20 10 216 https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/31d04563d1957a7d824995c9fbffc64e.pdf 285bf5fb5a81c5de2149479d4f11532e PDF Text Text 'l ~ 'l ' J BESSIE FLORINE "Ma" (Glynn) SEIBEL 1 Bessie Florine Glynn was born in Osceola, Iowa, on August 31, 1894, the daughter of John and Antoinette Glynn. When Bessie was two years old, her family moved to Milwaukee where they lived most of the time until she was married. John, who was a steam shovel engineer, spent most of his time away from home working construction jobs or strip mining in Illinois and Indiana. As a member of a union John would work one job until it was finished, then he was bumped to the bottom of the list to wait his tum for another project. "It was like Santa Claus every time he came home" Bessie said. J '1 ,l l 7 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) } } ) ) _) ) ..J __J ..J _) J J J .J ..J J ..J J .J J .J Milwaukee (1896-1920) was in many ways a delightful place to live. It was a big town but not a metropolis. Bessie remembers riding the streetcars, which went everywhere and the jitney buses (early versions of the taxi), vehicles of every description which would transport a passenger from any point in the city to any other point for five cents. When Bessie was old enough for school, her mother got a job as a fitter in a department store. Bessie became interested in active sports. She enjoyed ice skating and was a member of the girl's basketball team. "We were a good team as a rule, but we didn't do so well when we played South Side High. They were all great big Polish girls, so big you couldn't get under, over, or around them," Bessie recalls. The third sport Bessie enjoyed, and the one for which she showed the most promise was sassing the teacher. "I was never able to hold dignitaries in high regard unless they deserved it and most of my teachers did not deserve it," stated Ma. Milwaukee was and is the beer capitol of the world. In that time there was a saloon on every corner. "Ma" says she used to have nightmares about being caught by a drunk, but they never succeeded. Bessie had known Milton Seibel for a long time. He and she had attended the same schools for years. As the two youngsters grew up and entered high school, Bessie and Milton developed new eyes for one another. Bessie recalls being in the same assembly (we call it study hall today) as Milton. During those endless silent hours Milton occasionally wrote notes, folded them into paper airplanes, and when the teacher wasn't looking, he sailed them to Bessie. The system worked well until one afternoon the guidance system on one of the notes failed and it made a fatal flight onto the teacher's desk. Milton, of course, was kicked out of assembly, but that was only the beginning of his interest in Bessie. In subsequent years they dated frequently going to dances, shows and dining out. Sometimes they would hear Fritz Kreisler in a violin concert, or Madam Melba or Shuman Heinck. Afterwards they would choose a fine restaurant where they ordered all the fine Chinese food they could eat for twenty-five cents . "We didn't mooch in the back seat of a car," confides Ma, "because we didn't have a car, but we spent a lot of time sitting on the landing of the staircase in our apartment. The first time Milton asked me to marry him, I said 'no'. I remember it clearly. We were reading the Saturday Evening Post." BessiE: said no that time because America had just declared war on Germany and Milton had volunteered to go. "I didn't want to have a baby and be left alone to raise it in case he didn't come back." Bessie and all her sorority friends in Delta Sigma rolled bandages and knitted socks for the war effort. Bessie was knitting at home, at work, on the streetcars, everywhere she went. Milton was gone 22 months. He and Bessie were married as soon as he returned. The Seibels might have spent the remainder of their lives in Milwaukee had it not been for an aunt in Pagosa Springs who wrote glowing accounts of the opportunities of 151 �homesteading and ranching in southwest Colorado. Their parents and her sorority friends were appalled at the prospect of moving to the wilderness, but the Seibels were both working in Milwaukee and getting nowhere, so they were excited at the prospect of an entirely new life. They rode the train to Pagosa Springs in the summer of 1919 and bought 160 acres of cut-over dry land 10 miles northwest of Pagosa at O'Neill Park. The Seibels started a dairy farm, raised alfalfa and some wheat. Ma helped Milton in the field when necessary and did fancy work for cash. When Bessie's mother came to visit, life was still pretty rustic on the farm. There were no indoor toilets and all water had to be hauled from a soft water spring on their place. Mrs. Glynn couldn't understand why anyone would want to live in such circumstances, but Bessie felt then and still says, "It was all an adventure. The country was beautiful." Their farm was located about halfway between the ranches on the upper Piedra and Pagosa. Most evenings some traveler would stop for dinner and would bed down for the night. "Ma" enjoyed the company, but she did tell one rancher he couldn't come back without his wife. "I was tired of hunting stories. I wanted some woman talk." The first motorized vehicle the Seibels owned was a motorcycle with a side car. There were two kinds of rides on the cycle. Rough and dusty and rough and muddy. On one trip to the upper Piedra, the cycle bogged down to the hubs. Milton and Bessie had to stay the night with an old bachelor who lived nearby. Bessie had always enjoyed working in the field with the horses, but when Milton began buying mechanized equipment, she retired to the house. Besides the boys were growing and beginning to do their share of the work. Willard was first. Then Glenn, Ed and Don were born. The country schoolhouse for the area was nearby. Most years the schoolteacher would stay with the Seibels. Some of the school marms were first year teachers and were only 18 years old. "Ma" says the teachers were very interesting people and provided companionship and good conversation on the long winter evenings. In 1935 Milton and Bessie went into debt $5,000.00 to buy an irrigated farm near Arboles. It made Bessie very uneasy to owe a sum which at that time seemed so enormous. They raised hay, grains, pigs, sheep and cattle. Bessie had a large garden with two or three hundred tomato plants some years. There was lots of work and no vacations until 1952 when they stopped for a few weeks to take a trip to California and Montana and then back to Milwaukee to see old friends. After an extended illness, Milton died at home in 1961. "Ma" is a fine lady with a generous heart. Time has not dulled her words. She still has the same sassy tongue she took to school in 1910. "I have a tremendous memory forridiculous things," Ma states. If you don't believe her, just ask her for a song. Regarding work, she says, "I've graduated, but the word 'go' I like." Shelby Smith, February, 1974 152 � 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 Bessie Florine "Ma" (Glynn) Seibel Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1974-02 Subject The topic of the resource Seibel, Bessie Florine "Ma" (Glynn); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Bessie Florine "Ma" (Glynn) Seibel based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the February, 1974 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 Seibel, Bessie Florine "Ma" (Glynn) 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/cfbd84a625653ede51e5f41c0194e0f6.pdf 0badfd3b3ae315566b7f7aac8e9c15af PDF Text Text MARTHA LOUISE (Miller) SEMLER Martha Louise Miller was born near Kennan, Wisconsin, April 14, 1904. Her parents were Gustave Alvin Miller and Wilhimina Krate Miller, both of whom immigrated from Germany when they were teenagers. Gustave's family was fairly wea1thy. Therefore when he got to New York, he attended school to learn English. Wilhimina couldn't afford school when she arrived at Baltimore. "However," Martha recalls, "my mother spoke good English with no accent, while my dad, for all his schooling, always had a heavy German brogue." "Both my parents were naturalized citizens within a year. They met at the Amana Colony near Des Moines, Iowa, where they got jobs. Two years later they got married. Dad worked in a brewery, then took up farming first in Iowa then in northern Wisconsin where I was born, the youngest of 10. These are my brothers and sisters in order. The oldest was Minnie, then Emma, Ann, Marie (who died at age 2), Margaret, Augusta, Elvina, Ed, Paul, and Martha." "Dad farmed in the summer and was a logger in winter. I remember he saved the tamarack bark to sell to the tannery. No one ever irrigates anything in Wisconsin. Most of the time there's too much water. Our river bottom land was like a sponge much of the year. It was a trick to raise hay there. Only at certain times could we work and only with oxen. They never bog down. After the hay was cut we raked it by hand with wooden rakes with pegs for teeth. I can still remember my dad carving new pegs for the rakes." ) ) J ) _) _) .-.J J ...) J .....J ...) ....J _) ._J J "I never saw anybody ride a horse till we moved to Colorado. My brother even hitched an ox to our buggy to deliver cream - to town." "Wisconsin," Martha says, "is wonderful for wild fruit and nuts, blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, etc., and hickory, hazelnuts, butternuts, chestnuts. We gathered two sacks full of them and put them in the attic of the woodshed to dry and cure. Every fall our neighbors cut and shipped box car loads of greenery to the cities for Christmas wreaths. My mother taught me to card and spin wool thread when I was 10. I wish I had a spinning wheel now. It was fun." "I might still be in Wisconsin if our doctor hadn't told Dad mother's health would be better at a higher altitude. Dad headed west, intending to go as far as Oregon where Emma lived. But in Denver, Dad met Mr. Hoffman who was looking for someone to manage the H&H Ranch south of Oxford. Dad agreed to take the job for 2 months to see if he liked it. After a month he sent for us. All that were left at home were Mother, my 2 brothers and me. I didn't like it at first. I was accustomed to a nice home with a lawn. I missed my friends. I attended the old, white school at Oxford. (It's been moved to Amy McCaw's place.) I met Horace and Ralph Buchanan, the Boyce girls, Jim and Jack Turner, John Gibert, the Hayden kids and many others. My first teacher was Myrtle Mcchesney from Allison. Later she married Anthony Morris. Soon we moved near the Pine River Switch to prove out some homestead land and stayed there until I was married at 15." ....J ....J ....) ._J 153 �Martha and Gustave Semler, whom she married in 1919, farmed near Oxford for a year then moved to Sable Canyon on Spring Creek. There Martha plowed with 3 horses, helped run the binder and shock and stack 45 acres of grain. Later they worked another place on Spring Creek which had regular irrigation. "We went to Ignacio about every two weeks for business or supplies. From Ignacio it took three and half to four hours lo ride to Durango if you had a horse with a good running walk." "I remember our mail carrier, Melvin Walker, drove a wagon with a cover over it and a stove inside. He arrived at our box at 4:00 p.m. and then had to go all the way back to Ignacio. Arthur Capell used a car when he took over that route." Martha had five children: Paul lives west of Ignacio; Herbert died at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital at the age of 22; Betty lives at Olathe; Bill lives north of Ignacio; and Michael lives at Sheridan, Wyoming. One summer when Paul was a baby, Gustave took a herd of Arthur Jones's sheep to pasture up near the Needle Mountains. In mid-summer Martha took little Paul on horseback to the camp. It snowed, rained and hailed every day. In late summer she helped move the herd back to Spring Creek. "I could pack a burro and move camp like a man, then." The Semlers lived in Durango, Dulce, and Ft. Lewis before moving to the Chromister Place one mile north of Oxford. This was depression time and life was very hard. For 9 months Martha milked 30 cows morning and evening. "My hands swelled to twice their size. It was too much work, but in a depression, you do what you have to do. I also broke horses to ride or to plow, for $25 per head. We lost the farm north of Oxford. From then on I raised and supported my children alone. We moved lo Ignacio. Paul was only 13, but we tried to farm the James place (where Candelaria subdivision is located). Next we lived on the Johannsen Place at Tiffany and ran the cream station for Shaefers. In the spring I dropped corn (planted) all day long for $.50. The older children and I worked at whatever we could to survive. When Paul went to the war, he sent us an allotment which made life easier." Today, Martha has 15 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren lo enjoy. She has a house full of mementoes and memories of her parents and of a life of pioneering in the north woods and the western mountains. Martha still has spunk and energy and a wealth of skills which she will share with others if they want to learn. She tells great stories, many of which we don't have room to tell here. Shelby Smith -- January, 1978 154 � 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 Martha Louise (Miller) Semler Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1978-01 Subject The topic of the resource Semler, Martha Louise (Miller); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Martha Louise (Miller) Semler based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the January, 1978 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 Semler, Martha Louise (Miller) 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/ecf8d7f5636288f8a6c6cab0f6196a03.pdf cff9bfc4dad5a4a503331e418395da42 PDF Text Text ri ~ 'l 'l 'l "J 'l l 'l ) ') l J -, l } ) ) ) Afterword (about the Author of most of these Stories) I blame my maternal grandparents, Edmon and Delia Throckmorton, for provoking me to write the short biographies in this collection. Ed and Delia were true covered wagon pioneers who homesteaded a farm in SW Oklahoma. When they entered that vast empty land in November of 1893, there were few neighbors and the nearest place to buy anything was the suttler's post 60 miles away at Ft. Reno. I loved to ask questions and listen to them talk about those days. They were the most interesting people I knew. Interviewing the older people in the Pine and Piedra