Career Profiles

Challenges Enrich Life of Historian
By Lynn Stutheit

Susan Harness has a career conducting and archiving oral histories.  Yet, her own life presents an extremely interesting story.  Harness, 48, is a member of the Salish-Kootenai Tribes from the Flathead Lake area in western Montana. She became an anthropology major to learn more about the reservation and its people. “Being an Indian who was raised white, I just didn’t fit in, and there was no one to teach me,” Harness said.  She had been adopted and removed from the reservation by white parents in 1960.   As a young adult, she tried unsuccessfully to reconnect with the people on the reservation to learn about her culture and history but was met with resistance.  Her thesis, After the Indian Adoption Project: A Search for Identity, completed in 2006, is the result of the struggle she and other American Indian transracial adoptees face in finding a comfortable place of belonging.  She is now in the process of writing a book about her study and its findings, as well as researching funding for a planned documentary that showcases American Indian transracial adoptees and their unique stories.  

In 1983 Harness received an undergraduate degree in Anthropology from the University of Montana, working as a seasonal Park Ranger for the National Park Service to pay for her education.  She married and raised two boys while working as a freelance writer specializing in articles of cultural interest.  In 1998 she returned to school focused on a teaching career.  After completing half of her student teaching and being just six credits shy of receiving her MA in education Harness left the program because of personal and professional reasons.  She experienced what she called the “dark underbelly” of education noting the constant interpersonal conflicts that occurred within the education triad: parents, educators and students.  In 2003 at the age of 44, Harness returned to CSU once again, this time determined to get a masters degree in cultural anthropology.  “I enjoyed being in school and I always wanted to go back.  It was probably the best thing I’ve ever done.  Everyone should do it, because you have a totally different perspective on things as an older student than you do as a younger student,” she said. 

Harness worked hard and found the work demands of her as a graduate student to be extremely demanding.  “My first semester was really a wake up call,” she remembered. The full-time student and mother made sacrifices to complete her education.  “My husband took some things over that I just didn’t have time to do and I no longer attended PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) meetings.”   Harness persisted and earned her masters degree in Anthropology in 2006.  She said the experience gave her confidence she needed as a middle aged woman entering the workforce.  She also learned along the way how to remove self-made barriers, like concepts of age.   “My husband and my boys were tremendously proud of me, and my mother was amazingly supportive, given the topic I researched,” Harness said of her accomplishment.  

Now, Harness works as a part-time Local History Archive Research Assistant for the Fort Collins Museum and a part-time Oral Historian for the Museum, a position funded by the Preserve America grant.  As the Research Assistant she her specialty is the local history archive which includes more than 800 histories done since the 1970’s…300 of which still need to be transcribed.  Another task for Harness is to index and abstract these histories and have them preserved by putting them into a digital format.  “Currently, they’re not much use to anyone looking to get a perspective of Fort Collins over time.” Her goal is to make the history of Fort Collins more available to the public through the use of technology.  As the Preserve America historian, Harness is searching for and documenting the histories of people who had some connection with the land north of Fort Collins, now known as Soapstone Prairie Natural Areas. Her interviewees include ranchers who have very deep roots from that area as well as Native people whose ancestors camped and hunted on the Soapstone land.  “It is always interesting hearing what people have to say.  How did they perceive their lives, and what did they do to survive? You realize that the human spirit is intact and well,” Harness said. 

The CSU alumna is considering yet another return to the world of higher education when CSU offers a doctoral program in Anthropology.  For now, she continues to document the recollections and experiences of others as well as her own.

ALUM TURNS PASSION INTO BUSINESS
When Diane France first attended class at CSU in 1972 she thought she was going to major in wildlife biology, but after taking a couple of anthropology classes she changed her mind. “That was it, there was no turning back. I just said to myself I just have to do this,” France said of setting her sights on an anthropology degree. Despite her parents initial disappointment she pursued her passion. “They didn’t think I would ever find a job as an anthropology major,” France recalls. The result of this CSU graduate’s intense interest in anthropology has been manifested into the creation of her own business, France Casting. This is a company in Fort Collins that provides handmade durable casts of skulls and other bones to be used most often for teaching purposes and for use in medical and legal investigations. France, who grew up in Walden, CO, earned her bachelors degree in Anthropology in 1976 and went on to get a master’s in Anthropology from CSU in 1979. In 1983 she obtained her Ph.D. in Physical Anthropology from the University of Colorado. Three years later, France hired her first employee. France Casting now employs four people. France’s company focuses on making high quality casts of skulls and animal bones to help people compare unknown bones to bones that have been identified. “The most important part of any education is the quality of instructors.” France said. She added, “It is this quality that determines to some extent the passion.” France said she found that passion through the CSU faculty. In addition to being the owner of France Casting, the CSU alum is also Board Certified in Forensic Anthropology and serves as President of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology.

Love of Outdoors Leads to a Career
According to Chris Zier, there are various ways that one can obtain gainful employment as an major with a specialization in Archaeology. "The laws we operate under are driven by public sentiment and the public thinks preserving history is important. People have an intense curiosity about their own past and we can't understand the present without looking at the past," Zier said. He added, "Several thousand archeologists are actively employed in this country and 10,000 are doing what we do here." Zier owns Centennial Archaeology, Inc. (CAI) and has current CSU students and alumni working for him, many in supervisory capacities. "I can't say enough good things about CSU students. CSU has been very good for our company for a long time." Zier has also gotten to know CSU students while serving as Adjunct Faculty and Faculty Affiliate for the CSU Anthropology Department.

Zier wanted a career that would allow him to work outdoors. After completing an Archaeology field school at Mesa Verde he decided he could find that career as an Anthropology major. Twelve years after earning his bachelor's in Anthropology and three years after receiving his Ph.D. in Archaeology Specialization from the University of Colorado, Zier founded CAI, a cultural resource management company. Today, CAI employs 12 permanent full-time staff. Zier can hire up to 18 more part to full time workers depending upon the work load throughout the year.

Zier said it took him and his wife, Denise, an officer of the corporation, at least six years to get the company into full swing. CAI excavates and collects artifacts and surveys sites to define building boundaries for any big project that involves federal money or is a land site. The company also assists private companies who need environmental impact studies performed on their land. CAI recently completed a full scale excavation of the Rueter-Hess Reservoir Project in Parker, Colorado. Now they are finalizing a large report for that project. CAI also conducted an environmental impact study for the North I-25 corridor south of Denver. As for his career, Zier says he still enjoys his work. "I have a good blend of business with something more academic…which is Archaeology.

If you know of a CSU alumni who is an Anthropology major/minor or an Anthropology graduate student alumni who would be good to profile for this page, please contact Lynn Stutheit at 970-491-5447 or write to her at lynn.stutheit@colostate.edu.

“Being an Indian who was raised white, I just didn’t fit in, and there was no one to teach me,”
Susan Harness

“That was it, there was no turning back. I just said to myself I just have to do this,” Diane France said of setting her sights on an anthropology degree. Despite her parents initial disappointment she pursued her passion. “They didn’t think I would ever find a job as an anthropology major,” France recalls.

"The laws we operate under are driven by public sentiment and the public thinks preserving history is important. People have an intense curiosity about their own past and we can't understand the present without looking at the past," Zier said. He added, "Several thousand archeologists are actively employed in this country and 10,000 are doing what we do here."
Zier owns Centennial Archaeology, Inc. (CAI) and has current CSU students and alumni working for him, many in supervisory capacities.