Archival Repository

• Identifies, collects, preserves, organizes and makes available the historical, archaeological and ethnographic materials, including archives (most notably, the Fort Lewis College Archives), records of all sorts, and artifacts pertaining either to the College or to the Southwest and Native Americans.
• The Center's legal authority as the college's designated repository for historical, archaeological and ethnographic materials is summarized in the special collections policy statement approved by the Core Cabinet on November 28, 1995. This was added to the Fort Lewis College Archives Policy signed by President Joel Jones on November 7, 1994 and the President's statement dated July 1, 1993 granting the Center the legal authority to collect, preserve, organize and make available the archival records of the College and any other materials defined by the Center's collecting policy, has established the Center's parameters as a cultural and historical repository.
• Used by faculty, students, administrators, and members of the general public.
• Supports the academic curriculum and other programs at the College.
• Focused on the Four Corners region of the Southwest, and includes, for example:

more than 7,000 linear shelf feet of manuscripts and unbound printed materials, including the College archives, voluminous records of the Western Colorado Power Company documenting the world's first commercial use of alternating current which was pioneered in the San Juan mountains in 1891, and several collections of legislative papers including those of former U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell

 over 7,000 rolls of microfilm, including copies of records created in 1621in Parral, northern Mexico

about 3,000 rolls of historic newspapers of the Four Corners region of the Southwest

nearly 700 oral histories

thousands of maps ranging from very rare maps drawn in the year 1560, and four thousand historically valuable U.S. Geological Survey maps

more than 158,000 photographs

• Most of the materials in the Center's collections were donated--from more than 600 documented sources.
• The Center manages the collections meticulously, utilizing automation technologies to provide convenient access for all users and to meet the legal requirements of responsibly documenting its custody of these valuable holdings.
• The Center serves as the locus of research relating to the Four Corners region and Native Americans of the Southwest.  Primary source research materials at the Center focus on the disciplines of anthropology, archaeology, archival/museum management, the arts, history, literature, sociology and Southwest studies.
• The Center's special collections holdings are strongest in the areas of historically significant materials pertaining to:

Native Americans of the Southwest (especially the artifacts, artistic and ethnographic works, and governmental relations)

local/regional affairs (including newspapers, community, business, and the  politics and government of Durango, La Plata County and Colorado)

mining of coal and precious metals (including coal, gold, silver, uranium and vanadium) in the Four Corners region

water and water rights in the Four Corners region ( including the Animas-La Plata Water Project)

electricity generation and transmission, and other energy issues of the Southwest

 narrow gauge railroads of the San Juan Basin

• Staffed by the Archivist, the Assistant College Archivist, archival assistants, and the Center of Southwest Studies' administrative assistant, all under the supervision of the Center's co-directors.

Southwest Library

• Selects, acquires, preserves and manages the books which--either because of their rarity or their relevance to the Center's collecting policy--require the care of a special collections library, where most books are used on-site.
• The Center works with Fort Lewis College Reed Library staff to share information resources. Although they belong to the Center, published materials have been cataloged and made accessible by the Library, and the Library refers users to the Center where appropriate, and vice versa.
• The Center's library holdings now include over 16,000 volumes and several hundred shelf feet of periodicals.
• Staffed by the Librarian, student work-study and hourly reference assistants, with assistance from the Archivist and Reed Library technical services librarian staff.

Museum

• Selects and interprets artifacts and other interesting historical, archaeological and ethnographic materials for exhibit in a manner that protects and maintains the physical integrity of the materials while making them available for a time for the knowledge and appreciation of the broader public.
• Provides hands-on experience for students in a real museum setting with a real audience, benefiting in return from an abundant pool of eager interns.
• Serves as an educational facility for the entire College community and for the members of the southwest Colorado community and scholars from across the United States who use the collections, view the exhibits, and attend the Center's lecture series and symposia.
• A showplace for the research and collecting done by faculty.
• Offers a caliber of interpretive exhibitions not yet experienced in Durango. The new museum will become a major attraction in the region, both drawing from and adding to the current tourist pool, bringing dollars and public exposure to the institution.
• The Center involves many students from under-represented groups on campus. The program is steeped in the history of the regional Native American communities. The program is a unique and evolving resource to preserve the heritage of these populations.
• Broadens and diversifies exposure to and support of both the Center and the College.
• Holdings include:

 more than 4,000 linear shelf feet of objects

 more than 2,000 Ancestral Puebloan ceramic vessels (circa A.D. 600-1200)

contemporary Southwestern pottery including several pieces donated by Lucy Lewis, who is perhaps the most famous Acoma potter

300 priceless representative Navajo textiles ranging from a Navajo woman's calico-lined dress dating from before the long walk to Fort Sumner captivity in 1860 to a recently woven 69" square weaving that maps the names of chapters on the Navajo reservation

hundreds of  items of Southwestern basketry, including a water pot said to have been used by Chipeta, wife of Chief Ouray

works of contemporary Southwestern art such as a sculpture by R. C. Gorman and a Rance Hood watercolor that one first prize at the 1972 New Mexico state fair

numerous objects from the days of the old military Fort Lewis and from the school that took the fort's place

about 200 pieces of antique photographic equipment

• Staffed by the Curator, student interns and hourly assistants.

Department of Southwest Studies

• Coordinates academic programs in Southwest Studies.
• Southwest Studies courses are eminently interdisciplinary, relating primarily to the disciplines of anthropology, archaeology, the arts, history, literature, sociology, and ethnic studies, and also with the sciences of biology, geology and physics, as well as to the fields of business, cultural studies, current affairs, economics, and education.
• Related to this department is the portion of the Fort Lewis College History and English departments whose faculty (two positions in the History Department) teach Southwest history.
• Staffed by the three full-time faculty members of the Department and members of other departments including History, English, and the Center of Southwest Studies.

Department of Anthropology

• Anthropology Department faculty and students acquire, curate, and/or study the Southwest Studies Center's anthropological artifacts and accompanying field records in the Four Corners region.
• Staffed by the faculty members of the Department.

Office of Community Services

• Cooperates with Center of Southwest Studies in cultural resource management and community services.
• Reinforces the Center's contemporary and future-oriented aspects.
• The Southwest Studies Center is a locus for learning about relationships--our relationships with other persons, those presently in the Southwest along with the predecessors whose lives produced the region in which we live.
• Staffed by the members of the Office.

Other State and Federal Agencies

• The Center of Southwest Studies cooperates with other agencies in the furtherance of its documentation, research, archival and educational mission.
• The Center has signed cooperating agreements with the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service.
• The Center also has links with local museums and researchers to help serve the community's needs for knowledge about the Southwest.
• In addition to these partnerships, professional conference functions are considered part and parcel of the operations to be housed in the new building, and will serve to assist the Center in its outreach to the broader community.

Tools for archival work

Information for doing research at the Center of Southwest Studies

Center of Southwest Studies