by Samantha Tisdel Wright

Montrose, Colorado 

CJ Brafford had a vision at age nine that she would be the “carekeeper of belongings of the past.” Today, she fulfills that vision, as Director of the Ute Indian Museum. 

While not Ute herself, Brafford brings extraordinary sensitivity to her position, drawing on her own heritage and upbringing as an Oglala Lakota Sioux. Upon arriving at the museum, she reassured concerned Utes, “I am the keeper of your belongings,” and had them come in to do a blessing of the grounds, where Chief Ouray’s wife Chipeta lies buried.

Brafford feels a strong spiritual connection with Chipeta, and in fact bears a striking physical resemblance to her as well. “I believe Chipeta brought me here,” she said. “I feel her presence. Her greatest strength is her gentleness.”

One of Brafford’s first missions as museum director was to work with Ute elders to remove bundles of human remains that were in the museum’s possession, so that they could receive proper blessing and disposal. “Imagine if your grandmother’s skull were in a museum,” she said. 

For Brafford, the word ‘artifacts’ is impersonal. “All the things you see in the museum, they all belonged to someone; they all had a belonging in life.” Her vision leads the rest of us to see, and understand, that belonging.