Drawing the Divide

Helping Kids Discover Colorado’s Continental Divide Trail—One Activity Book at a Time

We all think of our roles as historians as writing Big, Important Books. Well, I recently got to help on a book that isn’t quite so big but I like to think it’s important nonetheless.

In my role here with the Forest Service, I sometimes get asked to consult on things regarding Colorado’s Indigenous history. And that was the case in helping to create an activity book about the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail.

Now, I didn’t get to do a whole lot. I can barely draw stick figures so that means my graphic design expertise is lacking. But where I got to help out was ensuring that kids got to read about what Tribes call the CDT home and making sure they read about them in the present tense. This last part is especially important since so often Native people get written about in the past tense. You can see my work in the third image.

I really enjoyed helping out with this workbook. I’m a big believer in introducing kids to the environment and to Native history as early as we possibly can. This was a simple and easy way for children to read names like Ute, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Jicarilla Apache, maybe for the first time. And that’s a start.

Oh, and perhaps by coincidence, I received the proofs for this workbook last Friday, but I didn’t actually see them until the weekend because I was actually on the Continental Divide Trail looking for places to put up new signs that will tell Native stories on Monarch Mountain. That’s a project I’ll tell you more about as it develops, but here’s a shot from there:

All right let’s go have a good hump day.

Jason