Talk:Chief Niwot

Latest comment: 1 year ago by Phlaximus in topic Multiple Accounts Problem

Multiple Accounts Problem

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There's a lack of clarity around what exactly happened between Niwot and Aikens. Much of this is to be expected: the only first-person source we have for the meeting is sympathetic to Aikens and was motivated to lie about aspects of the exchange. However, the information on this page needs to be more succinct. Two of the sections appear to be successive, but wind up describing the same series of events in sometimes contradictory ways.

I was initially editing the copy section-by-section, but now I think it might merit from a page restructure. My plan right now is to go into the WikiProject: Indigenous peoples of North America and look at some of the FA-class biographical articles to see if I can take any cues from their style/organization. I think there's also good reason to see if there are modern sources on Niwot - the biography this page cites is from 1937 and might not reflect current biographical viewpoints. Phlaximus (talk) 16:10, 27 January 2023 (UTC)Reply

Ok, I've done what I can to pull more information from the source biography. I was wrong earlier - the author was born in 1937, but the biography is from 1985. Additional sources on Niwot's life would be helpful here but the biography has quite a lot of meaningful information beyond the apocryphal story about Niwot's meeting with Aikens - it appears now that said meeting only represents a fragment of what is known about Niwot. I have also added a picture from WikiMedia of the plaque that commemorates Niwot in Boulder County - no extant photos or likenesses of Niwot exist, though it seems there is a bust of him somewhere in Boulder. Phlaximus (talk) 21:49, 27 January 2023 (UTC)Reply