Helen Sloan Daniels
1 book in the catalogue, published 2008.
Helen Sloan Daniels was an archaeologist, anthropologist and historian from Durango, Colorado, and the author of The Ute Indians of Southwestern Colorado. She wrote it in 1941 as a project for the Durango Public Library. Western Reflections Publishing carries the one book, in an edited, retyped edition dated 2008.
About Helen Sloan Daniels
According to the finding aid for her papers at the Center of Southwest Studies, Daniels was born on December 21, 1899, in Durango, a third generation Durangoan from a family known for community service. She attended four years of college at the University of Colorado in Boulder and otherwise lived in Durango all her life. She died there in May 1979.
The finding aid says she served as a trustee of the Durango Public Library and as an officer of the San Juan Basin Archaeological Society. She compiled The Ute Medicine Man's Kit in 1940 and supervised a 1936 National Youth Administration museum project in which Durango-area youth excavated archaeological artifacts. Her papers, held at the Center, fill 15 boxes and cover the Apache, Hopi, Navajo, Pueblo and Ute peoples as well as Four Corners archaeology.
What the books share
Daniels' work centered on the native peoples of the Southwest, with the Utes closest to home. Her papers add Apache, Hopi, Navajo and Pueblo material and regional archaeology, so the Ute book sits inside a wider lifetime of collecting and recording. The catalogue description says she cared for the Native Americans of her time and wanted knowledge, her own and that of all authors, made available through books. Her one title shows both her research and the attitudes of her era, which the description says are sometimes shocking.
The subjects this author is catalogued under. Open Library record.
Next steps for readers of this author
Reading a 1941 study with care
Her era's attitudes appear in the book, so pair it with sources written by Ute communities. Start with the Southern Ute museum site before you decide what to trust, and note where her wording differs from how the tribes describe themselves.
Looking at papers in person
If you want to see how a regional collection works, read the Center's page on using its collections first, then contact the staff with a specific question about Durango history, such as a family, a site or a decade.
Go deeper
Daniels wrote about the Ute people of the Durango area in 1941, and her papers sit in Durango today. These three places let a reader meet the subject through institutions that exist now, including the Ute nations themselves.
Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College
A Durango museum and archive with a collections page and a page on using the collections, useful for anyone who wants to look at regional papers like those the Daniels finding aid describes.
Southern Ute Cultural Center and Museum
Located in Ignacio, Colorado. Its stated mission is to foster understanding of and respect for the history, culture and language of the Nuuchi, the Ute people.
Ute Mountain Ute Tribe
The tribal government's site for Towaoc, Colorado, with a section on education and culture, for readers who want a present day view alongside a 1941 study.
Good to know
Who was Helen Sloan Daniels?
Where are her papers?
How many of her books does Western Reflections publish?
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