DURANGO –The Center of Southwest Studies continues its 2015 summer lecture series, “Imagining the West,” with Ann Butler’s talk “Bury My Heart at Boot Hill: Death in Southwest Colorado,” on Wednesday, Aug. 5 at 1:30 p.m. in the Center’s Lyceum Room 120.
Butler spent more than 10 years writing more than 5,000 obituaries for The Durango Herald, and in the process became comfortable talking about death – often a taboo subject in modern American society – and fascinated in the many ways humans describe one of the things that’s certain in life, that it will come to an end.
How we remember the dead has changed greatly since humans first came to Southwest Colorado. Whether it’s the ancestral Puebloans, early Navajo and Ute hunter-gatherers, or Hispanic and Anglo settlers, traditions and even the language of death evolved with the cultures and the times. Butler’s talk will explore the topic from pre-Hispanic time through the Victorian age.
All summertime lectures are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on specific Wednesdays and are free to the public. Parking at the Center of Southwest Studies is free of charge during the summer months.
For more information, please contact the Center’s business office at 970-247-7456 or visit swcenter.fortlewis.edu.