Ethnic Groups

• Mexican-American
• German-Russian
• Native American

Introduction

This Ethnic Series was designed by Barbara Hawthorne. In 1999 Barbara completed a cultural and historical thesis at Colorado State University on the first and second generation Mexican-American ethnic population in the South Platte River Valley of northern Colorado. Her research provides an in-depth study of the Mexican-American in the Valley and a brief history of the German-Russian ethnic group. These particular populations contributed to the necessary labor force for sugar beet agriculture and the beet sugar industry that were so important to the agricultural development in northern Colorado from the early 1900s until the 1960s. We invite anyone who may have information and/or photographs concerning this topic to contact Barbara at blhawth@lamar.colostate.edu.

Additionally, Lucy Burris, an engineer at Agilent and volunteer for the Archive, completed an archeology class project the summer of 2000 on the Native Americans in northern Colorado. We have added her report to this series. By continually adding to this design, a more detailed understanding of the cultural history of northern Colorado can be achieved.