Merry KeshMish

Among the many benefits of working on the Quincy Tahoma biography, we have had many opportunities to personally meet people whose lives touched Tahoma’s.  When I went to Window Rock to the Navajo Nation’s Késhmish (Christmas) Festival at the Navajo Nation Museum, I felt certain that I would run into some interesting people. Little did I imagine that I would unearth yet another girlfriend.

Kesh Mish Festival

Nearly all the attendees at the two-day festival at the beautiful Navajo Nation Museum were Navajo families,  not tourists. (A good reason for you to keep it in mind for next year.) Artists and craftsmen packed the large central hall and a children’s crafts room was set up on the side. If you could walk through that large room– packed with jewelry, glass and pottery ornaments, Navajo-print fabrics made into all sorts of things like scarves and purses, paintings, note cards, Christmas presents galore–without buying anything, you have more will power than I do!

Michelle Tsosie Sisneros who lives at Santa Clara Pueblo caught my eye. The work she was showing at the fair is not on her webpage. Because she is both Navajo and Pueblo, she has created a line of clay figures that combine Navajo and Pueblo symbols.

An enterprising family with eight children who compete in track and field events, was serving up fry bread, coffee, hot chocolate and other goodies in the small cafe. All proceeds went to support their five children who are members of the New Mexico team that will compete in a National track meet.

Anthony Chee Emerson

Anthony Chee Emerson, one of  the outstanding Navajo painters who is quoted in Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist had a booth right beside the gift shop, where I sat at a table and talked to people about Quincy Tahoma. It was delightful to see Anthony’s work and get to chat with him once again.

Juan the bull-rider jewelry maker

Across from Anthony, a man in a huge cowboy hat sat behind a table of hand-made silver and turquoise jewelry. Juan Curley and his wife Polly make unforgettable jewelry, even though he also has a day job AND tends to his sheep and horses in Ganado where they live. After I admired Juan’s leather trophy jacket (2nd place, bull riding) he meandered over to my table and told me quite a bit of his life story–an interesting one, you can bet!

At the table beside me, a man sat in a high wheelchair, with various mechanized aides to help him move.  He was selling a book with his inspirational story about what he had learned as a paraplegic, and told me how few Navajos know where to go for help with serious injuries and how he talks to students to familiarize them with his hope-filled story.

A young girl came by who wanted to buy the Tahoma book for school, but could not afford it. I gave her information to pass on to her school so they might purchase it for their library.

When I wandered around the room packed with booths, I stopped to talk to Beverly Blacksheep, who crafts ceramics, tiles, coffee cups, notecards and other items with her lovely Navajo-themed designs. When I told her that I was there with a book about Quincy Tahoma, she told me that his painting had influenced her work, and she had painted some horses on some of her pieces that were inspired by Tahoma.  Then she said her mother-in-law went to school with Tahoma. In fact, she was his girlfriend. But Beverly did not want to tell me any more than that, because she was not sure her mother-in law-would approve.

Soon I met her husband Tim Genéeha, and he did not hesitate to tell me that his mother’s name is Helen Haskie.  Along our research journey, someone had mentioned a girlfriend at the Indian school, Helen Haskie, but we could not find anyone else to confirm the story or tell us where she lived, so we gave up on finding her.  Tim said that Tahoma gave Helen a large painting, but he does not know what happened to it.

Helen had first attended Ft. Wingate school, and then was transferred to Santa Fe. Tim promised to tell me more after he talks to his mother.  Before I left, I made a list of questions that we would like to ask Helen if we could talk to her, and we eagerly await the response from possibly the FIRST of Tahoma’s girlfriends, and probably the ONLY Navajo girlfriend. And who knows, we may be able to find another missing painting.

So who’s next? Is there another girlfriend or two out there whom we have not heard about? Do you have Tahoma stories to share?  We’re all ears.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Quincy Tahoma leaning against porch

With all the wonderful publicity Tahoma and the book have been getting, like our appearance on the Bill Buckmaster show in Tucson and the listing of the book in Native Peoples Magazine, it is no wonder that our calendars keep filling up with people who want to know more about Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist.