Valleys was, perhaps, my way of bringing back those pleasant visits with my grandparents. I was born in Enid, Oklahoma in 1938. My dad Carl Smith was an expert mechanic and later service manager at the Chevrolet Agency. My mom, Orpha, was a newspaper reporter and later a tissue tech working with the pathologists at our hospital. I acquired a teaching degree at college, but the most fortunate thing that happened there was meeting a beautiful girl named Roberta Davidson, who became my best friend. We were married in 1963 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ..J ....) ..J ..J _J _J _J _J _J ...) .._) In 1970 we bought several wooded acres with a log home in the Florida Valley near Durango. There we began to reenact in a small way the pioneer life of our grandparents. We built a cellar to store the produce from our garden, learned to harvest honey from our hives, raised pigs and milk goats and kept a colt for the enjoyment of the children. Raising such a large garden required lots of time and help -- so much so that on one bright, warm day our youngest, Brad, announced when he grew up he was going to find a job in the shade. He later did so. Adjacent to our property were several hundred acres of forested 8.L.M. land. This was our playground for hiking, mushroom hunting, flower identifying, berry picking, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, sledding, wildlife watching and Christmas tree cutting. In 1975 our family grew a bit when Roberta and I adopted a beautiful five-year-old girl from the reservation area. Annette's mother was Gladys Reddick who had died in 1974. With her cheerful and sprightly personality she has been one of the lights in our lives . During most of our years in La Plata County I worked for SUCAP, as a program director writing grant applications and doing the start-up and management of a variety of programs. I was there from September of 1973 until May of 1983. In time I became well acquainted with many of the members of the tribe as well as their Hispanic and Anglo neighbors. Our monthly newsletter, The Thoughtful Years, contained announcements of up coming events, news written by Charlotte Jones and Liva Pacheco and short biographical sketches of the Pine River people For twenty years Roberta was a full time stay-at-home mom, expert in all house and garden and culinary and child-rearing skills. About the time our youngest reached the age of 16, both of us decided to begin a second teaching career. For this we chose ..) ...) .._) I..) 183 �to work in Cortez. For the next 18 years Roberta taught French and I taught English once again. Art, our oldest son, received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas and currently is a research professor in nano science at Ohio University. Our daughter, Annette, is raising five little ones and is now a nurse specialist assigned to care for the many people of our area who suffer the after effects of working in uranium mines. Our youngest son, Brad (the one who wanted a job in the shade), received his law degree at Yale and currently works at one of the premier law firms in New York City. ) ) ) ) Roberta and I both retired from our teaching careers in 2003. Volunteer work has taken over part of our lives. We soon learned it wants lo take over all of it. So we are occupied with church events, projects for our Cortez Cultural Center, planning tours for an archeological preserve near our home, resuming watercolor painting, playing my violin, trying to stay toned and fit, and going on vacation as often as possible. In November of 2004 I was fortunate to survive a serious complication from a routine surgery. With a new awareness of how fragile life can be, I am very happy lo be here to write this little autobiographical sketch. Reading and editing these stories has once again reminded me how rich and wonderful it was to work in Ignacio. I wish to thank Donna, Manuel, Liva, Sally, Margaret, Claudelle, Phoebe, Hazel, Alice, Carmen, Joyce, Margie, Robert, Freddie, Gisela, Adela, the Arboles Honor Camp boys and many others for supporting everything I tried to do. I was always proud of them for the tender kindness they bestowed on the senior citizens and the disadvantaged people in this community. With warmest regards lo all, Shelby & Roberta Smith 184 1 � 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 Shelby Smith Autobiography Subject The topic of the resource Smith, Shelby; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Autobiography by Shelby Smith included as afterword in his book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley." Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Smith, Shelby 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/0a0923b51a97ffe89e05da47dc0ea3e8.pdf 93d4ec610dadd4a746e54a36c2874330 PDF Text Text ~ ~ 'I ~ ~ ,, ' } 1 ) l ) 1 1 ) ) } ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) SUNSHINE (Burch) SMITH (TAV-NEE-JA-GET) Sunshine was born on October 20, 1916. Sunshine's parents loaded her and her luggage into their buggy and drove slowly to the railway station south of Ignacio. She was very excited and a little frightened to be going so far from home. Haskell Institute, a secondary school for Indian children was located in Lawrence, Kansas. With the help of the B .I.A. superintendent, Sunshine was enrolled at Haskell. She rode the train to Alamosa and in the evening boarded a Union Pacific Pullman for Kansas. After supper a porter approached her and said, "Little girl, your berth is ready." Sunshine slept, occasionally awakened by the roar of passing trains and the screeching of brakes as the train stopped in small plains towns. In the early morning hours, the porter came to her berth and said, "Little girl we're almost there." Sunshine dressed quickly and in a few minutes the train stopped and let her off. She was greeted by two girls from Haskell who told her they were to be her big sisters until she was settled in the new school. Haskell was a wonderful place. There were Indian students there from dozens of tribes all over the country. There were Senecas, Otoes, Pottawatomies, Pawnees, Creeks, Papagos and many more. Sunshine enjoyed the school band and the football team (which beat the University of Kansas) and especially enjoyed the "Indian Club." The club was intended to preserve Indian history and culture. It produced pageants depicting Tribal history for fairs and other public events. Sunshine says Fritz Box was there and was a member of a band called the "Night Hawks". Sunshine worked part time in a hospital in Lawrence and considered going on to nursing school. One of the nurses in the hospital took such a liking to Sunshine that she even offered to pay her way through nurses training in Independence, Missouri. Sunshine's parents, however, had other ideas. They decided she had been far away from home long enough. She spent the summer at home and after considerable thought, decided to go to college at the University of New Mexico. ) J _) _) ...) ..J J J J J J ...) J J J ...J ....J ...) Sunshine took many courses in Home Economics and Art, but the course she enjoyed most was probably horseback riding. She had to act a little inexperienced to get into the course, but the truth was Sunshine had ridden horses all her life and loved it. As a child she had