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Finding Aids

Center of Southwest Studies Archival Collections

 

The Center’s archival collections provide invaluable insights into the history and culture of Fort Lewis College, as well as the broader Southwest region. Our collections encompass a wide variety of materials, including letters and correspondence, photographs, slides, negatives, financial and business records, maps, audiovisual media, posters, published books and periodicals, original research data, digital files, and more. These resources are non-circulating but accessible to the broader public.

To explore our archival collections, please follow the link below. Many of the Center’s archival holdings are also cataloged at the collection level in the Fort Lewis College Library Catalog.

 

Link to Archival Database

Photo of Breanna Nez in Archives

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Archival Finding Aids

Finding aids are essential tools for exploring archival collections. They offer detailed information, including collection summaries, historical or biographical context, subject lists, and descriptions of the materials and their arrangement. Most finding aids also include a container list to help locate specific items within a collection. To learn more about using finding aids, please consult our Guide to Finding Aids

 

Our finding aids are updated on an ongoing basis. We add information to collections that are unprocessed or partially processed as we can.

Finding Aids

Research Guide - Diné (Navajo) History and Culture

Collection Overview

  • Creator: Various
  • Dates:
  • Extent:
  • Abstract:

    Archival collections at the Center of Southwest Studies related to Diné (Navajo) history and culture.

  • Language: English
  • Collection Identifier: Research Guide
  • Physical Location:

CSWS Archival Collections

Diné (Navajo) Resources

 

Below is a select list of archival collections at the Center of Southwest Studies related to Diné (Navajo) history and culture. Please contact the Center’s Archives Manager for additional resources.

Note: This guide references archival materials with titles that include wording from the original records – language that has been retained for historical accuracy. We encourage users to approach these resources critically and with the acknowledgement that many were not generated by Diné people.

 

Manuscripts

 

M040

Helen Sloan Daniels collection. 15 boxes; 1873-1986. Contains printed materials, newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks pertaining to Diné people.

M061

Indian Rights Association pamphlets. 4 document cases; 1884-1985, bulk 1884-1934. Contains pamphlets addressing issues including the forced removal of the Diné.

M121

Theodore Hetzel papers. Includes 30 notebooks, which are primarily travel journals from meetings that Hetzel attended (including visits to the Navajo reservation) from 1954 to 1985. Dr. Hetzel served as a member and director of the Indian Rights Association. A prominent advocate for Native rights, Hetzel also served as chair of The American Friends Service Committee's Committee on the American Indian.

M127

Myra Ellen Jenkins collection. 115 document cases, 1 oversize box, 1 flat file drawer; 1500-1993. Includes records Jenkins compiled on topics such as Navajo and Laguna-Acoma land grants and tenure, 1540–1992 (Series 4.3). This includes four document cases of legal and documentary research materials and clippings.

M140

Will Evans collection. Includes various materials: Navajo Trails newspaper column articles, a diary, a photo album containing portraits of Navajo individuals, and other papers. Mr. Evans was a trader at Shiprock from the 1890s through the 1940s.

M179

E. Reeseman Fryer papers. 27 document cases; 1925-1991, bulk 1945-1966. Most of the collection pertains to Mr. Fryer's career in public service, including work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Southwest in relation to the Diné..

I047 & M088

Newspapers of the Southwest collection. Includes 33 microfilm rolls and several print volumes of the Navajo Times, a publication of the Navajo Nation, 1959-1998.

M194

Nina Heald Webber postcard collection (3000+ postcards of Southwest Colorado). Includes postcards depicting Navajo people and places. Most of these postcards are accessible as digital images and are described at the item level.

M197

Southwest historic printed materials. Reprint of “A part of the Navajo’s mythology” by Washington Matthews, The American Antiquarian, April 1883. 18-page booklet.

M205

Navajo Trail Association records

M206

Navajo claims collection. 3 record boxes, 3 document cases, 1 small box; 1977-1980. Photocopies of historical documents, exhibits, files, note cards, and maps relating to Navajo land, oil, and gas claims against the Federal Government between about 1977 and 1980. Also includes 3 document cases of printed materials that Dr. Kessell compiled as a researcher and as an expert witness while working for the Rodey Law Firm (Albuquerque, NM), which represented the Navajo Nation before the U.S. Indian Claims Commission.

 

CreatorVarious

Archival collections at the Center of Southwest Studies related to Diné (Navajo) history and culture.

LanguageEnglish
Collection IdentifierResearch Guide
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Center of Southwest Studies
Fort Lewis College
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Phone Numbers

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