We pursued the leads from the January 2005 copies of National Archives Santa Fe Indian School records. David Brugge explained that the closest he could come to the name Sigantizo that we found on the school record as a guardian, would be the Navajo word Teghanitso, which could have been distorted by an English speaker who did not understand Navajo. That name sounds more like Siganitso, which is a name that David recognized.

A letter in the school files refers to Quincy as Tahome (or Tohannie). Harrison Begay had suggested that the name Tahoma came from a clan name for Edge Water. David Brugge now suggested that Tohannie is nearer the clan name for Near Water, To’ahanie. So we felt we were closer to finding out his clan name which might help lead us to any family.

By August of 2005, we had talked to Elmer Jenkins, a Hopi who knew Tahoma in school. He recalled having heard that Tahoma returned to the reservation some time, probably in the 50’s to visit family named Spencer. Elmer had given us a great deal of helpful information about Tahoma and his school years, and his memory was sharp as a tack, so we did not question this recollection, but it presented us with another mystery. If Tahoma had relatives named Spencer, why had we not heard about them?

Now we had another family name to seek out. We hoped to get some information from St. Michael’s on the Navajo reservation, which we have heard has the best birth, death and census records. But when we talked to them, they said they could only give information to a family member. For all we know, Quincy has no living family members.  Catch Twenty-Two. Mark continued to comb through census records and wander down paths with dead ends. He found a boy named Quincy who lived near Leupp in the 1930 census. But the information did not quite match up, so he went back to combing through sometimes almost-unreadable records, looking for “our” Quincy.

Do you know the Spencers that lived near Tuba City early in the 20th century? If so, have you heard of any connection to Quincy Tahoma, or someone in the to’ahanie clan?

Posted by Vera Marie Badertscher May 27, 2009.

New Orleans Balconies

I’ve just returned from a few days in the wonderful, timeless city of New Orleans.  I could not help wondering if Quincy Tahoma ever saw that city?  The odds are slim, but the possibility persists.

The De La Salle Christian Brothers, a French Catholic religious order, founded St. Michael’s school in Santa Fe in 1859 as part of San Miguel Mission.  Originally, the school was open for boys only, and girls went to the Sisters of Loretto Academy nearby.  The street now known as Santa Fe Trail was called University in Quincy’s day because it ran beside the St. Michael’s school.

Quincy Tahoma found a friend in Brother Francis at St. Michaels during the 1950’s. In exchange for a place to stay when he was out of money and recovering from a bout of drinking, Quincy painted pictures for the Christian Brothers, which they still display in their living quarters on the campus of the new St. Michael’s High School on the east side of Santa Fe.  Quincy wrote a letter to Brother Francis after the former principal of the school had retired to the main office of the Santa Fe District of the Christian Brothers. That main office still stands in Lafayette, Louisiana.

In the letter, Quincy says that he might come down there next winter, and inquires whether they have any museums there. Harrison Begay says that he thinks Quincy once traveled to Louisiana, but we can find no other record of such a visit. We have also been unable to learn whether the Christian Brother’s archives contain any correspondence between Quincy and Brother Francis, or if any of his paintings made their way to Louisiana.

Of course, if you have any knowledge about this chapter of Quincy’s life, or if you can lead us to someone who might know, we would appreciate your help.  We are sharing what we know so that others may share with us what they know about Quincy Tahoma. The more stories we have, the better picture we can paint of his life.

Posted by Vera Marie Badertscher May 25, 2009

Photograph by Vera Marie Badertscher. All rights reserved.

In January 2005 we E-mailed the National Archives Western Regional Office in Denver and learned that they had some incomplete school records from Santa Fe Indian School. We were disappointed to learn that they had none from Albuquerque or from Tuba City Boarding School, but excited to find out they did have a file on Quincy Tahoma at SFIS.

Getting copies of those records was like Christmas. There were forms with basic information about Quincy’s enrollment, medical records, all of his grade records and letters to and from school administrators. The most important piece of paper had a typed enrollment record that included a tiny picture of a very young Tahoma.Although many of the lines were left blank, the sketchy information included some valuable clues.

