3 10 216 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/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/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/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/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/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/6e0c4f410bbd8194782e808e1c2d213f.pdf 27227af8ba5982b2f57f98a2ebee5d9c PDF Text Text 'l 'J 'j ' 'l J } J i J l ) , ) ) ) ) ) ) ) _) ) ) ) ) ) _) .) _J ...J ..) .) .J J ...) J ...) ROSITA ROMERO Rosita's daughter, Louise Pesata, believes her mother is in her mid-nineties, but on one knows exactly, for the Taos people did not count the years or the days when she was born. They told their children, "you were born in the snow time or when the leaves were green." Any exact records of her birth were destroyed when the Guadalupe Church burned many years ago, but none of th is counting of years and of dates is of any concern to Rosita. What she does know is that she was born in a dwelling on the second level of the north pueblo at Taos. The same dwelling has been her home for about 90 years and is still her home whenever she wishes to go there. Rosita is the only child of Venturo Romero (he died of a stroke when she was a young child) and of Manuelita Lujan Romero, who lived until 1927. When Rosita was 6 years old, she and many other children in the pueblo were sent to the Indian School at Santa Fe. They were loaded into wagons and driven to Taos Junction to meet the train which came from Alamosa on its way to Santa Fe. This particular train and route was known as the "Chili Line." All students were issued uniforms, the principal feature of which was a large, wide-brimmed, black straw hat. She spent three years at the school. Her memory of those years is primarily of "looking at the books," and "playing on the swings" and of how long the year seemed with no vacations for holidays or feast days. After third grade Rosita attended a one room school near Taos for a while and that was enough school for her. When Rosita was a young woman, the town of Taos began to change from a small, but historic town into a sophisticated center for well known artists and authors. The attraction for the Taos Valley to the artists and their wealthy followers is evident to anyone who visits there today. Its climate and beauty and blend of cultures is still a stimulating environment. The influx of wealthy people was a fortunate circumstance for Rosita, since it provided her with plentiful work as a domestic servant. It was necessary for her to work, since she supported her daughter Louisa entirely by herself. In the course of her work, Rosita was employed by artists such as Blanche C. Grant, Victor Higgins, Eleanor Kissel and John Baldin. She also worked for Dr. Thomas Martin who was clinic doctor in the 1920's, and for John Collier, one of the Indian Commissioners. During all the years of work which only ended when she retired in 1973, Rosita walked the 3 miles from the Pueblo to her place of work and home again through snow and rain and summer heat. At home Rosita's life was little different from the lives of her ancestors hundreds of years ago. The pueblo allows no plumbing, electricity or other changes. Rosita carried all her water from the river, gathered all her wood for fires in the canyons and hauled it on her back to the village and up the ladder to her dwelling. In her spare time she gathered food for the winter, various greens and wild spinaches, mushrooms, plums and chokecherries to be dried. Her principal craft was the making of shoes and moccasins. She learned to scrape and dry and tan the deer skins. One of the most common tanning agents was boiled animal brains, which were rubbed and worked into the drying leather. Rosita chose moccasin making because it could be stopped and J ..) J J -..) J 14 9 �resumed easily at spare moments before or after working in town. Other crafts such as pottery making cannot be interrupted so often. Most of the people at the pueblo are initiated members of one of the clans known as the "knife people", the "wooden earring people", the "water people", etc. Rosita is one of the "water people". Each clan has its own initiation procedures, its secrets, its ceremonies, its projects and its own sacred religious traditions, much of which is probably hundreds of years old. Initiated members receive the security and encouragement of an extended family. Both men and women can be members of the clans, and all attend some meetings in the kivas. However, the clans are definitely male dominated and many meetings are limited to the men. Taos people believe the preseivation of their culture is strongly dependent upon the maintenance of the clans. Therefore, they diligently encourage all their children to be initiated into one of the clans where they can learn the songs, legends and ancient religion of the pueblo. One of the efforts of the clans is to give the young members instruction and practice in the various dances and songs as the feast days approach. The principal feasts occur at Christmas with the deer dance, at