We hope that you’re noting the events that are near you, and if we are not scheduled to visit your neighborhood–why not invite us?

November 30, 6:00 p.m., Collected Works Bookstore in Santa Fe, NM. Vera will be showing slides of Tahoma paintings and talking about his life in Santa Fe. She’ll also sign books for those who are looking for good holiday gifts.

December 2, all afternoon; December 3, all morning at the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, AZ.  Vera will be signing books at the gift show of the museum during the annual Christmas Festival. Come see artists at work, Navajo-produced films, and great gifts for sale in the beautiful Navajo Nation Museum Gift Shop.

December 9-10: The Arizona Historical Society Book Fair starts with a reception on Friday evening (6-8 p.m.) at the Museum in Tucson and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, Arizona authors, including Vera, will be signing books.

NEXT YEAR:

January 30, 1:00 p.m.: Vera will talk to the Heard Museum Guild in a meeting open to the public at the Heard Museum on North Central in Phoenix.

March 5, the 2nd day of the Heard Museum Indian Fair in Phoenix, we are scheduled to sign books between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. at the Heard Museum Book Store.

March 10 and 11 is the gigantic Tucson Festival of Books.  We are invited to sign books at the Arizona State Museum booth and Vera will be on a panel one of those two days. (Stay tuned for exact time)

April 21, 10am to 1 pm: Vera will be back in Phoenix at the Heard Museum book store to sign books as part of Native Expressions Saturday. AT least one Navajo artist will also be present.

Surely there is a museum, gift shop, or book store in your community that we should be visiting with the Quincy Tahoma book!  Please let us know.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome to The Amerind Foundation

On the road again — this time from the Heard Museum in Phoenix to The Amerind Foundation in Dragoon AZ for a presentation and book signing.

First peek at The Amerind as we drove up the dirt road

Founded in 1937 by William Shirley Fulton, the Amerind Foundation is a private nonprofit anthropological and archaeological museum and research center dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Native American cultures and their histories. The Amerind is located in spectacular Texas Canyon in the Little Dragoon Mountains of southeastern Arizona, and it houses one of the finest private collections of Native American art and artifacts in the country.

Amerind volunteers who came to learn more about Quincy Tahoma

The curator, Dr. Eric Kaldahl, served as our wonderful host for the event, and  several of the Foundation’s dedicated volunteers came to hear the presentation of Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist.

Vera and Charnell with The Amerind's 1949 painting, Navajo Sing, by Quincy Tahoma

The Amerind has two Tahoma paintings and one of them, Navajo Sing, has more than 100 people in the scene.  It is one of the artist’s most famous works and Carol Charnley, Museum Coordinator, tells us that The Amerind is very pleased to have it in its collection.

Chuck wagon a la 2011

After the presentation and book signing, Vera and I got some grub from the modern-day version of a chuck wagon and retired to our sumptuous quarters in The Amerind’s guest quarters.  Okay, so we were pampered and we enjoyed every moment of it!  What are some of the special experiences you have enjoyed?

Vera relaxes in her guest quarters room after a busy day

Photos in this post are all the property of Charnell Havens. Do not reuse without the permission of the photographer.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

A View of the Heard Museum entrance from the Courtyard

I’m back in Virginia after a fantastic week of book signings and presentations with co-author Vera Marie Badertscher in her home state of Arizona.  Vera and I live so far apart geographically that getting together to tell folks about Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist is a rare treat indeed!  This is only the second time we’ve gotten together since the book was published.  (The first was in Santa Fe to kick off the 2011 Indian Market.)

Co-authors Charnell and Vera at the Heard Museum book signing

Our first stop was the Heard Museum  of Native Cultures and Art in Phoenix. The Heard is dedicated to educating the public about the heritage and living cultures and arts of Native peoples, with an emphasis on the peoples of the Southwest.  Since its founding by Dwight and Maie Bartlett Heard in 1929 – as a small museum in a small Southwestern town – the Heard has grown in size and stature to where now it is recognized internationally for the quality of its collections, its educational programming and its festivals.

