https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/65bd79844e2a3d779679d7dbf381177b.pdf c6a443a79cb59b5f712fe23c5f1dfcbb PDF Text Text THELMA(Pena)KUEBLER "My mother, Mary Spencer Baker was an intelligent young lady, one of the first graduates of the Chilocco Indian School in Northern Oklahoma. When she returned home, she worked actively with the employees of the Ute Agency on the Pine River. Because of her language skill and mastery of English, she often served as interpreter at the Agency. On one memorable trip, she accompanied a Ute delegation to a meeting in Washington, D.C. None of this work caused her to lose her interest in the common affairs of life on the reservation. Back home she was one of the best cooks. Everything we ate was home-grown or hunted out of the wilds. She dried and canned our food for the winter. I can still remember washing all those old Kerr jars." "My dad, Juan Pena, a Tewa Indian from Nambe Pueblo, came into the San Juan country to work in the fields when he was just a teenager. Mother met him when he was herding sheep for one of my great uncles, 'Talion' Spencer. After my parents were married, they settled up in the Redondo Valley west of Cat Creek above Pagosa Junclion where my mother had an allotment of land. Dad built us a log house chinked with mud. He was a good farmer, raising crops of grain and hay and managing our flock of sheep. My parents conversed in English and Spanish at first, since neither one knew the other's Indian language. Dad soon learned Ute, since he was around so many Utes." "When my older sister Gennevive and I started to school, Dad moved us to a house in Pagosa Junction. Mrs. Zabriskie taught all 8 grades. I attended only two years in Pagosa Junction. The next year my sister and I and Curtis Cutthair and several others were sent to the Indian School at Santa Fe. The trip was by narrow-gauge railroad with an overnight stop in Antonito. Since I was only 6 or 7 years old, you can imagine how scared I was. I was deathly afraid of being sent away and never coming back. Personnel from the school met us at the Santa Fe depot with a stage coach pulled by mules. Everything about the Indian School was OK except it was just too far from home. My mother died while I was away at school. From then on I helped lake care of my little brother every summer. Vacation time at Pagosa Junction was a delightful break from school. We fished and swam in the San Juan and hiked in the woods. About the only time we ever went to Ignacio was at ration time. That was an all day ride in a wagon and then a long wait in line. We were issued fresh meat, coffee, flour, sugar, etc." "After finishing 10th grade at Santa Fe, I stayed in the dorm north of town and attended grades 11 and 12 in Ignacio. In 19361 finished high school and started working in the accounting office at the B.I.A. with a lady named Rae Mills. She began to teach me the bookkeeping I used for so many years. Before 1936 almost all business and money for the tribe was handled by the B.I.A. This began to change in 1936. That year we began to credit income lo our own accounts, but we still did not write our own checks. About this same time I married Ramius Kuebler. Ramius was a bus driver for the B.1.A. and I continued my work. We had three children, John, Theda and Lawrence. We got our present house in town in 1954. The next year Ramius became very ill and died. I quit 98 �'l "1 ) 'l 'l '} ) l J l ) work to take care of him during the last months. In 1956 the Tribe asked me to come back to work with the books. My years with the Tribe from 1936-1972 were mostly spent in the finance department, but I also worked part of the time on the Tribal Census with Millie Daniels, in Property and Supply with Harold Turner and in the irrigation department doing typing. In 1974 I got a job as secretary at the SUARC Program and only recently retired from there. " "Now that I'm home, I spend my time taking care of my grandchildren, Michele, Kathy and Cedric and I read my books. I love to read. I have read all of Louis L'Amour's books and many other books of different kinds." ) J ) ) J "My father, Juan Pena, will celebrate his 99th birthday in May. I am thankful to still have my father." "I want everyone to know I enjoyed all the years I worked for the Tribe and now that I have extra time, I will be glad to serve the Tribe in any way that I can." Shelby Smith, April 1981 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) _) ..J J ...) _) _) _) .__) ...) ....J ..J .__) ...J ..J ~ ....J ....) 99 � 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 Thelma (Pena) Kuebler Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1981-04 Subject The topic of the resource Kuebler, Thelma (Pena); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Thelma (Pena) Kuebler based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith in April, 1981. 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 Kuebler, Thelma (Pena) 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