In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association directed their President, Reverend Sherman Coolidge, Arapaho, to issue a proclamation declaring the second Saturday every May as “American Indian Day.” In 1923, Sherman Coolidge along with his wife Grace, and daughters Sally and Rose moved to Colorado Springs. Reverend Coolidge was an author, scholar and served as Canon of the Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness in Denver, Colorado. The CSPM is proud to be the repository for the manuscripts and artifacts of Reverend Coolidge and his family. Reverend Sherman Coolidge, ca. 1925 This November as we commemorate Native American Heritage Month, we encourage the public to visit the CSPM’s Cultural Crossroads exhibit. For millennia, the vast stretch of land between the Platte and Arkansas Rivers and east of the Rocky Mountains has been a Cultural Crossroads. Award winning Historian Elliot West has written, “White Pioneers who moved onto the plains east to west believed they were leaving the old country for the new. They had it exactly backward. Before the first human habitation on the eastern seaboard… plainsmen had fashioned flourishing economies… Different peoples lived with shifting resources – sometimes abundant, often scarce…reaching much farther to trade for more. The region’s deep history was a continuing, dazzling improvisation… ” Forty-nine tribes have cultural affiliations to Colorado. The Pikes Peak Region is the traditional homeland of the Ute, while among others the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, Kiowa and Apache have also lived here – and more importantly, continue to do so. Historically, the Ute claimed the mountains to the west but for generations joined their Plains Indian neighbors in hunting bison and game on the wild grasses to the east. With extensive contact and occasional conflict over shared resources, American Indians absorbed and transmitted the cultural influences of their neighbors. As a result, Plains, Plateau, Great Basin, and Southwestern tribes transferred traditions and technologies as they traded goods. There are over 135 striking examples of American Indian beadwork, clothing, baskets, and other materials in the Cultural Crossroads exhibit. RESHAPING HISTORY In May 2020, the current Cultural Crossroads gallery will close in preparation for a brand new exhibit installation that promises to dramatically reshape our understanding of Pikes Regional History. The new exhibit will fill the entire third floor north gallery (with the exception of the Helen Hunt Jackson House) and is tentatively titled: 2020 Cultural Crossroads. Stay tuned for more details on this exciting project over the next year! MUSELETTER NOVEMBER 2019| PG 3
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