Susan Cimburek

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT SUSAN CIMBUREK

The Southern Ute Cultural Center and Museum is a state-of-the-art facility located in Ignacio, Colorado, the headquarters of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. The stunning facility was designed by renowned architect, Johnpaul Jones of Jones & Jones Architects, based in Seattle, Washington, who also designed the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. The Ute people are the oldest residents of Colorado, originally inhabiting the mountains and vast areas of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Eastern Nevada, Northern New Mexico and Arizona. The Ute refer to themselves as Nuuchi, meaning ‘the People’; according to the tribe’s oral history, they have lived in this area since the beginning of time. As the Utes traveled the vast area of the Great Basin, they broke into bands as they moved between their summer and winter lands, their hunting and gathering grounds, and their meeting grounds where they engaged in social gatherings and trade. By the late-1800s, seven bands remained which were forcibly located by the U.S. Federal government on three separate reservations that remain today: the Northern Ute, located on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah; the Ute Mountain Ute, located in Towaoc, Colorado, and the Southern Ute, located in Ignacio, Colorado. The Southern Ute Museum was established in 1971 with a mission of ensuring the survival of the Southern Ute by educating Native and Non-Native audiences alike, about their rich culture, history, present, and future. The museum has expanded and grown in sophistication decade by decade, in keeping with its mission. Today, the exhibits and archival holdings are a reflection of current Indigenous historiographical and research paradigms.