Here is some of the information on that form:

Tohoma, Quincy (with Tahoma, Quincy, written in pencil above the typed misspelled name)

Date of filling blank: November 1936

Date of Birth: December 25, 1918 (as noted in another post, the 18 is written over top of a typed twenty-something)

The lines for father and mother were blank, and after father…living, the answer was :No

Stepfather: Yes, Guardian: Yes, Manuel Sigantizo (with the word “brother” written in after the typed information.

What Day School Did you Graduate From: Tuba, Day School    When? 1928 May 30

And of all this exciting information, some of which proved to be incorrect, we found a census number.  The Indian Census, separate from the ten-year federal census, assigned a Roll Number to each person counted. Some of the Indian Census records still exist, and because birth dates are iffy, and as previously note, spelling of names is frequently incorrect, the Roll Number helps pin down individuals better than anything else.

Thus we were REALLY excited to find Tahoma’s Census Number. Surely, it would lead us to his family. And, finally, it did.

Puzzling information included Do you own your own home? Yes–but size and value left blank. And even more puzzling: Brother’s name: Tahoma Age: 18   Sister was left blank.

So now we had to try to find a copy of an Indian Census with Tahoma’s census number on it, and find this mysterious Manuel Sigantizo.

Do you know anybody who attended Santa Fe Indian School during the 40s and 50s? Did you ever look up their records in the National Archives?

Was it possible that Quincy Tahoma actually did not know his clan as he said? He told people that he had no parents, and that information was in the school records that we found at the National Archives Western office in Denver. But somebody cared for him as a child–and the people who raised him must have been Navajo, since he was well grounded in the Navajo culture. So would they not have told him who his mother was, and therefore what his clan was?

One of the problems with not knowing one’s clan includes not knowing who one can properly marry. Is that why Tahoma apparently never married (although he seemed never to be without a girlfriend)?

With the help of Mark Rosaker, and David Brugge, we kept following the clues. The Santa Fe Indian School records for Quincy Tahoma, incomplete as they were, at least had a registration form  that said “no parents” and listed a guardian, “Manuel Sagantizo.” Someone had written “brother” in pencil. School records indicated Tahoma came from Tuba City. That record also listed Tahoma’s birth date as December 25, 1918 (the 18 was written over top a typed twenty-something)

David Brugge explained that he had never heard of the name Sagantizo, but Saganitso was a rather common name, particularly around Tuba city. A pause here to complain that mis-spelling of names on records complicates research enormously.  And in the case of non-Indians trying to write down what they think they hear a Navajo say, or Navajos using a different variety of their names each time they are asked–well, confusion reigns.

Mark took the information about Manuel Saganitso and ran with it. Digging into on-line birth and death records, he came up with dozens of Saganitsos–most of them demonstrably not connected to Tahoma. To be continued…

Have you had personal experience with a Navajo who was raised by someone other than his/her parents and did not know his or her own clan? We would like to hear such stories.

Posted by Vera Marie Badertscher, May 17, 2009

I would like to introduce David Brugge, because he became one of the most important resources that we had as we tried to answer our many questions about Quincy Tahoma.

Several people recommended that we talk to David Brugge, who, they said, knew more about Navajo genealogy than anybody. David lives in Albuquerque, and although he is retired, he still continues his scholarly study and makes presentations to professional bodies. I was going to Albuquerque, so I contacted David and we got together for lunch. We sat on a bench waiting to be seated at a crowded Mexican restaurant, and I wondered where to start on my long list of questions about Navajo relationships and genealogy.

David casually said, “When I knew Tahoma…” and I did not hear the rest of the sentence. He personally knew Tahoma. At that point, the only person we had talked to who personally knew Tahoma was Harrison Begay. Our reliance on David quickly grew from mining his academic knowledge to drinking in the personal recollections that he could add to our story.

Throughout the process of researching the book, I consulted frequently with David, visiting him every time I went to Albuquerque. We sampled the best East Indian restaurant, the best Mexican, Pueblo Indian at the Pueblo Cultural Center and the neighborhood Chinese along the way. He corrected our errors in explaining Navajo culture and Navajo history, and he told us the story of two young men who tried to help the artist as they were starting a gallery in Albuquerque’s Old Town, a story which I will return to later.