ridden a horse to school in good weather and bad. The Ignacio School had a stable where the horses could eat their oats and rest for the ride home. By the time school was out both students and horses were "feeling their oats". Sunshine recalls, "We often raced our horses all the way home." Her love for horses and riding was a natural outgrowth of her family's race horse ventures. John Burch owned several race horses, hired men to train them, entered them at Cortez, Farmington, Montrose and Monte Vista and made good money at it. His best horse was called Bumblebee. Sunshine remembers crying to ride Bumblebee at the age of 8 or 9. Except for learning to jump horses over fences and hedges, the horseback riding course at the university served mainly as recreation. In the summers, Sunshine earned money working in the Ed C. Taylor Hospital in Ignacio. Later she worked at the hospital at Towaoc. Francis Buck was the secretary for Superintendent Mcspadden. Whenever he would come to Towaoc, Francis came, too, and she and Sunshine would have a good visit. Sunshine went to Indian School (Ute 1 55 �vocational) and was Assistant Matron to small Navajo girls. She then went back to Business School at Haskell. After graduation in the early 1940's Sunshine moved to Muncie, Indiana, and worked for the Owens-Illinois Glass Co. which made land mines. She made friends with a group of ladies who began talking about joining the W.A.C.'s. Finally, they talked themselves into joining. Basic training at Ft. Des Moines, Iowa, was in the heat of mid-summer. It included K.P. duty and drill on a blistering parade ground. After basic training Sunshine was given the blitz courses for surgical technician. From there she was stationed at a hospital on Staten Island, New York. She well remembers the damp cold of that winter. P.O.W.'s were imprisoned in a nearby compound. "Every morning one of the prisoners was sent into our barracks to build our morning fire." Sunshine worked a while at a hospital in Utica, New York, and then was sent back to Staten Island for convoy duty. This was a 24 hour duty to receive the sick and wounded who were arriving back in the U.S. Some of these man had been involved in the European war for years. "Many of them cried when they got off the ships, they were so glad to be back in their own country. Some would ask to be taken off the stretchers so they could kiss the ground. We would get them settled in the hospital and then allow them one free phone call to their folks. It was all a very emotional and touching experience." After this Sunshine was given training in occupational therapy, the field in which she worked until she was discharged in 1945. By then she had reached the rank of T-4, Technical Sergeant. Sunshine was very happy to return to Ignacio. "The thing I missed the most was the mountains.'' She worked for a while at the girl's dorm and while there became acquainted with a fellow doing construction work and painting on the campus. Sunshine and Diamond Smith were married and soon afterward move to California, but not just to California - to Hollywood. They lived in Hollywood Hills overlooking the whole beautiful metro area of Los Angeles. She wouldn't mind living there again if it were as clean and uncrowded as it was then. In 1947 sunshine's only child Gayla was born. They lived in San Diego and in Bullhead City, Arizona, for a while before coming back to Ignacio. In 1950 Sunshine was elected to the Tribal Council. II was in interesting transitional period for the tribe. During the preceding decades the BIA superintendents had managed the affairs of the tribe in a paternalistic way, expecting the tribal council to act merely as "yes" men. About this time the council changed this. They began meeting separately rather than under the watchful eye of the BIA. Soon they began to act independently on all matters related to tribal policy and welfare. Sometime during 195254 the Southern Ute Tribe won their land claim case and was awarded a very large sum of money. It became the job of Sunshine, Eddie Box, Fritz Box, Jack Frost, Julius Cloud, Sam Burch and others of that period to create a program for administering the money. Of all the work required during those years it's obvious Sunshine is most proud of one idea she put forth. It was her idea to set up a trust fund for each Ute child. The youth in the tribe are still benefitting from her foresight. Sunshine is bilingual, and an inspiration to many. She was a dancer and still dances occasionally. Sunshine has worked for the Tribe all her life and is still very active. When 156 �""'\ "") ~ } J ' 'J J ) l ,l } ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) J J .J .J ...J J she was younger, she did beading and made dancing costumes for her grandchildren. She has had Tao Chi training. "Diamond was a good baker," she said, and they owned the "Cornbread Feather Cafe" in Ignacio during the oil boom. She's seen lots of changes. She said, "At one time there were few buildings and now it's so different". Ignacio had "out houses" and no sewers. She also said the Tribe developed it over the years and now it's hard to find an outhouse. She got electricity in 1959. Sunshine stated it "brightened up the place." She said running water in the house was "something, because before we had to carry it in." When asked about the old days, Sunshine says there were more farmers and more livestock in the country. More people grew wheat and oats and other crops, and neighbors helped one another. She remembers fondly their neighbors - the Washingtons, Joneses, Stones, Holinsons and others. "My father would help them with their harvesting and then they would come help him with his. We didn't think of our neighbors as Anglos or Indians, just as people. We had no trouble and we were happy." The greatest improvement in the area since the 1920's according to Sunshine has been the roads. Pavement and graveling has made a great difference in convenience. However, one old time means of travel she misses is the sled trips to town in the winter. The whole family would bundle up in coats and blankets and go into town for shopping. She recalls a few differences in the town. Practically the whole block where the city hall and the Texaco station are today was a corral and hitching area for horses and buggies. A meat market stood where the Shell station is and the old Post Office was located where the Phillips now live. Diamond died in December, 1991 . Sunshine now lives with her grandson. She has 5 grandchildren and they all lived with her while attending high school. She has served on the many tribal committees. Some include the Cultural Board, Health Board, Sunshine tells her grandchildren "you don't know how easy you have it". She told them she had to bring in wood and do lots of chores that don't have to be done today. Sunshine is very active today. Besides serving in various capacities of the Tribe, including the Constitution, the Ute Dictionary, and the Committee of Elders, she joins the other seniors in Eldercize and travels often. She is a pleasure to be around . Started by Shelby Smith (October, 1974) Ended by Karen McKay-Wright _) ..) ._) .._) J J ..) ...J J ._j ...J J 157 � 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 Sunshine (Burch) Smith Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1974-10 