Minette Church, associate professor, Department of Anthropology, presented “Archaeologies of Parenting and Community on the Plains” Oct. 4 at the Southeastern Colorado Heritage Center, Pueblo.
Church’s presentation combined pictures, personal memoirs and artifacts recovered from a family homestead near the Purgatoire River in southeastern Colorado. Church found items such as building foundations and broken toys on the site that was occupied from the 1880s to 1903 by a ranching family with 11 children. Personal memoirs from the children included accounts of an oldest son who was herding cattle at age 6 to those of a younger daughter who described a Victorian-era upbringing that included attending school.
“These people built new communities in unfamiliar spaces and left stories behind,” Church said. “Sometimes those were funny, sometimes they were tragic.”
Church’s presentation was part of the Pueblo City-County Library District’s All Pueblo Reads program that features “Plainsong” by Kent Haruf, which describes life on the Colorado plains.
Photo by Jason Ordaz, School of Advanced Research
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