Time is running out to see a collection of historic cultural items on display at the Southern Ute Cultural Center and Museum in Ignacio.
The objects on display are on loan from the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and represent personal items from the late 19th century. The collection will be returned to Colorado Springs on June 3.
Museum Executive Director Nathan Strong Elk said the collection is a combination of Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute artifacts.
After a year of contract negotiations, selection of specific items and conservation assessments, the items have been a part of the main gallery at the Ignacio museum for the last two years. Of note are a war shield from the mid- to late 1800s, a woman’s buckskin dress with bead work from 1890 and a saddle bag from 1880-1900.
One object, a man’s vest from 1900, is on special loan from Colorado College. Two cradleboards, a vest, moccasins and other bags round out the loaned collection.
Strong Elk singled out a tobacco bag with attached case and glass beads from the late 1800s as a favorite.
“The pipe is our sacred connection and tobacco our most powerful medicine,” he said. “This piece shows respect and a relationship to something in the past that is vital and used in our culture today.”
The objects were acquired by the Colorado Springs Center during the course of more than 60 years, some as donations and others purchased by the museum.
The Southern Ute Cultural Center and Museum opened in May 2011 and combines rare artifacts of Ute and other Native American people.
The museum uses texts, photographs, free standing structures and video presentations. Dozens of oral histories also are accessible to the public.
ted@durangoherald.com
If you go
Items on loan from the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center will be on display through June 2 at the Southern Ute Cultural Center and Museum, 77 County Road 517 in Ignacio. Museum hours are 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and noon-4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $7 for adults, $3 for children ages 3-14, and $4 for ages 65 and older. On Memorial Day weekend, admission is free.
For more information, call 563-9583 or visit www.succm.org.
