Artist Writers

While browsing in my local library’s new book section, I spotted Donald Friedman’s The Writer’s Brush: Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture by Writers (Mid-List Press, 2007). Most of us recall illustrations by authors Beatrix Potter, Lewis Carroll, Kahlil Gibran and Ludwig Bemelmans. Did you know Pearl Buck was a sculptor? William Carolos Williams painted landscapes? Patricia Highsmith and Colleen McCullough also painted?

          Perhaps I was struck by this combination because I was an art major in college and did not start writing seriously until I was well past 40. After I returned Friedman’s book to the library, I picked up a recent issue of TIME magazine and found a “10 Questions” interview with Janet Evanovich. She, too, was a college art major!

Rush To The Rockies

 This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Colorado Gold Rush. Thousands of men, and a few women, came west in wagons, on horseback, and on foot expecting to find gold lying about like fallen leaves waiting to be collected. Some gold seekers were daunted by the hard work of panning or digging for gold and returned home. Of those who remained, a few made fortunes. Others started businesses to supply the communities that built up around the mining areas.  Within two years Colorado Territory was established and settlement continued to grow. 

          If the gold rush had not occurred, we probably would not know Chipeta’s name today. Without the conflicts resulting from this invasion of Ute territory, Ouray might have become a chief, but one known only among the Ute people.  Chipeta would have lived her life as a traditional Ute wife and died in the mountainous land her people had called home for many generations. I think she would have preferred it that way.

Most Influential Coloradoans

In 1999 the Rocky Mountain News, NEWS4 and the Colorado Historical Society jointly sponsored a project to identify the 50 most influential people in Colorado History. The Rocky’s Research Librarian, Carol Kasel, compiled the names in consultation with a panel of specialists assembled by the historical society. The list was published December 19, 1999.

          Here is the entry (although Ouray gets the attention):
Ouray (1833-1880) — Ute chief, man of peace. He and wife Chipeta personified destruction of Indian way of life in Colorado. They sought good relations between Indians and whites but were spurned by both groups. Ouray died same year Utes concluded agreement with U.S. government that resulted in their forced relocation to reservations.

A Woman’s Touch

On a recent trip to the Colorado State Archives I explored Standard Brand Book A. This huge 18 x 24 volume compiled rancher’s brands recorded by Colorado’s county clerks beginning in 1885. Each record included a precise drawing of the branding mark that identified livestock owned by a particular rancher.  The marks were composed mostly of letters, numbers, straight lines, circles, and half circles. Many were quite similar and I could see how easy it might be to confuse them. As I turned the pages,  one brand stood out. It was the simple but distinct outline of an earthen water jar–a utensil used for centuries by the women of the Southwest.  The registered owner of this unique brand was Pauline Conrad of Conejos County, one of the few women listed among the pages of early brand marks.

It’s the Little Things That Gitcha

          In my 2003 book, Chipeta: Queen of the Utes, I stated that Chipeta and Ouray attended a performance of “The Gorgeous Black Crook” at Ford’s Opera House during their trip to Washington, D.C. Their evening out was reported in the Washington Post, January 20, 1880. 
          Last year, when I started working on the new middle grade biography, Chipeta: Ute Peacemaker, a photo of the historic building seemed like a good illustration. I had been to Ford’s Theater  and assumed “Opera House” was simply an earlir name for the place where Presdient Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. I visited the theater’s website. To my surprise, I learned that Ford’s Theater was closed shortly after Lincoln’s death and remained closed for 90 years.
          How embarrassing to make such a careless mistake by “assuming”. To make matters worse, a search for information on Ford’s Opera House turned up nothing.
         Who would know the answer? I recalled a visit to the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. It was a small place but I had found one unique item there – an 1880 Red Book Guide to Washington, D.C. I visited the Society’s website and used the contact link to email my question.
          The reply came in a few days:

Ford’s Opera House was open in 1880 and located on the 200 block of 9th Street, south of Pennsylvania Avenue. The building would later become the Bijou Theatre and was torn down in the 1920’s as part of the Federal Triangle project. The Historical Society has photographs of the Bijou Theatre; one may also be seen in the book “Washington, D.C.: Then and Now” by Charles Kelly.

Shannon Lee
Librarian
Kiplinger Research Library
Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
801 K Street NW at Mount Vernon Square
Washington, D.C. 20001
http://www.historydc.org

Researching Native American Families

“Our way of doing genealogy does not always fit the Indian way. They may take into their home an orphan, the homeless of any age, a widow or other stray and call them “brother, sister, aunt” etc… and there may be no blood relationship at all. It was also an accepted practice to use the mother’s family name and she could be listed as head of household. An Indian name generally does not tell you if the person is male or female.”

 

-  A research tip from Mary Ann Hetrick’s Native Genealogy Webring

Featured on Ask Wendy

Wendy Burt interviews me today on her blog http:askWendy.worpress.com. Please stop by and get acquainted.

Cost of Finding Fortune

          In the mid 1800s, many men (and a few women) came west expecting to strike it rich. Some expected to find gold nuggets lying on the ground like acorns waiting to be gathered. They discovered panning for gold was tedious and seldom produced fortunes. Digging for gold or silver was hard work that often brought nothing more than a pile of rock. Those who did not give up and return home often resorted to working for one of the large mines at a daily wage. Mines offered options of pay with or without “board”—a bed in a dormitory and meals.  Those who took their pay without board sometimes shared tents or cabins and cooked their own meals.
          The July 7 1877 Colorado Springs Gazette reprinted from the Silver World newspaper this sample of wages  with and without board (meals and a bed) in the San Juan mining district.

Unexpected Finds

     While digging through old Indian Agent correspondence in the National Archives, I found a letter with a famous signature – N.C. Wyeth. On September 4, 1904 he wrote from Wilmington, Delaware to the “Government Agent of the Ute Indian Reservation.” Wyeth stated his purpose:

To come directly to the point – I am an illustrator - and intensely interested in the “Indian.” I desire this fall to take a trip to your reservation for the purpose of pictureing or “writing up” any of the dances, feasts, or sports that may take place this fall.

     I made a photocopy of the letter and contacted the curator of the N.C. Wyeth museum. She confirmed that Wyeth did make a trip west that fall and set up a studio in Denver for a period of time. We found no evidence that he did any sketching on the Ute reservation.
     The experience reminds me that in research it pays to look carefully at every document available.

An April Fool Believed

On April 1, 1883, The Denver Republican newspaper offered a tongue-in-cheek report that, after Ouray’s death and the Ute relocation to Utah, Chipeta married a White River Ute with the image-laden name “Toomuchagut”. The humorous piece was taken as fact by some, but it carried a shred of truth. Chipeta did have a second mate after Ouray’s death. She was counted with her husband, Accumooquats, in the 1885 Indian census taken at the Ouray Agency, Utah.

Oddly enough, the 1885 Indian census also records a Ute man named Occuptoomuchakut living on the Ouray Agency with his wife, Tahveeah, and three small children.