A Colorado mountain, a Denver avenue and a Chicago suburb commemorate Colorado Territorial Gov. John Evans. Although he is remembered for many achievements, he also was found responsible for the Sand Creek Massacre of about 170 peaceful Indians and forced in 1864 to resign.
In apparent atonement, his daughter Anne devoted her life to honoring the Native American culture. She helped make their artifacts a core collection of the Denver Art Museum, the first museum anywhere to establish a separate Native Arts Department. In a spectacular new exhibit, the DAM is now showcasing that collection.
A century ago, Anne Evans wrote that “Indian works should become a part of the national art consciousness.”
Anne Evans knew that Indian-haters still prevailed in Colorado in the early 1900s when Denverites vociferously protested sculptor Frederick MacMonnies’ plan to put a Native American atop the Pioneer Fountain at Colfax and Broadway. The Sons of Colorado sulked in their magazine: “The noble Indian is a sneaking coward, ready to pounce on unarmed women and children. Let us have a monument that will be a credit to us, or none at all.”
Because of the uproar, Denver put Kit Carson on top of the fountain. At its base there is a hunter, a miner and a rifle-toting prairie Madonna — on the lookout for Indians to shoot.
Anne Evans also is finally getting recognition in a new biography. Barbara Sternberg, her daughter Jennifer Boone, and Evelyn Waldron have produced “Anne Evans — A Pioneer in Colorado’s Cultural History,” sponsored by the Center for Colorado & The West at the Auraria Library.
This biography covers the amazing span of Evans’ accomplishments. A major force behind DAM, she also chaired the Denver Public Library Commission. She resurrected the Central City Opera House, and championed preservation of Spanish missions and Indian pueblos in New Mexico. As a Denver Art commissioner, she helped shape Denver’s Civic Center. Evans also served as a director of the University of Denver and director and vice president of the Evans Investment Company, which managed the family’s extensive real estate, railroad, and other assets.
Yet first on her list was collecting and promoting Native American art. Curator Nancy Blomberg, who oversaw the new exhibition of the DAM’s Native American treasures, says of Evans, “It was through her efforts that the DAM formally established a curatorial department in 1925. Her own personal collection of Indian art became the foundation of the department with many of those works featured prominently in the newly remodeled galleries.” That collection has evolved into the DAM’s incomparable collection of 18,000 Native art objects from throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Anne died in what is now the Byers-Evans House in 1941.
Freelance writer Tom Noel () teaches history at the University of Colorado Denver.
