg. Then I went to Tucson, Phoenix and Yuma, to San Diego and Santa Barbara. West of Yuma I had to follow the old plank road across the sand desert. The whole trip took 13 days. There weren't any motels so I camped along the way." . ) J ) ) ) _) .J J J .J ,..J J "I soon got a job working for the Bixby Ranch, one of the biggest ranch companies in California. They owned land in several parts of California and Arizona. Their headquarters was in Long Beach. We ran cattle through the area where Disneyland is now located. I stayed with the ranch for about 6 years. My wages were $60-75.00 per month plus room and board." "My brother at Presidio, Texas, asked me to come down there and help him operate a filling station. At that time there was a small boom going on in that part of the country with the building of the railroad from San Antonio to Chihuahua, Mexico, and on to the Pacific. In 1936 I moved to Como, Colorado in South Park where I worked in the hay and cattle business for 11 years. Then I came to Ignacio and bought Glen Rouses's place. I raised grain and hay and did combining and other custom farm work for neighbors. In 1965, I married Ethel May Arnspiger." Ethel May was the seventh of eight children born to Henry Walls Chambers and Susan Louise (Lee) Chambers, Susan's dad was a relative of Robert E. Lee. Henry and Susan were both born in Texas, but after their marriage moved to Globe, Arizona and then on to Colorado in 1902. .J ..J· .J .J J J J ·J ...J "My dad helped build the Cascade Flume north of Durango. In 1904 they moved to Bayfield and took a homestead on Spring Creek where I was born on July 4, 1904. Mother died when I was 5 years old. I attended the Mason School east of town where the Lieses now live, for 8 years, then came to Ignacio for 2 more years. That was all the school offered here. In 1924 Ernest Arnspiger and I were married. Ernest worked in a 3 �butcher shop in Ignacio for a while, then got a job at a coal mine north of Bayfield. Finally, we bought a farm over on the Florida Mesa near Falla where we raised our children. We had one son, Randall, who died in 1957 and one daughter Lorraine, who is now a Registered Nurse in Tucson, Arizona." "My dad's second wife died in 1939, leaving him with 2 young daughters. Since one of the girls was only 10 years old, Ernest and I decided to move over to the farm on Spring Creek to help dad with the work and to help take care of the girls. In 1961 when Ernest became ill, we moved to Bayfield where he died in 1963." "Two years later, I married Albert Ancell. He had a place on the southeast corner of Holt's farm where we still live. Albert has 3 children of his own. Lettie June lives in Littleton, Colorado; and Lyle and Dennis live in Abilene, Texas." The Ancells have both lived a good many years and Albert has lived a good many places of different climate and elevation. In Albert's opinion, Southwest Colorado has the most pleasant climate of all, otherwise he says he wouldn't have stayed here for 30 years. Of all the various periods of time Albert has lived through, he feels that today is the best and the easiest time to be living. Taken in August 1979 August, 1979 -- by Shelby Smith 4 � 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 Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby 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 Albert Ancell and Ethel May (Chambers) Ancell Biography Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1979-08 Subject The topic of the resource Ancell, Albert; Ancell, Ethel May (Chambers) Description An account of the resource Biography of Albert Ancell and Ethel May (Chambers) Ancell based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the August, 1979 issue of "The Thoughtful Years" newsletter published by the Ignacio Senior Center. Later included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. 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 Ancell, Albert; Ancell, Ethel May (Chambers) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby Extent The size or duration of the resource. 2 pages https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/c651c65abeca68566f0169f4507a1b11.pdf 5d15213b91c77ea6d51c239f515ffa43 PDF Text Text ALCARIO and JENNIE (Marez) VIGIL Jose Alcario Vigil was born at Blanco, N.M. April 24, 1903, one of ten children born to Jose Antonio and Maria Dolorita Vigil. "My father was a farmer," Alcario says, "working on his own place and also working for others. When my mother died in 1911, I went to live with my aunt, Marcelino Vallejos Jacquez. She never sent me to school. There was too much work on the farm. Every day I herded goals and sheep or worked in the garden. The farming equipment we had was not too good, but it worked. We plowed our rows with a wooden plow which was little more than a slick pulled by a burro or a horse. It was all slow work, but the neighbors all helped one another." "Some of my brothers died in the flu epidemic in 1918, but my twin brother survived. He still lives at Telluride." "The nearest real town was Aztec about 30 miles away. It had a train depot, several stores and the court house. On a horse and buggy a trip to Aztec required many hours, so we didn't go very often." "My first job for cash money was haying. I got paid ten cents for a day's work." When Alcario was grown, he got a job with the railroad and also met Rosie Torres. Alcario and Rosie were married in 1923. One child was born to them before Rosie died in 1926. Alcario worked for the next three years on