Subject The topic of the resource Smith, Sunshine (Burch) Description An account of the resource Biography of Sunshine (Burch) Smith based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the October, 1974 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 Smith, Sunshine (Burch) 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; McKay-Wright, Karen https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/e23079017c56a698a864e2c9f1f95ab7.pdf 20b916a74b1814b669fbc05c39ceafb9 PDF Text Text JOHN AND WANDA (Accuttoroop) WILLIAMS In the spring of 1910 when Sam and Suzie Williams lived near Pagosa Junction, a new son was born to them. They named him John Spencer. Shortly after he was born the family moved to La Boca onto his grandfather's farm. "My grandfather mostly raised sheep and goats. That's where I learned sheep ranching." John got some sense knocked into him at an early age. "I found myself knocked to the ground more than once. You have to watch out for the Billy-goats and rams." When John's grandfather, Tom Talyon, wasn't happy with the price offered for his sheep locally, he went looking for a better market. "I learned a lot from my grandfather. He wasn't afraid to go out and do things. If the price was too low here, he would load his sheep on the train and go to Denver. I went with him a few times and learned a lot about how to do business." When John was a boy, most farmers raised some oats and wheat. The Salaba~s had a thrashing machine and would move it from place to place, whichever was ripe first. All the neighbors helped one another until everyone was finished. Mr. Barnes had a grist mill powered by a water wheel where we could grind our grain for cattle and chicken feed." Some of this grain was sold for cash, but a lot was kept for feeding on the farm. In 1918 Suzie Williams died in the great flu epidemic. John was enrolled in the Indian Boarding School north of Ignacio. After 3 years he was transferred to the Indian School at Santa Fe where he stayed till 1928. That year he was called home for sheepherding, but in 1929 John resumed school in Albuquerque for two more years. Most boys don't care for school very much, but John didn't mind it. He says, "There was a time to study, a time to learn a trade, and a time for games." Speaking of games, John, like most Tribal members was a very good athlete. He participated in baseball, football, track, wrestling, and boxing. From 1930-1949, John worked at a variety of jobs - building the hospital (which is now the Tribal Building), operating the powerhouse at the Indian School and farming. During this period John married and had three children. When he and his wife were separated, John moved to Durango to do construction work and then was offered a job at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. (Dugway was a center for uranium and chemical testing.) Most of his work there involved plumbing and construction. From there he got a job painting section houses for the railroad in Nevada. "I didn't expect to see anyone I knew in Red House, Nevada, but Manual Baca and Julian Romero were there laying track for the railroad. On a trip to Salt Lake City, John was offered a construction job at Ft. Duschene on the Northern Ute Reservation. (Local Tribal members call them Yankee Utes.) In the evenings a bunch of the young men at Ft. Duschene liked to play baseball. John was right in the middle of it. Since the Ft. Duschene Boarding School was close by the playing field, the dorm kids often came to watch. That's where John met 16 year old Wanda Accuttoroop. A short time later they were married and came to Ignacio for their honeymoon. Wanda says, "When John and I were married, he was real skinny, but I fattened him up. I think he likes ham and beans better than anything. One year later he was the Santa Claus for the Tribe and he fit the suit just right." John and Wanda have 10 children: Roderick and Ronald (twins), Stanley, John Chadd, Elizabeth, Michael, 158 �Mary Ann & Eric (twins) and Michelle and Susan (twins). Wanda says "I like my children, but when the last ones were born, I decided that was it." For three years Wanda has been a waitress at the Pino Nuche Restaurant and enjoys it. "I like to meet people, both new people and old friends." In 1956 John Williams became a milestone in Indian Health. He was the first tribal member in the country qualified and hired as Sanitarian. From 1962-1972 John was a member of the Tribal Council. During several of those years he served as Chairman. Presently, he is Resources Coordinator for the Tribe. John has lived long enough to remember many of the old ways and to see many things change. "I remember seeing the old people dry deer meat and dry and pound chokecherries into cakes. We used to be afrsiid to get wild honey, but then we learned to put on gloves and wear a net over our heads. Years ago there were so many fish in the stream in the Vega that we could drive them into gunny sacks. Then we'd boil them and dry them for winter." Though John has many good memories of long ago, he does not live in the past. When asked for his age John said, "I'm 35. I feel like I'm 35 and people treat me like I'm 35. That's why I keep working. I'm not going to fold up at 65. I have a job and a farm to take care of." May, 1975 -- Shelby Smith ) ) _) __) __) __) J -..J ._) J J J J ...) J ..J J ..J .._) ._J 159 � 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 John Williams and Wanda (Accuttoroop) Williams Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975-05 Subject The topic of the resource Williams, John; Williams, Wanda (Accuttoroop); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of John Williams and Wanda (Accuttoroop) Williams based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the May, 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 Williams, John; Williams, Wanda (Accuttoroop) 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/d090cf0e649e1d5f565558f0c0ea6cb4.pdf 086e1682c965008ac72b124f0d4607d1 PDF Text Text EUTERPE TAYLOR The room was small and dusty and very dark. Some broken desks and piles of books were stacked near the rear wall. A small indistinct form sat very still on the floor. The little girl had cried hard for a long time. Now only an occasional soft sniff was heard. Euterpe was 8 years old. She had been enrolled in the Ute Agency Boarding School for a year and a half. Ordinarily "Terpe" was very shy, but this evening at supper when the little boy at the next table put 3 green peas in his spoon and neatly flipped them across the room to smack against another boy's face, "Terpe" couldn't resist the lure of a little deviltry. She was aiming her third spoon of peas when the matron grabbed her arm. Isolation in the dark room was only one of the punishments the matron had reserved for misbehaving children. Administering punishments for cause or often for no cause seemed to be the chief interest of the matron. Though the memories "Terpe" has of her experiences with the matron are unhappy ones, perhaps some good came of it. As the years passed something in the shy little girl stiffened and strengthened until she became outspoken and courageous, willing to stand up for her rights and for her family and friends. Though Terpe's parents lived nearby (their farm site is