New Years with the turtle dance, at January 6th with the Buffalo dance. The corn dances are performed in May, June and July and St. Jerome's feast is on September 30th. Today more than half of the Taos People live outside the pueblos, a trend which is a little worrisome lo the tribe. The pueblo itself was frozen to any further additions or changes about 15 years ago. Maintenance of the ancient structures is a never-ending task. All snow must be immediately removed from the roofs to prevent seepage and rotting of roof timbers. Each family is responsible for its own roof. All exterior walls are mud-stuccoed every summer. Though Rosita is alert and surprisingly agile for a person in her 90's, a scary fall on one of the ladders in 1979 convinced her granddaughter, Josephine Lefthand, that it was time for Rosita to leave the pueblo. Until that time Rosita was still climbing the ladders with her water and fuel. Presently, Rosita lives comfortably with Tom and Josephine in Ignacio. From time to time she returns to Taos lo visit her daughter and to attend the feasts. At home she still bakes bread and tortillas for her grandchildren. She only recently stopped dancing at the pow-wows. When the grandchildren try to tease her into joining the dances again, she tells them, "I've done my part. Now you do yours." P.S. Rosita is adjusting very nicely lo using thermostats, the electric range, etc. in her granddaughter's home. Shelby Smith - November, 1980 (Special thanks lo Josephine Lefthand for translating the inteiview) 150 � 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 Rosita Romero Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1980-11 Subject The topic of the resource Romero, Rosita; Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Rosita Romero based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the November, 1980 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 Romero, Rosita 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; Lefthand, Josephine https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/f6df02712b2679c5c0e84da06a8d41a2.pdf 799fc300341c77c3992523e4e5d605af PDF Text Text PAULINE (De Herrera) RODRIQUEZ When Pauline Ruth De Herrera was born at Antonito, Colorado, on Sept. 15, 1907, Spanish people had been living in the Rio Grande and San Luis Valleys for a very long time. The dates in the graveyards, if nothing else, will testify to that. The old Conejos communities of Antonito, Las Mesitas, Mannasa and Espioza still maintain a Spanish flavor. The Las Mesitas Church with its two steeples is a striking landmark. Beside it is the church yard where generations of Paulina's ancestors are buried. Paulina's parents Alfred and Adala De Herrera, owned a home and small acreage near Antonito, but in the summer the whole family headed for the mountains. Alfred was a cowboy. "In May many farmers turned their cattle over to him to take into the high summer range near Cumbres. Dad would drive the cattle along, sometimes as many as 500, and Mother and all of us children followed in the buggy. We had a cabin overlooking a big meadow. It was such a carefree life. We picked strawberries by the gallons. They were small, but, oh, so sweet. Other days mother sent us for gooseberries. Once in the gooseberry patch my brother Chris and I got a terrible fright. We were picking when suddenly we came to a place under some overhanging branches where the grass and flowers were flattened like a nest. Some of the stems were still springing up. It was so plain we had just roused some animal (our imagination told us it was a bear.) We screamed and threw our buckets into the air and ran. Occasionally, we took off a little time for fishing. Our favorite place was La Laguna Azul, a beautiful mountain lake with gold water lilies along one side. We caught a lot of fish there. Always we wanted to see a deer, but we never saw one. I guess those mountains were hunted out in those days. About once a month we went down to Antonito to stock up on groceries. We would leave on Saturday and come back on Monday. Dad had two beautiful mares just for our buggy trips. We had such a relaxed and carefree life until the fall when the cattle were branded and moved down to the farms." Pauline remembers one time that was definitely not carefree. In the spring of 1911 there was a terrible flood all across Southern Colorado. Alfred was already in the mountains with the cattle. When Adala and the children awoke that morning the fields around them were a lake. "There was water in every direction. My grandmother Lujan was there with us and we decided it might be higher at her place in Las Mesitas, so mother went out and hitched up the mares. We went through deep water, but the real trouble came when we got to Las Mesitas Ditch (which was as large as the Allison Ditch). The bridge was washed away and the men on the other side said, 'don't come across. The mares will drown and so will you!' My mother was very brave. She said it was better to try than be trapped on the low side. The mares went clear under. Mother jumped from the buggy and lifted the heads of the mares out of the water. Finally, one of the men jumped in to help and the mares began to swim. When we got to the other shore, we were all soaked to the bone and crying. There was water around Grandmother Lujan's house, too; but it didn't get any deeper. In a couple of days it went down. All our chickens were gone and everybody's crops were ruined." 