the railroad line to Rico and Telluride. Most of the work was ordinary maintenance and repairs, but also included cleaning up train wrecks and derailments. Snowslides, rocks and mud on the tracks all caused occasional wrecks. While Alcario was working at Mancos, he met Jennie Marez, whose folks had a farm near Mancos on Summit Ridge. Jennie was born in Gallup and was reared by her Aunt Inez Marez. Since she went to school only through sixth grade, Jennie never expected to become a school teacher. For two years Summit Ridge had no money to pay a school teacher. Eighteen students were without school. Jennie's relatives asked her to teach the children. She went to school, looked at the books for reading, spelling and arithmetic and decided to give it a try. Jennie managed surprisingly well. "I used the switch when they needed it and whenever they got on my nerves, I declared a vacation." Alcario and Jennie were married at Mancos. They stayed there a while then moved on to Towaoc and then to Ignacio. The Vigils have 12 children including three sets of twins. Their children are Dolores, Joe, Margarita and Alabama, Dora and Dorothy (twins) Shirley, Betty, Stella and Stephanie (twins) and Pete and Paul (twins). Mrs. Vigil says, "People are always asking me if it's hard taking care of twins. I have to tell them I don't know. When my twins were small, people were always asking for one of 168 �""" 'l 'l 'I '> ) ) ''> ) i ) them. If I would get on the train for Durango, if I went to the store or wherever I went, people would ask to hold one of the babies. I never had but one at a time." Alcario has quite a reputation as a fiddler. He used to play for dances in most of the towns between here and Grand Junction. "I learned to play when I was a child. All my relatives used to play the fiddle and the guitar, so I began trying to play." Several years ago Alcario started carving his own violins. He has made 1O or 12 and still working on others. Regarding large families Jennie says, "We've never been sorry we have all these children. They've all been very good to us." ) SHELBY SMITH ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) J _j _) ..J .J ..J ..J J J J ..J J J J ....) ....J 169 � 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 Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby 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 Alcario Vigil and Jennie (Marez) Vigil Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1977-05 Subject The topic of the resource Vigil, Alcario; Vigil, Jennie (Marez): Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Alcario Vigil and Jennie (Marez) Vigil based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the May, 1977 issue of "The Thoughtful Years" newsletter published by the Ignacio Senior Center. Later included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. 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 Vigil, Alcario; Vigil, Jennie (Marez) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 2 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/5ed4d6abd9de43ddd2617d75672b8aa0.pdf 4ccd1a4aa131642a4839a0b3b6719ec1 PDF Text Text ALMA BOX "My parents were from Capote Band of the Utes. Henry Box, my father, owned land down near La Boca. He raised wheat and corn and vegetables for the family. My mother, Sally Box, also worked hard on the farm. I had three brothers and one sister. The oldest was Jacob (the father of Eddie), Agnes, Fritz and Mary Box Chavez. Then came my brother Paul, my sister Bessie, who married Jimmy Baker, and my little brother, Henry. Now all my brothers and sisters are dead. We lived in a post house plastered with adobe inside and out. These were easy to build and were warm. Our water was carried from a spring. Mostly we ate deer meat, which my father supplied. He was a good hunter. My mother taught me to dry food, to do beadwork and to sew my clothes. We dried wild spinach, chokecherries and buffaloberries. She taught me to weave baskets from the wild grasses, but I have forgotten how to make them. In those years there was a small store near the train depot in La Boca. Sometimes we went shopping there, sometimes at the stores in Ignacio. I quit riding horses when I was very young. Once a horse threw me off, so I quit." ) ) "Our family always went to the Bear Dance and other pow-wows. My brother liked to sing at the dances. Anymore I don't go. Maybe we just drive around at the Sun Dance to see who all is there." ) ) ) ) ) ) ) _) J J _) ..) _) _) ...J ...J J ..) J ...J J J ...J ...J "When I was a child, I was sent to the dorm and the Indian School here in Ignacio, but I only stayed about 3-4 years. After that I stayed home to cook and wash and sew for the family." "I have four children, but only two are still living. Emiel is the oldest, then Rhoades, Sarah and Alice. Rhoades served in the Army in World War II. He lived through the war, but died a short time after coming home. Alice died in 1968. Her children, Terry and Tooley, still live w ith me. Sarah married Clifford Baker. Their seven children are the twins, Ronnie and Iden, Teddy (now deceased), Ann Wesley, Connie and Melvin. Emiel was never married." Alma bought her house in Ignacio about 1955. She still uses her wood and coal stoves for heating and cooking. Once she tried an electric range, but didn't care for it. She has never used natural gas because she doesn't trust it. Alma goes to Durango with her grandchildren for shopping whenever needed. A few times in her life she has visited Dulce and Towaoc. From