Hello my name is Gregory Bison. I am a Southern Ute tribal member and I’m one of the new employees here at the Southern Ute Cultural Center and Museum, I was hired as an education intern last October. My duties here at the museum are helping museum visitors by directing them to the exhibits, taking admissions, giving tours to various groups, helping the education department of the museum create and plan educational activities for the local schools and tribal youth.

In my time working here I have expanded my knowledge about the Southern Ute culture and how a museum is operated. Working with the museum staff has been so wonderful as they have shown me the behind the scenes of the museum world, and I can tell you it is not one of the easiest jobs. Everyone here always has something to do from handling collections, working with visitors, to the maintenance of the building. I have also seen and been a part of the process of how a museum plans its events.

One thing I’ve learned from the events here is it takes a tremendous amount of planning and hard work in order to have an event run as smooth as it can.

I have also learned that there are a lot of opportunities here for our tribal membership including myself to get involved and help maintain our tribes’ heritage and culture.

These opportunities include donating time or funds to help put on classes for the community and youth, or even going to college to get a certificate in Museum Studies to handle and maintain the artifacts that are kept in the archives because not just anybody can do these types of jobs.

There are also opportunities here to meet people from the United States and even around the world! So far I have met people from the U.K., Germany, Mexico and even the Great Shakopee Tribe located in Minnesota.

My internship is going to end in August of this summer and I plan on attending college at Adams State in Alamosa. Because of my work at the museum I may consider adding Museum Studies to my major.

My time here at the museum has been wonderful! I am so glad to have had the opportunity to work here with the staff and learn more about my culture and hope that the future generations also take interest their heritage, culture and possibly a career in museum studies.