This column tells the stories of the people whose faces appear on “A Colorado Panorama: A People’s History,” a two-block-long tile mural on the southeast side of the Colorado Convention Center. Inspired by Howard Zinn’s groundbreaking book, “A People’s History of the United States,” the mural was created by artist Barbara Jo Revelle in 1989 to celebrate those who rarely make it into the history books, but who have nonetheless had a profound impact on the history of our state. This week we’re featuring profiles of Sunshine Cloud Smith and Michael Livoda.
Sunshine Cloud Smith – Women’s Army Corps and Ute Tribal Council member (1916-2002)
The granddaughter of Chief Ouray and his wife, Chipeta, and a distant relative of Chief Crazy Horse, Sunshine Cloud was born on the Southern Ute Reservation near Ignacio. She attended high school at Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas (later known as Haskell Indian Nations University), and went on to earn her degree in business at the University of New Mexico. She married Thurman Smith in 1940 and moved with him to Indiana. At the outbreak of the Second World War, she joined the U.S. Women’s Army Corps (WACs) and trained as a surgical technician. After the war Smith moved back to the reservation where she was elected to the Tribal Council, serving on the board as Vice-Chairman for the next sixteen years. During her tenure she taught traditional arts and crafts, co-founded the Southern Ute Head Start Program, and served on the Ute Language Committee which produced the first dictionary of the Ute language.
Michael Livoda – Union Organizer (1886-1984)
A survivor of the 1914 Ludlow Massacre, Mike Livoda came to the U.S. from Yugoslavia when he was eighteen. He went to work as a coal miner in Butte, Montana, and there joined the United Mine Workers of America. In 1910, he moved to southern Colorado and became active as a Union organizer and strike leader, walking from coal camp to coal camp in the dead of night to recruit union members. On one such foray he was caught by company guards and so severely beaten that he had to crawl the three miles back to Walsenburg. He went on to serve as vice-president of the Colorado Federation of Labor, Vice President of the United Mine Workers of America, and as regional director of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. After retirement from the union, he worked as manager of the Denver City Auditorium. He died in New Orleans at the age of 98, after which his ashes were scattered on the grounds of the Ludlow Memorial.
Week One: Barney L. Ford and Agnes Smedley
Week Two: Benjamin Barr Lindsey and Anne Bassett
Week Three: William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and Clara Brown
Week Four: William “Big Bill” Haywood and Anne Evans
Week Five: Buckskin Charley and “Babe” Didrikson-Zaharias
Week Six: Antonia Brico and Chief Black Kettle
Week Seven: Casimiro Barela and Daisy Anderson
Week Eight: Chogyam Trungpa and Ellen Elliot Jack
Week Nine: Elizabeth Hickok Robbins Stone and Chin Lin Sou
Week Ten: Emily Griffith and Dalton Trumbo
Week Eleven: Chipeta and Wallace Werner
Week Twelve: Eve Drewelowe and Davis Waite
Week Thirteen: Dr. Carl J. Johnson and Florence Sabin
Week Fourteen: Damon Runyon and Emma Langdon
Week Fifteen: Ellison Onizuka and Golda Meir
Week Sixteen: John Lewis Dyer and Helen Hunt Jackson
Week Seventeen: Edward Berthoud and Frances Wisebart Jacobs
Week Eighteen: Hattie McDaniel and Enos Mills
Week Nineteen: Isabella Bird and Francis Schlatter
Week Twenty: Laura Gilpin and Henry O. Wagoner
Week Twenty-One: Justina Ford and George Norlin
Week Twenty-Two: George Bent and Julia Archibald Holmes
Week Twenty-Three: Herbert Bayer and Mabel Barbee Lee
Week Twenty-Four: Martha Maxwell and Chief Ignacio
Week Twenty-Five: Isom Dart and Marvel Crosson
Week Twenty-Six: Jack Dempsey and Mary Long
Week Twenty-Seven: Mary Lathrop and James Beckwourth
Week Twenty-Eight: John Otto and Mina Loy
Week Twenty-Nine: Mary Rippon and Joseph Henry Stuart
Week Thirty: Lauren Watson and Molly Brown
Week Thirty-One: Mary “Mother” Jones and Chief Little Bear
Week Thirty-Two: Chief Little Raven and Neva Romero
Week Thirty-Three: Olga Little and Louis Tikas
Week Thirty-Four: Lowell Thomas and Poker Alice Ivers
Week Thirty-Five: Mariano Medina and Dr. Portia Lubchenko McKnight
Week Thirty-Six: Tsianina Redfeather and Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez
Week Thirty-Seven: Minoru Yasui and Ruth Cave Flowers
Week Thirty-Eight: Sadie Likens and Neal Cassady
Week Thirty-Nine: Nikola Tesla and Rose Marie Tabor
Week Forty: Oliver Toussaint Jackson and Sarah Platt-Decker
Week Forty-One: Portia Mansfield and Luis Junior Martinez
Week Forty-Two: Chief Ouray and Anne Ellis
Week Forty-Three: Stan Brakhage and Shawsheen
Week Forty-Four: Mary “Grandma” Shelton and Thomas Ferril
Week Forty-Five: Silver Heels and Oliver E. Aultman
Week Forty-Six: Louella Gooding and Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith
Week Forty-Seven: Silas Soule and Dr. Mary Elizabeth Bates
Week Forty-Eight: Tim Flores and Irene Elizabeth Jerome Hood
Week Forty-Nine: Marcella Lucero Trujillo and William N. Byers
Week Fifty: Virginia Neal Blue and William Henry Jackson
Week Fifty-One: George Morrison and Elizabeth Beranek
Week Fifty-Two: William “Billy” Adams and Mother Pancratia Bonfils
Week Fifty-Three: Elizabeth Byers and Frederick Douglass Jr.
Week Fifty-Four: Annie Maria Green and Ralph L. Carr
Week Fifty-Five: Josephine Roche and Gerald Webb
Week Fifty-Six: Yuriko Noda and Jim Reynolds