14 6 �'l 'l ....., '1 'l ' 1 l 1 J 7 ) ) ) ) } ) ) Idyllic and pleasant as a Rocky Mountain summer can be, winter is another thing, especially in the Sun Luis Valley. Then the valley becomes a cold and windy place with vast, drafty blizzards howling down its length. Every evening before bed Pauline and Chris had to peel enough potatoes for the next day and place them in water to keep them white. "Every morning the house was cold. Dad got up first to light the coal oil lamp and to build a fire in the kitchen. Then I had to get up to slice and start frying those potatoes. Then mother got up and made biscuits, white gravy, fried eggs and always oatmeal with lots of fresh milk and butter." Pauline and all the children needed a good breakfast, since they walked three miles to school at Espinoza. Sometimes it was an ordeal. "When the weather got real bad, my father wrapped our feet in gunny sacks and tied them to our ankles with wire. At school our teacher would unwrap the sacks, hang them to dry by the fire, and then help us put them back on when it was time to leave. That was all we could do because, of course, none of us had overshoes." Pauline feels that one mistake many parents made at that time was to keep their children out of school too much. "Some of the boys in the 5th and 6th grades were great big things, old enough to be in high school today and when they would get restless and bad, I can remember the teachers sending them to the river to bring their own willows to be whipped." ) ) ) ) ) ) .J ) _) _) _) J ..J J J ._J J .J J J J J ._I .J Alfred DeHerrera liked politics. In Paulina's words, "He was always 'taken' by politics." About 1924 Alfred decided to run for sheriff of Conejos County. If there was any big money around to buy the politicians into office, Alfred didn't get any of it. He had to use his own. When he lost the election, the family was nearly broke. To help recover the losses Alfred moved the family to Millikin which was about half.way between Denver and Ft. Collins where he could get farm work. "We didn't stay there very long. It was strange country to us. Dad worked long enough to buy a car and then we headed back for the valley. We stopped to visit someone in Salida. While we were there, Dad found a job in a creosote plant, so we stayed and bought a home there. I was about 16 or 17 by then." Soon afterward Pauline met Vic Rodriquez. "Vic was one of 12. His mother was dead. My mama tried to help those kids. She sewed and mended their clothes and asked them in for cookies and did many other things which only a mama can do." Vic was working on the tram line to Shirley when he turned sweet on Pauline. "He began signing his checks and just handing them to me. Mama said I better not spend any of that because if Vic and I broke up, there could be trouble over the money. So I put it all in the bank." Vic and Pauline were married in 1928. Pauline handed Vic $900.00, every penny of what he had given to her. With the $900.00 Vic set up a saw mill at Trujillo southwest of Pagosa. Whatever lumber wasn't sold locally was trucked to Juanita and shipped on the train to other markets. Later Vic moved his mill to Blanco Basin and finally to Red Creek north of Bayfield . When the government started building Vallecito Dam in 1937, Pauline got a new job. She started doing laundry for all the crews working on the dam. "I had a gasoline powered Maytag that ran from 7:00 a.m. till 7:00 p.m. every day. There were 14 7 �clotheslines stretched from tree to tree. I guess we were the first mountain laundramat. I made about $10.00 per day. Sometimes my neighbor Mrs. Millsap would help and I gave her half of what I made." Pauline has good memories of Red Creek since most of the kids were raised there. "They were good kids. We never had trouble with any of them. I guess being raised in the mountains, they would have to be good kids. We always had plenty to do, both work and fun. Every Saturday there was a dance. Someone brought a guitar and someone a violin and did we dance! But no drinking. It seems like ii snowed more then, but it didn't seem so hard on people then. We always had fun in the winter. If we needed food, we'd hitch up a team to the sled and go lo town. All those years seem so carefree. We never had any worries. I didn't think I ever had any worries until Vic died. We had just bought this house and lived here two months when he died." Pauline has seven children. All of them are married. Irene lives in Bayfield; Ernest in Bellingham, Washington; Melvin in Ignacio; Jeanie in Farmington; Helen in Los Angeles; Delia Rae in Bloomfield; and Mary Ann in Colorado Springs. Pauline has 30 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. A lot of years have passed, but Pauline well remembers the "Star" automobile Vic bought to bring her to Trujillo. She remembers the frightful, narrow road over Wolf Creek Pass and how much she really didn't want to leave Salida. "I always missed Salida. I liked it there and didn't want to leave. And I have always missed the Italians. They were good neighbors, nice people. All of the years we've spent on this side of the divide I've been happy, but I never felt really at home. I always had in the back of my mind a wish to go back over there, but the last few years I feel different. Ignacio is a nice town with a lot of nice people. I think I belong here now." June, 1975-Shelby Smith 148 � 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 Pauline (De Herrera) Rodriquez Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975-06 Subject The topic of the resource Rodriquez, Pauline (De Herrera) Description An account of the resource Biography of Pauline (De Herrera) Rodriquez based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the June, 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 Rodriquez, Pauline (De Herrera) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 3 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/97f572ecf6038193c4f030706a857654.pdf e69c0614913b9078fd89027464b27140 PDF Text Text MARIA (Abeyta) RIVERA Maria, the fifth of Antonio and Josefa Abeyta's nine children, was born into an orderly and hard-working world. Her people were sheepherders in the country near Tierra Amarilla, N.M. "Most of us in that lime weren't too poor and sure weren't rich. We lived in a post house. Cedar posts were set in rows like a stockade, then plastered inside and out. The roof was posts and sticks covered with earth. It leaked and was a mess whenever there was a heavy rain until we could afford to put tin over it. I haven't been back there for a long time, but we hear the house is still there and still being used." When Maria was about three years old, her parents moved to a dry land farm near Cabresto (up Frances Creek east of present day Navajo Darn). Antonio built another post house and dug a well. He hit a good stream of water at 18 feet. The Abeytas raised dry land crops fairly successfully, but the garden needed watering and the well was the only source. Maria remembers hauling bucket after bucket to the garden. Two of Maria's sisters went to live with their grandmother at La Puente about three miles from Tierra Amarilla. Grandmothe(s house was a large frame house with five bedrooms. Maria recalls, "The fifth bedroom was just for guests and was never touched unless a guest was in the house. She had a large wood-burning cookstove, a fire place and a heating stove. No coal was available, so someone had to chop a lot of wood." Since there was no school at Cabresto, Antonio bought a farm near Rosa. It was much easier to raise profitable crops on the irrigated land and possible to send the children to school. However, Maria seldom got to attend school more than 4-5 months per year. Two of her older sisters had died. Since the other two were living with their grandmother, and Josefa had become ill, Maria became the cook, laundress and food preserver for the family. Maria says, "People talk about how bad kids are today. I don1 believe they are nearly as naughty as they were when I was a child. Once when I was a child a group of boys in our room tried to set the teacher on fire. The teacher was an old man and not too observant. The boys began slipping matches under his coat collar with the match heads protruding in a row. One of the boys behind him struck a match and was about to set the fire when one of the students yelled and grabbed the lighted match. Otherwise the resulting fire would probably have burned all the remaining hair off his nearly bald head. 11 "Every winter our cellar was full of beans, peas, chicos, cheese and piles of pumpkins. Then we had eggs, milk and butter coming all the lime. We always had enough. Everyone who put out the effort to grow a garden had enough in those days. I think the climate is colder now. It's hard to get things to mature." "In warm weather all of us children were outside playing or working all the time, but in cold months there was less to do. That's when Abuelo and Abuela (grandpa and grandma) told us stories around the fireplace. I wish I could remember the stories they 144 �told, but I can't. For public entertainment there were only a few events each year. On the 4th of July there were races and a rodeo but no fireworks. One year someone brought a Ferris Wheel. Nothing else; just a Ferris Wheel. It cost five cents to ride. I ate ice cream and drank lemonade and rode the Ferris Wheel so many times I got sick and had to go lie down at my aunt's house. Then there were the maromas. The latest maromas I remember was in Ignacio in the 1950's. The maromas was a group of people who made music, danced and sang and told jokes and stories. The whole community came when the maromas were in town. ·, ) ) ) ' When Maria was 25 she married Henry Rivera. His family had migrated to Rosa from Cimmaron and Monero, New Mexico. Henry had worked in the mines at Silverton and also worked for the railroad. The Riveras stayed at Rosa untll 1949 when they bought a farm near Allison. Their 10 children are: Cecilia (deceased), Bennie, Mary (deceased), Gilbert, Pete, Fred, Anna Marie, Orlando, Agnes and Richard. In addition to the children Maria has 23 grandchildren. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) In 1956 Maria moved to Ignacio. She has worked at various jobs since then. The children are scattered all over the country, and because of this Maria has got to do something she never thought possible. "I have traveled all over this country. I never thought I'd do that. The way I was raised people stayed at home. We didn't expect to fo anywhere and we couldn't with our livestock and crops and gardens. Now I've been to Los Angeles, Connecticut. Rhode Island and New York to see my children. I'd rather ride a burro than these little planes that come to Durango, but once I get to Denver the big planes are nice. _) August, 1976 - Shelby Smith ) ) ) _J __) _) ) .J ...J ..J -..J J -..J .J J ...J ...J ..J -.) ~ 145 � 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 Maria (Abeyta) Rivera Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1976-08 Subject The topic of the resource Rivera, Maria (Abeyta); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Maria (Abeyta) Rivera based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the August, 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 Rivera, Maria (Abeyta) 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/b45f091bb89b59d5310d14a443779455.pdf 064d2a701f87b4ece953be09e365548b PDF Text Text MARY LA VIDA (Wayt) RITTER Mary La Vida Wayt, daughter of Louis and Margaret Wayt was born October 29, 1891, in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) four miles from Maysville, Arkansas. Folks in the area referred to it as "Lapland", meaning the region where Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri have a common border. Vida has only slight memories of those early years. Her family left Indian Territory and moved to Texas for a while and then back to Indian Territory. One thing she does remember is crossing the Red River. Crossing the prairie rivers was an experience to be remembered, especially if they were the big ones. There were few, if any, bridges anywhere in the Indian Territory and none across the big rivers. The Red River in many places is a mile wide. The amount of water depends on the season of the year. Ferries were not possible since even in flood season the water is deep only in a few channels. Most of the year the river consists mainly of sand bars, treacherous mud bogs, quicksand and log-strewn shallows. Getting across was mainly a matter of slogging through the mud flats, avoiding the quicksand and hoping the wagon would float. Vida remembers a frightful crossing. Her family made it across all right, but not everyone was so lucky. ) ) ) ) ) _). When the Wayts moved back to Oklahoma, they settled on a farm just across the border from Chetopa, Kansas. Most of their neighbors in the area were Cherokee Indians. It may seem unusual to gather nuts to go fishing , but that's what they and their neighbors did. Buckeyes, small nuts growing profusely in the area, have a chemical which stuns fish. The men would pound the nuts into a meal, scatter the meal on a pool in the "crick" and almost immediately the fish in the pool would float belly-up to the surface. Vida was very frightened when the men jumped into the water whooping and hollering, but her mother explained what was happening, "Then," she recalls, "we had a real fish fry." ) _) _) .J _) ....J .J ..J ..J .._J ....J .J J J J J .._J J .._J There is a section of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa known to weathermen as a 'cyclone alley. This region has some of the most frequent violent weather on the continent. Nearly everyone today, as well as then, has a cellar for refuge during tornado weather. Vida recalls the old dugout cellar her father built and recalls she was more frightened of the snakes and spiders and creepy things she imagined in the cellar than of the tornados. However, her father knew what he was doing. One day when the family scurried to the cellar, a tornado twisted their house on its foundation, requiring her father to prop up one wall with logs and poles. The Wayts raised corn, black-eye peas and sugar cane. At an early age Vida was taught to milk and was assigned the job of washing the pails and the separator. When Vida was 12, her father sold the farm and moved to Pueblo to work in the steel mill. Shortly after arriving in Colorado, Vida saw a sight she could hardly believe. She said, "Oh, mother look at that wagon going without any horses." The year was 1904 and that was Vida's first encounter with a motorized vehicle. After a year Louis moved his family to a farm near La Jara in the San Luis Valley where they stayed for 3 years. "We raised potatoes and field peas and did all right, but it was too cold and windy there to suit us." Vida was sixteen when the Wayts moved to the Pine River Valley and settled in 141 �this