BLM Colorado spotlights volunteer Marty Costos

After a lifetime of travel and forty years spent as a teacher, Marty Costos found herself retiring in Cortez, Colorado. I asked her how she and her husband decided on this place and her answer was simple--they’d visited once and enjoyed it. That simple choice has brought her a volunteer career spanning 23 years and a world of fulfillment at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument (CANM). 

Having spent so much time at CANM Marty has tried almost every job available to volunteers, but she affirms that curation is her favorite. “It is a privilege to work with artifacts 1000+ years old and to try to understand how the ancestors survived and lived their lives here. It couldn’t have been an easy life compared to what we have today.” 

From repackaging boxes of artifacts, to reassembling pottery, to even making conservation-grade mounts, Marty finds joy in it all. 

“Every project that you start and complete is wonderful when you’re done because you know that you’ve protected something that needed protecting.” It’s clear that the work Marty does at CANM has provided her with a nourishing place to live out retirement in ways that she never expected. “A lot of this history I didn’t know until I came to CANM. I was so busy working and teaching, but I wasn’t learning a lot. Now I work with archeologists and that helps me understand the history/archaeology of the area.” 

Throughout our talk Marty often stated that she felt as though she were trying to understand the human condition from a different perspective. “They were just like us. Just as clever, just as human, but probably more resourceful and resilient.” 

She found clues to this point through artifacts, like the way pot shapes changed overtime to become better cooking vessels. Or how a pair of yucca sandals sized for a baby were found, indicating the love and care a family felt for their newborn. Or the seashells found in CANM’s collections, which could only have made it to Colorado through travel or trade. 

“It’s a huge misconception that Native Americans were stuck where they were and that they weren’t doing anything. They were busy, just like in other parts of the world at that time. They were intelligent and ambitious. That’s part of the human condition.” 

As I spoke with her, I could sense the respect and empathy that Marty had for both ancient Puebloans and the Pueblo peoples of today. This sort of understanding likely wouldn’t have come about without her involvement at CANM. I felt then that her closing remark was most fitting. 

“A lot of the prejudices out there wouldn’t be there if we were open to learning. Especially where you live, you should learn about who was there before you. You should learn about them and take away what you can from what they’ve left behind.” 

Thank you, Marty, for your dedication and years of service at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument!

Pualani Tupper is an Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps intern placed at the Bureau of Land Management Colorado State Office. As a Kanaka Maoli woman, she aims to educate public land users through indigenizing communications at the BLM.