time to time she goes to Santa Fe to visit Rhoades' grave, but that's about as far as she has ventured from home. Alma is now 77 years old, a quiet, old-fashioned lady. She never learned to drive a car. If the phone rings, she will answer but she never has learned to call out. She spends her time sewing and watching TV and occasionally thinking about her parents. "I really miss them," she says. Alma is still in good health, has good hearing and good vision and still sews most of her own clothes by hand. We wish her many more years of peaceful and quiet life. January, 1981 -- by Shelby Smith 13 � 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 Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby 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 Alma Box Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1981-01 Subject The topic of the resource Box, Alma; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Alma Box based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the January, 1981 issue of "The Thoughtful Years" newsletter published by the Ignacio Senior Center. Later included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. 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 Box, Alma Extent The size or duration of the resource. 1 page Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/69fe79e53079fabacc4018ce3e946988.pdf 25716e7a5fc9dfaff05dab6b2f8ea7d7 PDF Text Text ANDY AND LUCY (Valdez) DURAN Not many youngsters can say "I was the 14th child in my family." Fewer yet can say, "I was the 14th child in my family and I have 6 younger brothers and sisters," but Lucy Duran can make both statements. When asked what it's like to grow up in a house full of people, Lucy says, "My older brothers and sisters took care of me, carried me, dressed me and fed me. Mother was busy all the time. She never stopped. The older kids had to help with the younger ones because mother had only a little time to spend with each child. When Lucy was 4 years old her parents, Cornelio and Ferminia Valdez decided to leave Blanco, New Mexico, and moved to a farm south of Ignacio. "When I look back on those days, I think how poor we were, especially compared with today. We each had one set of clothes and one pair of shoes. When the shoes were worn completely out, father would try to buy us another pair." "Father and the boys were always busy on the farm. They raised grains and hay. We produced our own potatoes and beans and corn and everything else we could grow. Mother dried apricots and peaches and vegetables. In the fall our cellar was full of potatoes, squash and apples. After it was cold enough, the butchering would start. The hams were coaled with curing sugar, wrapped with cheese cloth and stored in the cool house. We hung a leg of beef outside and covered it with a sheet. Whenever-we wanted meat we went out and cut off whatever portion was needed. In the spring 1the leg of beef was moved into the cool house until it was used up." "We seldom ever came lo town except lo go to mass on Sunday. Dad and the boys hitched the team to the big wagon. To keep our dresses clean we threw quilts into the back of the wagon. If the weather was bad, we stayed home and Dad read the Bible to us." Transportation in the old days seems slow lo people today, but it was dangerous at times. Lucy recalls, "Once Dad and Mother and Mary were driving the wagon from La Boca to Ignacio. When the tail of one of the horses got caught in the reins, it became very frightened and bolted. The wagon turned over. Dad and Mary were unhurt, but Molhe~s leg was broken. After Dad got the wagon tipped up again, he lifted Mother inside and brought her to Dr. La Forge." Like most children of her generation, Lucy loved to ride horses. "We always rode bareback lo bring the cows in. We liked to ride fast and to race. At that time I would rather ride horses than anything." Lucy got lo go to school in the country a few years. then the family moved to town. "I was a little afraid to go to school in town because I could speak hardly any English, but I met Jesse Stauffer and Frances Copeland and we became good friends. Within a week or so I could get along with the English pretty well. I began earning my first money washing and ironing clothes for Mrs. Wayt (Vida Ritter's mother. ) I went early before school to wash and hang the clothes. At noon I would take them off the line and sprinkle them. Then in the evening I ironed them. I made $.75 an hour doing that." 44 �., ., ., ~ ., ~ J J ) ' ) ) ' ) ) ) ) ) ) ) _) "Dad didn't care for dances, but Mother loved them. She often took us kids to the dances at the S.P.M.D.T.U. Hall. It was at one of the dances there that I met Andy Duran. Andy's first wife had died some time before. We dated for about two years and then decided to get married. Andy Duran was born in Durango on October 29, 1902. "Dad didn't care for dances, but Mother loved them. She often took us kids to the dances at the S.P .M.D.T.U. Hall. It was at one of the dances there that I met Andy Duran. Andy's first wife had died some time before. We dated for about two years and then decided to get married. Andy Duran was born in Durango on October 29, 1902. His mother died when he was still a small child, so his grandparents raised him in Rosa, N.M. Andy quit the 8th grade to go to work on the railroad. He was still working on the railroad when he and Lucy were married. The Duran's have 10 children, Andy Jr., Cornelio, Jack, Orlando, Rudy, Lillian, Eileen, Corinne, Martha and