https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/bba23690118b7331f99a509d2b7836a9.pdf a0e31da66d7665089489df896680523b PDF Text Text JULIUS and MOLLY TOBIAS (Buck) CLOUD "When I was born in 1895, there was no town here - only the depot and the agency and a country store over where the grade school is now. It was all Indian land from Pagosa to Utah. Not many houses. Tribal members lived in tepees and it was a good life. There were tepees all up and down the rivers." There are only the beginnings of Julius Cloud's memories of the old days in the Pine River Valley. Julius was born on May 30, 1895, the son of Edwin and Ruth Cloud. He lives on the same place where he was born three and one half miles south of town. "Ignacio was a field then. John Green used to plow a piece of ground down by the station and I liked to follow along behind and play in the soft dirt." Julius enrolled in the boarding school and then at the Allen Day School and finally, was transferred to the Indian School at Santa Fe, N.M. "It was OK at Santa Fe - not very good food, but we got to meet Indian kids from all over the country. Julian Baker and I and several other Utes were there. We had school and learned to drive a car and played football and baseball, which I really liked." After three years Julius returned from Santa Fe. He and several of his friends started an All Indian Baseball Team. "We played Mancos, Cortez, Pagosa and Silverton and by charging admission to the games, we paid for all of our trips and equipment. We traveled to and from our games in a Model T. No matter how deep the mud was, we never got stuck. Cars aren't that good today. Later-we got a Model A to carry more people, but the Model T was the best car. After we won the championship at Pagosa, we disbanded the team. James Baker was one of our best players. He later got on one of the professional teams in Denver." Julius remembers the store Mr. Burns had up near the Catholic Church. The building later was moved to downtown Ignacio across from the drug store and for a while was used to show the old-fashioned picture shows. Julius liked to go to the pow-wows. Some good ones were held at Navajo Springs, south of present day Towaoc. Julius learned to sing for the dances. He still knows some of the songs, but doesn't participate anymore because "it's too much effort." When he was about 20, the U.S. entered the First World War and Julius was drafted. He and Andy Frost, Frank Baker, George Brown and John Hays were sent to Camp Cody, N.M. for basic training. From there he was shipped to Camp Dixon, New Jersey, and from there to England and France. On the trip east, Julius' troop stopped in Chicago. He had never seen such big buildings or such smoky skies. Julius remembers, "It was so bad they had to turn on electric lights during the day and railroads ran overhead on platforms two or three levels high." As they left New York Harbor on the troop ship, everyone watched the Sta Lue uf LiiJerly slowly disappear. On the ocean Julius could noo the curvature of the earth and from the looks of it, couldn't understand why the water didn't run off somewhere. When the ship arrived in England, many of the troops had the influenza, some died. Everyone was quarantined for 21 days. Crossing the English Channel was like crossing a big river. France was a green country. All the roads were lined with trees which overshadowed the road. At every crossroads were religious statues. The wine districts were quite a sight. 34 �.., .., .., ,, .. ' ' ' ) ' ~) l ' ' -) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) J ) _) J _) J J J There were whole hillsides covered with vineyards and piles of grapes ready for the wine vats. Life at the front was pretty bad. Each soldier carried an 80 lb, pack with a short shovel for trench-digging. One of the horrors of WWI was the poison gas. As a part of training, the soldiers were sent into a room to experience a small dose of gas, Julius says, "I cheated. After about 8-10 minutes they let us out. Everyone but me was coughing and crying and struggling to get his breath, I had hid my head under my coat and breathed through my clothes. When the officers saw me, they said, "What's the matter with that Indian Chief? He didn't feel it." There were soldiers from many nations involved in the war. Julius recalls, "the Germans wore green uniforms; the Americans had khaki, Some had grey with red buttons. I think they were the British, Sometimes the shelling would be so bad that the ground would shake. A few times I felt like I should say 'Goodbye America."' Sometimes during the three years Julius while was in France, he doubted he would ever get home a.gain. After a long time of waiting, Julius and one of his friends got leave to go to Paris, expecting it to be a happy relief from the front, but Paris was a grim city, overcrowded with refugees and short of food. "We had to stand in long lines just to get black rye bread. Julius also remembers there was no real Christmas in France. One year all we had for Christmas dinner was bread, bacon and oatmeal." In 1930 Julius married Molly Tobias Buck, They had six children. The oldest was Neil, then Jerry, Elliot, Darwin, Irene and Renee. Darwin died when he was about 20, All the others survive. Life was a hard in the 1930's, but Julius says he and his family got along just fine. A dollar bought a lot in 1930. He worked as a jockey for several years and enjoyed this work very much, "When I rode for people around Ignacio, I got fifty cents every time I won a race. When the tracks opened up in Durango and Cortez, I got $2.00 and $3.00 for winning. Later Julius did some farming and some sheepherding and was on the police force. He worked as a maintenance engineer at a school in Dulce for a while. Now he leases his land and stays on the home place. Some of Julius best memories are of the years when he was a boy growing up with Max Watts and Martin Hayes. We liked to play in the water down at the river all summer and fish and make bows and arrows and run in the woods. It was a happy life. This May Julius will celebrate his 80th birthday. For a person of that age he's amazingly strong and healthy. Shelby Smith, January, 1975 J .) J J J J J J J J J J 35 � 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 Julius Cloud and Molly Tobias (Buck) Cloud Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975-01 Subject The topic of the resource Cloud, Julius; Cloud, Molly Tobias (Buck) Description An account of the resource Biography of Julius Cloud and Molly Tobias (Buck) Cloud based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the January, 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 Cloud, Julius; Cloud, Molly Tobias (Buck) 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