Dorothy Lee Hindes: 1926-2003

In 1990, Dorothy Lee Hindes (Mrs. Bob Hindes) of Charlotte, Texas, was the recipient of the Dee Ann Story Archaeological Conservation Award, presented by the Southern Texas Archaeological Association. Since the late 1960s, she had been an active supporter of archaeological studies in south Texas. Her family's Green Branch Ranch in McMullen County was the source of a large documented collection of artifacts, a collection that she made available for research by a number of S T AA members over the years. Mrs. Hindes passed away on February 14, 2003 and was buried in the Charlotte City Cemetery.

I first learned of Mrs. Hindes' interests in 1969, while a student employee at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory. From 1969 through 1971, she provided a great deal of information to T ARL on sites on Green Branch Ranch and recorded a number of them. She later played a key role in organizing a collections ­identification meeting in Jourdanton in 1985, including a major display of her own artifacts, Jimmy Mitchell, C, K. Chandler, and others from ST AA went down to this night-time event, While we hopefully provided information to the many folks who showed up, we were actually the ones on the "learning" end of the experience--completely astounded by what we had seen, C. K. and Jimmy published various materials they had documented., and I still have pages of notes that I took that serve as a source of information on that area. This "show and tell" event provided a model for other similar gatherings that the ST AA has organized over the years. Mrs. Hindes' collection was documented in an excellent (but yet unpublished) paper by Kay Thompson Hindes and Teresa Eaton. Mrs, Hindes epitomized the south Texas rancher-collector, protective of their sites, but interested in the study of the cultural heritage of the region.

Thomas R. Hester