Yolanda. As a railroad employee, Andy and his family had-free tickets to ride the train. Most of their travel was back and forth to Durango for shopping and visits. In 1941 Andy was moved to Rico as Section Boss. After a couple of years there he got an opportunity to work in the mines at Telluride and Ophir and stayed with that for 12 years. That is definitely not easy work, but living there provided a magnificent place for the children to grow up. Probably no place in this country has more spectacular scenery or more opportunity for outdoor fun than the mountains around Telluride. Lucy remembers, "Our house was full of fishing gear, snow shoes and skis. The boys were out camping or hiking or fishing or hunting as much as they could. Even today the boys take their families over there and camp and fish and try to share that beautiful place with their children." ) ) ) ) ) ) _) ). _) Boys, even good boys like Andy's and Lucy's, are rascally at times. "They were in and out of mischief," Lucy recalls. "I especially remember the time they and their friends were daring one another to ride the tram cable across the valley." A tram with big ore buckets carried the ore from the mine down to the mill. Unknown to us the boys had been daring one another to jump up and grab a hold of the cable and hold on until it carried them across the valley to the next hill where they could jump off. I guess some of them had been doing it. Finally, it was Cornelia's time. What he didn't know was how close it was to 12:00 noon. At noon the mine whistle went off and everything, including the tram stopped while the miners had lunch. Cornelio was about halfway across the valley when the whistle blew and the cable stopped. Well, no one can hold on for an hour. Cornelia's arms gave out. He fell and fortunately, only broke a leg." ..) ..J .J J J J J ..J J J J .J ...) "For several years the family lived in company housing at the mine at Altus (Alta). Sometimes we were snowed in for a week, but we always had plenty of coal and plenty of food stocked up. Avalanches would cover the roads and the big rotary plows would have to come dig it all out." As anyone knows who lives around Ignacio, Andy and Lucy have wonderful children. Their method of child rearing is as follows: "We always tried to make our children understand that God should be first in people's lives and then a good education so that they can earn a living and be of use to others. Children should be whipped when they are bad until about age 12. From then on they have minds of their own and if they haven't learned right from wrong by then it's probably too late, anyway." 45 �When the mines closed around Telluride about 1954, the Durans moved back over to Ignacio. Andy did farm work around this area until it was time to retire. But like many other active people have discovered, retirement is not necessarily that much fun. So Andy is working again this summer. When asked if there is something she would like to do that's never been possible, Lucy replies, "I have always dreamed of going to Rome to see the Pope, but that's a long way over there." Even if Lucy never -gets to go, she and Andy can look back on a panorama of life experiences with many good memories. Their lives have spanned great changes in this country. Both still enjoy good health. We wish them many more years of health and happiness and wish their children many more reunions at Telluride. September, 1975 -- Shelby Smith 46 � 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 Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby 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 Andy Duran and Lucy (Valdez) Duran Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975-09 Subject The topic of the resource Duran, Andy; Duran, Lucy (Valdez) Description An account of the resource Biography of Andy Duran and Lucy (Valdez) Duran based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the September, 1975 issue of "The Thoughtful Years" newsletter published by the Ignacio Senior Center. Later included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. 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 Duran, Andy; Duran, Lucy (Valdez) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 3 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby 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/d3ba0469ae5f1519b4b1d0e51245cb4d.pdf c810f46e5c1762b56e5ebf73a71e267d PDF Text Text BELLE (Williams) CUTHAIR Belle Hancock Williams, one of seven children of Price Williams and Maria Capote William, was born in the Florida Valley of La Plata County, Colorado, on January 12, 1906. "My parents owned a frame house in the valley just south of where the narrow gauge railroad crossed the Florida River. (1& 1/2 miles south of where the present U.S. 160 crosses the river.) The valley was not cleared for hay fields then. II was full of sage brush. There were huge clumps, some 5 feet tall and so thick we used it for firewood. My parents could hunt and fish and gather wild food, but my father wanted better things for his family. He decided he would have a better chance for jobs if he could speak English, so after he was married, he went to Fl. Lewis to learn English. When he came home, he brought a Navajo boy named Jake who was in trouble with the Ft. Lewis people. Jake stayed with us a long lime and helped with the work. My father got a job at the lumber mill. He drove a team lo drag logs. He had his own horses and mules and donkeys. He cut wild timothy down by the river and