Lecture set on Sand Dunes traditional use study

ALAMOSA — Shawn Kelley will discuss the traditional use study for the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve during the Colorado Field Institute Winter Lecture on February 27.

The ethnographic resources (cultural and natural resources) within the park and preserve are significant to many Native American tribes. The project includes work with over 10 tribes including: the Jicarilla Apache Nation; the Hopi Tribe (Hopi-Tewa); Navajo Nation; Pueblo of Tesuque; Santa Clara Pueblo; the Southern Ute Indian Tribe; Taos Pueblo; the Ute Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation of Utah; Ute Mountain Ute Tribe; and the Zuni Tribe. A major focus of the study is field visits with representatives from these Native American tribes with traditional connections to the area.

Ethnographic data collection focuses on documenting Native American uses of resources in and around the park with a particular emphasis on sand, fulgurites, fine grain quartzite, mineral and clay pigments, lithic materials, game animals, waterfowl, traditional use plants, culturally modified trees (CMTs), springs and hydrological systems, landscape features, soundscapes, viewsheds, artifacts, and archaeological features. The study also includes a discussion of tribal ethnohistory of the region, as well as interpretation and management recommendations for the National Park Service.

The lecture will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, February 27, in Porter Hall, Room 130, on the Adams State University Campus, 208 Edgemont, Alamosa. 

About the speaker:

Shawn Kelley is a cultural anthropologist, historian, and photographer currently living in Albuquerque, New Mexico; originally from Fraser. Professionally, he has developed wide-ranging partnerships with community members, organizations, and Native American communities for ethnographic, cultural resource preservation, and public outreach projects. Shawn has extensive experience conducting cultural resource management projects, tribal consultation, traditional use studies, ethnographic overviews, socio-cultural analysis, and community assessment studies.

He is the former president of the High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology. Shawn is the author of numerous technical reports and co-authored the award-winning books Ho! To the Land of Sunshine: A History of the Belen Cutoff and Route 66 and Native Americans in New Mexico. In addition to the Traditional Use Study of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, some of Shawn’s regional projects include the Ethnographic /Ethnobotanical study of the US Air Force Academy, Colorado where he worked with 17 tribes from the region; and the Ethnographic Overview and Assessment for Capulin Volcano National Monument, New Mexico and ethnohistory of La Jara Canyon in Conejos County, Colorado.

The Colorado Field Institute is a nonprofit corporation organized in 2005 to promote greater stewardship of the natural and cultural resources within the San Luis Valley. For more information on this event, email [email protected].