Collection for organization entities.
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Tawney Land and Livestock Company (Colorado)
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A cattle and sheep ranching operation that was owned by Rufus Tawney, which operated in the Minturn and Mack areas of Colorado beginning around 1905. When Rufus Tawney died in 1929, his grandson Rufus Hirons and the rest of the family decided to liquidate the company's assets. They did this six months before the Great Depression began, which allowed them to get a decent return.
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Tell Me a Story Media
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A media production company, owned by Amy Levek and Dean Rolley. Co-produced such films as the YX Factor: Telluride, Colorado 1970s and We Skied It, two movies about Telluride, Colorado's history.
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Teller Institute (Grand Junction, Colorado)
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The Teller Indian School (later called the Teller Institute) was named after U.S. Senator Henry Teller of Colorado, who was instrumental in passing legislation for the creation of the school in 1886 with the first students arriving in 1887. It followed the philosophy of Colonel Richard Henry Pratt, founder of the Carlyle School in Pennsylvania, who believed that Indian children must be removed from their families and culture and immersed in Western Civilization in order to “destroy the Indian and create a man.”
The Teller Institute had a difficult time recruiting students at first. Recruiters went to the Uintah Reservation, but the Utes refused to send their children to the school. According to the research of History Professor Don Mackendrick, recruiters resorted to “hogtying” students and bringing them to the school. But when inspectors came to the school, they found that many of the students were fully grown, leading one to muse whether it was actually a school, or just a boarding house. The operators of the school gave up on the Utes, and instead recruited Indians from Arizona and Nevada.
The Teller Institute was conceptualized as a farming school, but the drainage on the land was poor, and the alkali proved to be so deep in the soil that it would not grow many crops. The school abandoned agriculture and became a dairy operation. It also trained children in the trades, including carpentry, leather crafts, saddle making, shoe and boot making, and sewing. Male students stayed with white families in the area, and helped with farming. Such students were used especially for sugar beet farming.
Students were supposed to be paid for their labors, and the school superintendent was supposed to “take care” of their money for them while they were in school, but when an inspector looked at the books in the 1890’s, it was found that the superintendent, Y.G. Lemon, had used the money for his own purposes, and that the money was nowhere to be found. Despite the resulting scandal, Lemon was kept in the position for another five years.
Children were forbidden to speak their native languages, and taught English. Children who spoke their native tongues were beaten, and so often ran away. It was illegal for students to run away, and they were chased down and forced back to the school.
Like many Indian schools, the Teller Institute had sports teams, a band, and a newspaper. The Teller school specialized in baseball, and played teams from all over the Western Slope. The team was good, and often dominated competition. The school also had an excellent band, which toured and competed in Colorado and Utah, and often brought home awards.
The school had problems with both sewage and drinking water. No sewage system existed at the school, and so administrators dug several cesspools to deal with waste. A few years before the school closed, the school was hooked up the Grand Junction’s new sewer system. The water table was very close to topsoil and filled with lye. Students complained of stomach pain from drinking the water. Administrators were forced to contract with a private water provider for drinking water. According to Winifred Bull, her father Heman R. Bull, who was also active in local water sanitation efforts, served as the Institute's doctor.
According to Professor Mackendrick, the Teller Institute functioned more as a pork barrel project for local interests, including farmers that relied on Indian students for farm labor and as servants, than as a successful educational venture. In the early 1900’s, the Federal government discovered that many such schools were unsuccessful, because white businesses would not hire even acculturated Indians. Such school were also expensive to run. The school and grounds were transferred to the State of Colorado in 1911. The state transferred all of its students immediately.
The school was closed in 1910, and its records stored in Leavenworth, Kansas. The records were destroyed in a fire, making it difficult for historians to piece together the history of the Institute.
* Information for this description was taken from March 20, 1978 speech of Professor Don Mackendrick to the Plateau Valley Historical Society in Collbran, Colorado.
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