in hollows watered by the springs coming out of the Florida Mesa. Our nearest neighbors were a Mormon family. They loaned my father their mowing machine and then he would share the hay. Every summer and fall my parents sent me out to pick blue berries, chokecherries, buffalo berries and Indian bananas (the fruit of the soap weed). The Indian bananas were my favorite. When the stalk gets dry and the pods hang down their heads in the fall, they are ready lo pick. They are as sweet as apricots. I've been back to the places where we used to pick them, but the deer and elk always get them first. We also picked wild onions and wild spinach. Sometimes my parents bought a bitter plant from the Mexicans for medicine." After a few years, Belle's parents moved over to her grandparent's farm 3 1/2 miles north of La Pasta in the Animas Valley. Belle soon learned all about milking goats and herding sheep. "Most of the milk we made into keso (cheese). It's a simple thing. You boil the milk. Squeeze the juice from the Soap Weed into the milk and boil it some more. Let ii cool. Then put the milk in a cloth and let all the water drip out. The keso we made was something like cottage cheese." Belle was finally sent to the Indian School at Ignacio. She well remembers the big sign there which said, "Don't talk Indian," but even so Belle mostly enjoyed the school. "It was more fun than milking goats and herding sheep!" Belle's mother died when she was fourteen. "I stayed with my grandparents for a while. Then I got a job at La Pasta working for the Candelario Vigil family who owned the store and dance hall there. I cleaned, carried water and helped with the cooking. I lived with that family two years and they treated me very well. In 1922 Superintendent McKeen sent me to school at Towaoc. In the summers I didn't have any place to go, so I got a job working at the Wrightsman Hotel in Mancos. Ellen Watts and I both worked there two summers. We washed dishes, ironed table cloths, 42 �picked berries and cherries and currents and made them into ice cream and pies. Near the end of the second summer Ellen and I heard about the Spanish Fiesta in Durango. Our jobs were about to end at the hotel, so we took the train to Durango to watch the games and the races. When we found the Indian camp, we located Daisy Eagle, Ellen's sister. She took us home with her to Spring Creek." Belle attended the Haskell Institute in Kansas until she was 18. When she came back to Colorado, she worked for the hotel at Mancos again. Ellen Watts got married and it wasn't long till Belle had married Curtis Cuthair. "I met Curtis in Mancos. We had known one another several years. Finally, one summer Curtis came to see and said, "I don't have a family of my own. I'd like to settle down and have a family to be long to." Curtis had been to trade school. He got a job operating the steam heating system at the Agency in Ignacio. In his spare time he farmed his place north of Ignacio where the family home is located . Belle and Curtis had seven children, Richard, Garnet, Christine, Larry, Vera, Laverne, and Darlene. ) ) ) ) ) ) _) J _) J J .,_) .,_) J .J J Curtis probably never dreamed his wife would become a movie star, but that happened last year. Belle was selected to be in the cast of the movie "Winterhawk." She and Thelma Kuebler appeared in mountain scenes in their native dress. Belle enjoyed her part in the movie very much. Whether they knew it or not, when the casting crew chose Belle, they chose someone w ith authentic ties with and memories of the tribal history of this area. Belle says, "My grandmother was a half-sister to Ouray. My grandparents moved around with Ouray and fought the Comanches with him over the salt in the San Luis Valley. They chased the Comanches all the way to Antonito once and killed a lot of them. At one time there were Indian trails all through the mountains. My grandparents traveled there, hunting and fishing during the warm time and in the winter time settled in the valleys. I might know more about the old days, but when I was a child, it was not proper for children to ask many questions. When I wanted to know something, my mother would often say, 'Don't ask questions. Mind your own business. You are too young to know'." Belle's memories of her own time are very strong. "I can remember our home in the sage brush in the Florida Valley. I remember learning the worship dance from Tom Newton's mother and the oldest memory I have as a little child is the time - I must have been about three -when I was wrapped in a blanket and tied on my aunt's back and she was dancing and dancing and dancing. I can't forget things like that." February, 1976 -- Shelby Smith .,_) .,_) J J J J ·....J 43 � 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 Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby 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 Belle (Williams) Cuthair Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1976-02 Subject The topic of the resource Cuthair, Belle (Williams); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Belle (Williams) Cuthair based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the February, 1976 issue of "The Thoughtful Years" newsletter published by the Ignacio Senior Center. Later included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. 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 Cuthair, Belle (Williams) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 2 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby