Minge, Ward Alan

Ward Alan Minge (Box 11, Folder 4)

Ward Alan Minge was born in Marshall County, Kansas on March 20, 1924. He received his BA from the University of Denver in 1950 and an MA from the University of the Americas in 1952. In 1955, he became the Chief Historian for Kirtland Air Force Base, retaining the position for several decades while working on numerous other historical endeavors. Many of these involved New Mexico’s nineteen native-American Pueblos. In the last half of the twentieth century, many of the Pueblos asserted claims involving water rights, boundary disputes, and aboriginal land before federal and state tribunals. Dr. Minge was involved in many of these claims, providing written work and testimony for numerous Pueblos.

Dr. Minge’s associations with the Pueblos began in the 1950s. In 1956, he was hired as a research historian for the Jemez, Santa Ana and Zia Pueblos, who were jointly initiating a land claim before the Indian Claims Commission. The following year, he began his long association with Acoma Pueblo. In 1965, he received his Ph.D in history from the University of New Mexico. By the end of the 1960s, he had served as an expert witness in the State v. Aamodt case. This involved the water rights of Nambé, Tesuque, San Ildefonso, and Pojoaque Pueblos. He published Acoma: Pueblo in the Sky in 1976 and revised it in 1991. The Pueblo commissioned this work, which remains the standard text on Acoma. In the 1980s, he worked with Sandia and Santo Domingo Pueblos as they attempted to resolve boundary disputes. In Zuñi’s Indian Claims Commission case, Minge served as an expert witness on the history of the Pueblo. He also worked for San Juan and Laguna as a research historian.

Dr. Minge’s expertise includes the Spanish and Mexican periods of New Mexico, particularly as it relates to the history of the southern New Mexico Pueblos. He translated and transcribed various documents from this era. He travelled to the Archive of the Audiencia of Guadalajara to search for documents related to New Mexico’s Pueblos. He also compiled an extensive array of sources from the National Archives and Records Administration that pertained to the Pueblos. His reports and expert testimony are based, in part, on these documents.

In addition to his work with the Pueblos, he published numerous articles as Historian of the Air Force Special Weapons Center and Weapons Laboratory. He co-authored New Mexico’s Public Record’s Act, which established the State Records Center and Archives. He served as Chairman of the New Mexico Commission of Public Records and was a member of the Architectural Review Board for the City of Albuquerque. Additionally, he consulted on assorted conservation/preservation projects and historical endeavors. Dr. Minge is currently retired and living in Kansas.

From the guide to the Ward Alan Minge Papers, 1689-1991, (University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research)