now the north part of Ignacio), they put her in the boarding school. They wanted her to get a good education, which at that time largely meant learning to speak English. On the first day of school Terpe couldn't speak one word of English or of Ute. Though Terpe's mother was a full-blood Ute, she talked Spanish at home and at the age of 6, Spanish was all Terpe knew. But children learn fast and soon she could speak three languages well. She still does. When Terpe was 8, her father, John Taylor, built a house on John Green's place north of town and moved his family there. Terpe got to attend the Allen Day School. She liked it much better than the boarding school partly because she got to live at home. The memory of the day the doctors came to Ellen Day School is still with her. A small pox vaccination in 1908 was no gentle pricking of the arm. The doctors of that time felt it necessary to make many crisscross slashing cuts on the upper arm to insure the vaccination took. "We were all whooping and hollering and screeching. I felt like I had been branded." Terpe went to school until she was 15, then she stayed at home to help with the work. Terpe had always had to work hard at home. At 6 she was cooking and sewing diapers for her little brothers on the treadle sewing machine. At the age of 11, she cooked her first Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, pies and everything. For entertainment Terpe liked nothing better than dancing. She enjoyed both the ceremonial dances of the Utes and the social dances of the Spanish and the Anglos. "When we had a dance, we didn't quit at midnight, it lasted all night." When Terpe married Joe Valdez, she had no idea she would get to raise 20 children, 7 of her own and 13 nieces, nephews and grand children. If it was needed, there was always room for one more. The whole group worked the gardens and shelled peas and snapped beans and cooked and canned. It took a lot of work to provide for so many for so long, but Terpe says, "We always had enough." 164 �r') r') "I "l ., 7 ) l 1 ' '' ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) When Terpe's father, John Taylor died in 1935, he lacked two weeks of being 100 years old. How he came to be a respected participant in the affairs of the Southern Ute Tribe is a fascinating story. John Taylor was a black man, born a slave in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1835. He was sold in the slave market to a Kentucky Plantation owner and worked there for many years. At the outbreak of the Civil War, John, who was 26, ran away to join the Yankee Army. Four years of horror followed. John was assigned to an artillery company to load the cannon. There were times when the dead and the suffering injured were all around, times when the Johnny Rebs were close, times when the Yanks would run in fear, but not John. "I didn't run," he told his children, "I didn't want to be a slave anymore." When the war was over, John traveled west. He lived in Raton for a while, then moved to Tierra Amarillo where he married a Spanish girl and had several children. A tragic epidemic of small pox killed all his family. Moving on west, John lived among the Navajo for a while before coming into Colorado. He quickly learned to speak Ute. Since he could already speak Navajo, Spanish, Apache, English, French and Italian, John Taylor soon proved to be a valuable translator for the Southern Utes. In 1895 John and Kitty Cloud decided to get married. John was 40 years older than Kitty and her family thought it was madness for her- to marry such an old man. Age, however, is a relative thing. John and Kitty were married for 40 years, and had 15 children, the last of whom was born when John was 81 years old. He told his children many stories of his experiences, some of which Terpe remembers. "He would often sit with a far away look in his eyes, singing "Marching Through Georgia" or other songs of the war. Sometimes he would cry when he would tell us of the death and horror of the war. And always he would say he didn't ever want any of us to have to fight in a war." Today Terpe is approaching 74 years of age. She looks and feels like a much younger person. Anything she could ever do, she can do today. She is just as able and willing to offer help, counsel and encouragement today as she was 40 years ago. _) ) .J _) .J _.J ..) ..J .J J J J J J ..J J J J ._) Terpe misses the wagon days and especially the train. "I like cars, but the wagon days were better. Life was calmer and more fun then. Anyone going to Durango rode the train and once there you could ride the street cars from one end of Main to the other for ten cents." A beautifully carved Love Calling Flute hangs on Terpe's wall. It was made by Herbert Coyote and is a treasured gift. In the days long past the young men of the Utes carved their own flutes. On the long summer evenings they would sit among the trees or on a hill above the home of the girl they loved and call to her with the haunting, compelling songs of the love flute. Terpe says the sound of the Love Calling Flute carried a long way on the still air of the evening. "They were the saddest songs I ever heard. When I was a little girl they always made me cry." The songs are. gone from the hills, but the memory of them and of the old way of life lingers on with Terpe and others of her generation. Shelby Smith - April, 1974 165 � 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 Euterpe Taylor Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1974-04 Subject The topic of the resource Taylor, Euterpe; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Euterpe Taylor based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the April, 1974 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 Taylor, Euterpe 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/a6c0aefe2871cc310917de5bb2cef570.pdf c02c19a5d0164a1d3ce7bdd5e79a2795 PDF Text Text EUGENIO AND MARIA (Baca) VALDEZ "I was born in Chama, Colorado, 4 miles east of San Luis in the San Luis Valley on November 15, 1895. My parents, Serafin and Tonita Valdez were farmers, raising wheat, peas and livestock. My father's parents were originally from Los Ranchitos, N. M. near Espanola, but migrated into Colorado before my father was born. I have four brothers and two sisters. That does not count several others who died before they were grown. When I was 7 years old I started to school at Chama. During the school term I stayed with my mother's parents, Trinidad and Juanita Sanchez, whose farm was close to school. Every morning the school janitor fired up the pot-belly stoves in each of the three rooms. At the end of the day each teacher had to sweep the classroom. Mr. David Gaul was my first teacher. All of us were Spanish speakers. They tried to teach us English, but it didn't work too well. Every text book was in English. We would sound out the words and Mr. Gaul would translate. It was slow work and not too interesting. But we enjoyed the baseball games and other activities at noon and during recess. Also we helped pass the time of day with mischievous pranks during the school day." "After seventh grade, I stayed home to help my father with the farm work. I did this until I was 25 years old. If I had any extra time, I worked for wages on other farms. When I was about 16 years old, my