region for good. The family took the train to Ignacio and rode in the mail wagon lo Bayfield. "We always traveled light. Dad sold everything but our personal belongings whenever we moved. It was too difficult and expensive to move furniture and implements. Everywhere we went we had to start all over again. Louis got a job as a logger in the woods north of Bayfield for a year and then moved to a ranch 3-4 miles north of Ignacio. When the town of Ignacio was organized, Louis was hired on the survey team which named the streets and laid them out. Later Louis constructed the building which is now the north section of the SUARK lodge and Mrs. Wayt operated it as a hotel. Vida attended the Morrison School. She remembers well the day at school when she looked out of the window to see a tall young man riding a horse along the road. Vida had no idea this young man would one day become her husband. At the age of 18, Vida started dating Paul Ritter. "Paul and I liked to dance. All of the young people in the area would pile into a wagon or onto a sled if it was winter and go to Spring Creek or Bayfield or wherever there was a dance. On Sunday, there were horse races up Goddard Avenue in Ignacio and ball games and, finally, someone started a movie theater (silent pictures of course)." Vida and Paul were married in Durango in the home of Paul's parents on April 10, 1911. "After the wedding, we drove back lo the ranch in our buggy. Since the spring and summer work was just getting started, we put off our honeymoon until the fall." After the crops were in that fall, Paul and Vida went to Denver. Paul had worked as a cartoonist for the Denver Post and had many friends there. The train ride to Denver was an experience in itself. Senator West obtained ticket passes for Paul. The train steamed to Telluride, where they stayed overnight and then on to Denver the next day thru Montrose, Gunnison, Salida, Canon City, Pueblo, and Colorado Springs. Vida enjoyed the big city. Every evening the Ritters were guests of Paul's friends for a nice dinner and a movie or concert or stage play. Paul never let Vida forget that she went to sleep during the stage production of BEN HUR. Vida explains, "We had been out late every evening that week and I was tired." The Ritters lived on the ranch for 33 years. They raised hay and grains and animals of all kinds. Paul and Vida never had any children, but for a number of years they kept three brothers, Ray and Ralph and Robert Dickey. Ray now lives in Alaska, Robert lives west of Ignacio. Ralph was killed in a construction accident in California after WWII. The Ritters once owned a spirited trotting horse named Queenie. Vida dearly loved to hitch her up and drive her to town. One reason she needed to go to Ignacio regularly was to ship cream on the train to Durango. She recalls one day that the time of day got away from her. As she left the house she noticed she had 12 minutes to cover the three miles lo the depot. Clipping down Goddard Avenue, Vida could hear the train approaching. She whipped across the tracks just ahead of the train and got an angry whistle from the engineer. Paul acquired one of the first automobiles in Ignacio. For a long time he wouldn't allow Vida to drive, but she wouldn't stand for that forever. Vida practiced driving the car when Paul was away. One day when they left the house for town, Vida jumped under the wheel and said, "I'm driving today." Paul was leery an_d said, "Just to the gate," but Vida kept going. Vida states "Paul had his hand on the door handle, ready to jump out the 142 �'} -. '\ ' ' '·, ' 1 l } ) ) whole way, but I made it just fine." In addition to his farming, Paul operated a business in Ignacio for many years. The Ritters inherited an interest in a cabin at Electra Lake and enjoyed many fun weekends there with friends. Paul died in 1963. V ida has been alone for 12 years, but not really alone. She has many friends and receives a lot of attention from them. There are several reasons for this. First and probably the most important is that Vida takes an interest in other people. Endless recitation of life's aches and pains are not the subject of her conversation. Vida keeps herself active, entertaining friends and going out whenever possible. Undoubtedly, she will continue to face life with the same courage, sense of humor and good spirit that she always has shown. We wish her many years of good memories, friendship and happiness. ' March, 1975 - Shelby Smith .) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) _) _} _) _J _J _) .J ,.J J J J J J J J ..J ...) 143 � 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 Mary La Vida (Wayt) Ritter Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1975-03 Subject The topic of the resource Ritter, Mary La Vida (Wayt); Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Biography of Mary La Vida (Wayt) Ritter based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith. Originally included in the March, 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 Ritter, Mary La Vida (Wayt) 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