Forty years ago, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe signed the Education Proclamation, recognizing the importance of education and committing to “excellence in education,” encouraging all Tribal members to fully participate in the process. Today the Southern Ute Education Department actively upholds those ideals and expectations, assisting the membership in pursuing their collegiate education as well as offering other types of educational opportunities. Southern Ute Tribal member LaTitia Taylor has participated in the Southern Ute Education Program for many years as a student, educator, and director, with the assistance of the program she has developed outstanding professionalism and achieved many of her educational goals.
In her early years, Taylor attended Ignacio public schools and was a talented athlete, eventually she had multiple colleges reaching out in hopes for her enrollment. Facing challenges in her reading skills, Taylor was unsure of pursuing a higher education degree however after receiving an offer from both Haskell Junior College and the Oklahoma Christian University to play volleyball, she was able to compete for a walk on spot at the Oklahoma Christian University in 1984. With the help of her professor, Dr. Exendine, Taylor excelled in reading, boosting her skills to a college sophomore reading level. She later went on to the University of Central Oklahoma where she received her bachelor’s degree in biology.
Finding a passion in plants and fungi, Taylor continued into graduate school at the Southwest Texas State University completing a summer program collecting plants for the USDA and then completing her thesis on the anatomical and morphological features of the leaf organ on four water lily species. Part of her research took place in Malaysia and The British Museum where she later discovered both aquatic and terrestrial characteristics in a plant that is supposed to be aquatic. Taylor later traveled the state of Texas to present her thesis at five different universities.
After completing college, Taylor returned to the Tribe to work as a field technician aide, then the agriculture extension agent and later the Southern Ute Agriculture Dept. division head, which began her journey as a permanent employee with the Tribe. In an interview with The Southern Ute Drum, Taylor shared “Chairman Burch and my dad are two Ute men that really inspired me in education,” she said. “Be a hard worker, be honest and truthful, have integrity, have pride, and remain humble–my dad and Chairman Burch said, ‘always carry yourself well and be proud of where you come from.’”
Taylor was approached by the Tribe and Lee Briggs with a position to become one of three education directors for the Southern Ute Education Program alongside Arnold Santistevan and Diane Millich. At the end of 1999, then Education Director, Lee Briggs wanted to split the department into three divisions; higher education, public education, and private education. The three then went to Tribal Council to ask them to use the Constitution and appoint them, with Councils’ approval Taylor went on to serve as the Higher Education Director for the Tribe. For her first task, she established an academic advisory position to assist Tribal students preparing for college and current collegiate students. That was just the beginning, Taylor spent many years leading the Department and introducing new resources to benefit the membership and its prospective students, staying true to the values of the Education Proclamation. Most notably the MOU with the University of Colorado, SILDI Program, reaccreditation of SUIMA, and national recognition for the Tribe’s scholarship program.
“I feel like the Southern Ute Education Program has done a dang good job at growing, in the year 2000 there were probably only 35 tribal members with some type of higher education, now there are hundreds of us,” Taylor said. “We are seeing master’s and doctorate level students, which is so nice to see, it makes me feel so proud.”
LaTitia Taylor is a distinguished scholar within the community and has helped to develop the Southern Ute Education Department over the years alongside many other talented educators. This year marked the end of her long-time career with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe after retiring in the summer, she had worked for 32 years in the organization with most of her time spent paving the way for Indigenous students to achieve academic excellence. To many she has been an inspiration, including the new Education Director, Dr. Joseph Claunch.
“I am extremely thankful for everything that LaTitia has built here at the department,” Claunch said. “We continue to honor all the hard work that went into this and all the people who came before us who sacrificed a lot to develop this department–thank you for everything LaTitia, we have a strong foundation to stand on, we stand on the shoulders of giants.”
“Education has made me resilient,” Taylor said. “I have something that no one can take away from me.”