father hired Albino Baca and his family lo herd sheep. Little did I know I would some day marry his daughter, Maria Inez, who at that time was only a 7 year old girl. I never saw Maria again until 9 years later, two days before our wedding." "When I was 25 years old, my parents decided it was time for me to get married. They thought over the possibilities and remembered Albino Baca's daughter must be about old enough to marry. The custom of parents arranging their children's marriages was a very old and traditional way, but I had no objections. A little after Christmas my mother and father hitched up their buggy to pay Albino Baca a visit. He lived on a farm near Red Wing, Colorado, a two day journey across the mountains through La Veta Pass. The wedding was arranged. I went to San Luis to buy a wedding dress, shoes and other clothing as a gift to my bride. This also was an old tradition for the groom to present as a gift to the bride. It was also customary for the groom to present the bride with a trunk full of beautiful clothes just before the wedding. On the 16th of January, 1920, my parents, my grandparents, an aunt, and an uncle and I loaded up two buggies and began the trip to Red Wing. About half way over the mountain was an abandoned saw mill where we camped for the night. The next day, when we arrived at Red Wing, the families were introduced and my uncle took his buggy on to the home of a friend several miles to stay the night. I went lo our buggy to bring the trunk to Maria, but found it was missing. My dad headed back to the saw mill, thinking we had left it there. After he left, my uncle returned because he had found the trunk in his buggy. I got on a horse to catch my father. By the time I overtook him and returned lo Red Wing it was midnight. "I was very pleased with my parent's choice. Maria was very pretty and was well trained. Even though she was young, she could cook and sew and everything else a wife needs to do. We were married in church on January 20, 1920. We took her two little brothers who were ages 3 and 7 home to raise. Maria had taken care of them since their mother died." 166 �"At first we lived in a house provided by the farmer I worked for. Two years later I built a two room adobe house on my father's land. Maria and I had seven children. They are Leonardo, Rudolfo, Eugenio, Adela, Liva, Ignacio and Ben. Her little brothers were Isaac and Frutoso. In 1940 we moved to Florence where I worked on the turnip and onion farms. Just as soon as one crop was harvested, we planted another as long as the season lasted. Maria died in 1943. I moved to Center and lived there until 1958. In 1958 I married Rose Green and we moved to her farm east of Ignacio where I raised cattle and goats until I retired. Rose died in 1977. I stayed on the farm until 1978 when I moved to the senior citizen apartments north of Ignacio where I still live." Taken December, 1979 -Shelby Smith ) ) ) .J .J J J _) ..J _J ...J .J .J _) J J ...J J ..J ....) 167 � 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 Eugenio Valdez and Maria (Baca) Valdez Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1979-12 Subject The topic of the resource Valdez, Eugenio; Valdez, Maria (Baca); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Eugenio Valdez and Maria (Baca) Valdez based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the December, 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 Valdez, Eugenio; Valdez, Maria (Baca) 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/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/e9f140c320adb20beffd0b7482a93c15.pdf 837cad510235882f5bfd6414983f891d PDF Text Text DAISY WASHINGTON WATTS Though most people are now unaware of the fact, the famous Chimney Rocks which rise between Stollsteimer Creek and the Piedra River were once called Los Pilares de Washington. Also, the valley below the pillars was called Washington Flats. Both were named for a remarkable Indian family whose descendants still live in this area. Daisy Watts was born near Chimney Rock on January18, 1904, the daughter of Joseph and Jane Watts. When Jane died 2 years later, Daisy was raised by her grandmother, Martha, and her grandfather, George Washington. George and Martha were not still living in a tepee, but otherwise they still followed the old ways. George was, as most American school children would say a "real" Indian. He was a hunter, a fisherman and a woods-wise man little changed by Anglo or Spanish culture. People who saw him never forgot George Washington, partly because of the way he dressed. During summer and most of the winter George wore nothing but a beach cloth held in place by a string and was one of the last of his tribe to dress in this fashion. Since he, like most of his ancestors, had worn this scanty costume all of his life, his skin was very dark, weathered and tough. His appearance was one of toughness and ferocity. Louie Valencia remembers, "I saw Washington many times when I was a child and was scared of him, not because of anything he did, he was just a tough looking hombre." Liva Pacheco's grandparents, David and Adelida Sandoval were friends of Washington when they were homesteading in the Piedra Valley. Liva says "My mother Theodora, told me when she was a child, Washington came to visit every once in a while, but night or day he would never knock. The family would walk in from another room and there he would be, squatting by the fire. He would never sit in a chair." Once in the winter, Spanish people asked Washington, "Don't your legs and posterior get cold uncovered?" He replied, "Como tu cara mi nalga." (My hind-end doesn't get cold for the same reason your face doesn't.) Daisy remembers her grandparents and their way of life well. "Grandfather had many horses. Most of the time they ran wild in the hills. When he wanted some, he drove them down to the corral. He also had sheep and goats which he butchered as needed. When I got old enough, I herded sheep in the hills. Grandmother always tanned the goatskins. She had a simple way. She rubbed the inside of the skin with brains, let it dry, rubbed it with brains arid repeated this till the hide was cured. The skins had many uses. One of which was to make leggings for us in winter. Sometimes my sisters and I used the goat skins for a sled in snowy weather. We climbed the hills with the skin and put its hair down on the snow. One sat in front holding the front legs of the skin and the other sat in back holding the back legs, it would go fast. Once my uncle Fritz bought me a doll with a china head. When my grandmother saw how much I liked it, she made me an Indian cradle for it from a board, some buckskin, some willows and some beads, I think we always had plenty to eat. The hills were full of food. Every summer and fall we picked wild strawberries, choke cherries, berries and banana berries until we had all we 170 �') ') --, ~ ~ ~ ~ 'J } i ) ) J ) ' ) ) ) ) could eat and all we could dry for winter. The banana berries were my favorite. After they were dried, we would boil them and they made a sweet syrup without adding sugar. If grandfather sold sheep, he put the money in a jar and buried it until we wanted things from the Dike store. Mr. Dike's store was several miles away on the road to Pagosa. In winter when it was