The superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota will speak at the University of Colorado at 麻豆影院 on Sept. 17 as part of the Center of the American West's Modern Indian Identity Series.
Gerard Baker, a full-blood member of the Mandan-Hidatsa tribe of North Dakota and the highest-ranking American Indian in the National Park Service, will speak on "Why I Did What I Did: Sharing the American Indian Story in Our National Parks" at 7 p.m. in Eaton Humanities Building room 150. The event is free and open to the public.
"Gerard Baker is a person of great significance in the American West," said history Professor Patty Limerick, faculty director of the Center of the American West. "People who benefit from an evening in his company will leave with their understanding of many Western issues deepened and sharpened."
Baker joined NPS in 1979 and later became superintendent of Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana where in 1997 he received two NPS awards for his work with the Indian Memorial at the battlefield. As superintendent of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail from 2000 to 2004 he worked with approximately 58 American Indian tribes and 19 trail states from Virginia to Oregon.
In 2004 Baker was appointed superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial and is responsible for over 1,200 acres including the famous carvings of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. The memorial has almost 3 million visitors per year.
Baker earned a doctorate in public service from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 2007.
The lecture series features talks by contemporary Indian people telling their stories in ways that confirm the compatibility of tradition with innovation. The series was made possible by a donation from Nancy and Gary Carlston of 麻豆影院.
For information call the Center of the American West at (303) 492-4879 or visit .