Tahoma always told people that he was from Tuba City. In fact he even signed a painting or two “Quincy Tahoma from Tuba City,” but we could find no birth records for him, and it took us a very long time to determine where he was born. Years, in fact.

One key resource came when we asked Mark Bahti to see if he could find out from his friend Harrison Begay if Begay knew anything about Tahoma. Bahti is the 2nd generation owner of Bahti Indian Arts in Tuson, and Harrison Begay used to stay with the Bahti family for a time each year. We knew Tahoma and Begay had both gone to school at Santa Fe Indian School. Since Navajos were a minority in the predominantly Pueblo Indian school, we figured Navajos might have stuck together.  Bahti wrote to Begay, and Begay sent a lengthy, hand-written letter back with all he could remember and find out about

Vera Marie with Harrison Begay in Santa Fe 2006

Tahoma.  Unfortunately, he said, “I found out I didn’t know very much about Quincy Tahoma.”  We knew the feeling. Among the things he wrote to Bahti, was his recollection that Quincy was born not far from Tuba City in a place  near Elephant Feet. This was marginally helpful, since there are at least two Elephant Feet locations in Arizona on the Navajo Reservation, but one is near Tuba City.

We had a false lead when someone suggested that Tahoma was born at Shonto. I drove there and talked to people at the trading post, which is in the bottom of a pretty little canyon, but this was a dead end as far as information was concerned. We contacted Dr. William Adams, who grew up at Shonto and wrote about it, and he had no recollection of Tahoma being from there.

Our second big break came when Mark Rosacker of New Mexico found out about our work, and volunteered to help with research into Tahoma’s family.  Our third major source of information, which dove-tailed with Mark’s work, came from the United States National Archives in the Denver office, where they keep at least some of the school records from Santa Fe Indian School.  More about Mark and the archives in the another post.

Posted by Vera Marie Badertscher

Writing a biography of Quincy Tahoma took a lot of research verging on detective work. We started our research with questions.

• Where was Quincy Tahoma born?
• What was his clan?
• Were any of his family members still living?
• Was he, in fact, adopted, and if so, why?
• What caused the injury to his arm that many people mentioned?
• What did he do during World War II? (Many biographical sketches said he served in the armed forces, and some even said he was a Code Talker.)
• Why did he die so young?
• Where is he buried?
• Where are his paintings today?
• Why did he go from Arizona to Santa Fe for school?
• Who were his friends? Did he ever marry?
• Who influenced his painting?
• Where did he live during his life? Where did he travel?
• Did he ever return to the Navajo reservation?

Some questions were quickly answered, but we tried to verify from more than one source. Every time we found an answer to a question, we found more questions.  And we found no answers at all for some questions.

But what we did find amazed and delighted us.  We never dreamed that we would find so many people who knew Tahoma personally, or that children and nieces and nephews of people who knew him would be able to tell us stories passed down through their families.

If you continue to read these pages, you will see where we went to find answers and you will have an opportunity to help us answer more questions. And any time that YOU have a questions, please ask. We’ll be happy to try to answer.

In order to keep track of the entire journey, we encourage you to subscribe to the blog by RSS feed or by e-mail. And do tell your friends, won’t you?

Bundy's majestic stallion is quite possibly the last painting that Quincy Tahoma created.

In the 1950s, Abundio Armijo, Jr. was the Santa Fe Police Department’s photographer and investigator.  Bundy had a little lab at the jail which he let Quincy Tahoma use as an art studio of sorts whenever the painter was drying out from public intoxication.

One day, the Navajo artist brought a beautiful painting of a majestic stallion to the jail to give to Bundy in appreciation for his kindness.  Little did Bundy know that he would be called to Tahoma’s apartment just two weeks later to record the artist’s death.

To the best of our knowledge, this may be the last painting that Tahoma created. You can see Bundy and his 1956 painting, as well as some other owners and their paintings, in the slide show on the home page at our Tahoma web page.

Do you know of any other paintings Tahoma produced shortly before his death in October 1956?

Photo by Charnell Havens. All rights reserved.