difficult for some of the families to get out, he brought groceries and other things on a sled and sold them to us at the house. When it was time for me to go to school, we moved over to John Taylor's place near Bayfield, I went to the Elementary Day School for one year, then to the Ute Boarding school for 4 years, and to the Indian School at Santa Fe for 4 years. Then I was transferred to school at Albuquerque for two years. When my father died, I came back to Ignacio and lived with my sister Lucille,11 Shortly afterwards, Daisy got a Job doing domestic work for the John Landers family who lived at the B.l,A, complex north of Ignacio, Daisy married Ralph Cloud November 22, 1926, at the Durango Courthouse. They moved out to Spring Creek on Ralph's father's place where they raised hay and wheat and garden produce. They had five children, Matilda, Charles (who died of double pneumonia at the age of 11 ), Joel Dean who died after he fell from a horse, Mary Inez and Roger, After Ralph and Daisy were divorced in 1946. Daisy moved to Durango to work for a year. In 1954 she bought a home in Ignacio and has lived there ever since, Daisy now has 10 grandchildren and lives a very quiet life. We value her as a living link with a past which is very much gone. ) September, 1976 - Shelby Smith ) ) ) ) ) .J .J .J _) __) _) _) ....J ....J _) __) _) ..J ....J J _) -...) 171 � 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 Daisy Washington Watts Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1976-09 Subject The topic of the resource Watts, Daisy Washington; Ignacio, Colorado; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Daisy Washington Watts based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the September, 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 Watts, Daisy Washington 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/3c7d93139e662f40913542b3845c7077.pdf 067d4145536a23a5c3c251d4b1898f82 PDF Text Text MAX AND ELLEN (House) WATTS Max Smith Watts was born in a teepee camped in the pine Valley near La Boca, Colorado, in 1894, the son of Andrew and Cecilia Watts. Max says, "My father's band, the capote Band, traveled a lot in those days. Some of them were farmers, but most of them moved around to find better hunting. Teepees were just right for people on the move. There were very few white men around in those days. We hunted for deer and rabbits and herded our sheep and goats. Our games were made to give us skill. We would throw round targets into the air and shoot them before they came down. I made my own fishing pole from a willow, some string and a needle bent into a hook. We all had horses and depended on them for all of our moving around. My grandfather told me of a lime when he was young that there were few horses. He knew of some of our people trading a child for a horse. They were valued so much when they were scarce. The Utes always liked horse racing. Since the road across the river was so long and straight, we had our races over there." "My people were not surprised when the white man brought the train. One of the old men had seen it in a dream. He told his people that one day white men would come in a thing of smoke and fire. I never rode the train until I was nearly grown. I was scared of it. When it came up the valley, it looked like it was coming straight at me. I would run." My parents put me in the BIA Boarding School for a few years; but when I got old enough to herd the goats, they needed me at home. We had some land over on the Piedra River and moved back and forth to it. We played many games - some for fun and some for gambling. One was played with big nails and a pile of dirt. The nails which had numbers painted on them were pushed out of sight into a pile of soft earth. The players look turns poking a stick into the pile to expose a nail. They got points according to the numbers painted on them. The women watching the game would sing and dance around the pile lo try to make the earth fall. Blankets, horses and money were gambled in this game. We also had a game like the white man's horse shoes only we used flat rocks to try to throw near or into holes dug into the ground." By the time he was 16, Max was on his own. He worked with the crews which dug the irrigation ditches. His pay was $1.50 per day. Euterpe Taylor's father John Taylor was his boss. A few years later he went to Buckskin, Arizona, to work in the cornfields. Before the corn was ripe, Max was put on guard to shoot the blackbirds out in the fields. In harvest time he harnessed the horses every morning and helped with the picking. "I always came back lo Ignacio when a job ended. After a few years I got a job working at the Agency. Until I met Ellen House, I had not thought of marrying any one. Why get married with no money in my pocket?" Ellen remembers, "Max started sending me boxes of chocolate. Sometimes there would be money in the boxes. We were married in 1925 at the courthouse in Durango. I was born in 1907. My mother Fannie House died in the flu epidemic in 1918 when I was 11 years old. Daisy Eagle is my half sister and I had a brother, Danny, and a sister named July. Both of them died in accidents on horses. Max and I lived in a house near the agency until 1934 when we moved to the farm near La Boca. We lived on the farm 172 �~ "' 'I 'I 'J 'I J 'J ' J l ) ' ) J ) ) where Rose Watts is now. At that time there was an old house on the farm built of posts. Later we bought the land on the hill where we still live. It's good ground up there with a spring nearby." Afte r Max quit the agency, he worked for the D. & R. G . W. Railroad with the crews that cleared the tracks of snow in winter. Since Max was a cook's helper, his job was not too hard. The others had to use their shovels if the snow plow could not remove the drifts. The crews had lots to do at Red Cliff and at Soldier's Summit in Utah. The crews slept in the cars. It was very cold. "In 1955," Ellen says, "we built a new house on our farm. When we were strong, we raised sheep, horses, grain, hay and all of our vegetables. I still have a big garden. In the 1930's many hoboes came up from the railroad tracks and asked for something to eat. I always gave them something. So many people were traveling around then. I think a farm is the best place to live because even when there are not jobs, farmers have work. We sold potatoes to the BIA School and horses to the Navajos. We never liked cows, but we kept goats and made cheese from their milk. We're still on our farm and don't ever want to live anyplace else." ) ) ) The Watts had seven children in all: Colleen, Ed, Lula, Ellenetta, Crystal, Jerry and Eunice. Only Colleen, Crystal and Lula are still living. September, 1977 - Shelby Smith ) ) } ) ) ) ) J j ._) J ..J ..J J J ..J J J -.) ..J J ...) ...) 173 � 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 Max Watts and Ellen (House) Watts Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1977-09 Subject The topic of the resource Watts, Max; Watts, Ellen (House) Description An account of the resource Biography of Max Watts and Ellen (House) Watts based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the September, 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 Watts, Max; Watts, Ellen (House) 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