This speaker series will be in preparation for the opening of the Borderlands of Southern Colorado exhibit at the Fort Garland Museum in June 2019.

Topics for the series will include indigenous slavery in the Southwest, the killing of the Espinosas of Conejos, creation of the Colorado-New Mexico border, archaeology of the San Luis Valley, and more. Speakers will include natives of the San Luis Valley, such as Ronald Rael and Ruben Archuleta, giving a uniquely Southern Colorado perspective on the nature of the borderlands. Other speakers will come from around Colorado, Utah, and California to speak at the historic fort.

“It is spectacular that we can bring so many of these amazing speakers to Fort Garland and the San Luis Valley,” said Anita McDaniel, director of the Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center. “Each of them brings something unique to this series, and provides a new perspective and topic for this discussion of the borderlands in the Valley and in southern Colorado.”

This lecture series will continue through summer 2019. Each lecture is free and open to the public and will offer refreshments. More information about the Borderlands of Southern Colorado lecture series, including specific dates and times for upcoming lectures, can be found at h-co.org/BorderlandsTalks.

A total of ten lectures are scheduled from February through June. Some of the series highlights include:

• Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, will kick off the series with her presentation “Broken Treaties,” on the history of agreements between indigenous peoples and the United States government. She will speak at 6 pm on Thursday, February 21.

• Andres Resendez, of the University of California, Davis, will present “The Other Slavery” on Thursday, March 7, at 6 pm. Resendez examines the system of bondage that targeted Native Americans, a system that was every bit as terrible, degrading, and vast as African slavery, affecting from 2.5 million to 5 million indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere.

• San Luis Valley native Ruben Archuleta will give a presentation about the Penitentes of southern Colorado and New Mexico. Archuleta will speak at 2 pm on Saturday, April 6.

• San Luis Valley native Ronald Rael, of the University of California, Berkeley, will give his talk, “Borderwall as Architecture,” sharing his experience as an architect and designer. Rael will speak on Thursday, April 18, at 6 pm.

The series is generously sponsored by the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area and Colorado State University-Pueblo. To receive reminders for each lecture visit h-co.org/BorderlandsTalks or text “Borderlands” to 474747.

Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center is a Community Museum of History Colorado, located in historic Costilla County at 29477 Hwy. 159 in Fort Garland. Fort Garland was established in 1858 as a United States Army post in the San Luis Valley. It consists of five adobe buildings original to the fort and is an integral part of the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area. For more information visit www.FortGarlandMuseum.org or call 719-379-3512.