1956 Navajo Scout, catalog # IAC1746, Courtesy of the Heard Museum

The Heard owns nineteen original paintings by Quincy Tahoma and, while they were not on display during our book signing, Vera and I were able to show visitors some images of them on a rotating slide show.  Two of the paintings, Old Timers and Riding for the Fun, are included in the book on pages 103 and 178, so we’re not showing them here.  But, to whet your appetite for seeing the remaining seventeen, we’re including two more paintings from the Heard collection —  a striking 1956 Navajo scout scene and a humorous 1950 painting of some cowpokes trying to lasso a buffalo.

1950 unnamed buffalo painting, catalog # IAC773, Courtesy of the Heard Museum

Did you miss meeting us on October 22?  Well, you’ve got another opportunity!  Come to Phoenix on January 30 for a Heard Museum Guild presentation and book signing, or on March 3 for the Heard Museum Fair.  Vera will be there for sure and, if at all possible, I’ll be there too. Where would you like us to go for a book signing near you?

Top photo by Charnell; Photo of the authors by Sam Lowe; other two from the Heard Museum. Please do not reuse without permission from the respective owners.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Glooscap Statue--That tiny figure on the left is ME.

My sister and I are currently traveling in Canada--Nova Scotia to be exact–and have been learning about the Mi’kmaq people. (That name is pronounced Mee-maw. )What a surprise to learn that they are relatives of Quincy Tahoma’s own people, the Diné (Navajo).

Garrett, our guide at Glooscap Center

We stopped at the Glooscap Heritage Center near Truro, Nova Scotia and were fortunate to meet Garrett, who is a trained archaeologist.  He is 100% Mi’kmaw and filled us in on a lot of information. But the Glooscap Center would be extremely educational for any visitor even if they did not have the good fortune to run into Garrett.

Your visit starts with a short film, partly in English and partly in the Mi’kmaw language. Each language has subtitles in the other, so you will never be at a loss to understand.  The main narrator is Glooscap, a spirit hero of the Mi’kmaw. He tells a little about their legends. Then others, including a woman who is an expert on the culture add other information.

I learned that archaeological evidence puts these people in the area at LEAST 10,000 years ago–much longer time than the Southwestern peoples have been in their territory.

Mikmaq Alphabet

Garrett explained to us later that there is a relationship between the Mi’kmaw and the woodland Indians of the Eastern U.S., but also to all other tribes that speak a variation of the Alqonquin language. That includes Diné.

Like the tribes of the Southwest with which I am familiar, the Mi’kmaw have developed some unique crafts. I never saw such beautiful basketry as I saw in their museum. The museum also displays contemporary painting, beadwork and quill work which is exquisite.

If your knowledge of Native peoples (which the Canadians call First Nations) is limited to those who live in your area, I urge you to look into the great variety–and maybe even discover common threads all around the Western Hemisphere.

Did you know that Navajo are related to Canadian tribes?

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Santa Fe Poster

Recently, I talked about how important railroads were to Tahoma’s life. They were important to his art, as well, but more indirectly.  In Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist, we explore how the renaissance of American Indian art came about in the early to mid part of the twentieth century.

Appetite For America: Back Cover Jacket

In my other life, over at the blog A Traveler’s Library, I wrote a review of a new book covering the life and company (same name) of Fred Harvey.  Harvey worked closely with the Santa Fe Railroad and both promoted travel to the American West partly by dangling the exotic culture of American Indians before adventurous Americans.  Fred Harvey started an Indian art store at his Alvarado Hotel Albuquerque (no longer in existence) . Stephen Fried, author of the book Appetite for America says that “many sources credit Fred Harvey with not only reinventing the market for newly made items, but rescuing and curating many archival items that otherwise would have disappeared.”  Here is more from Stephen Fried about Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe.

VMB: Is there any evidence that Fred Harvey (or Ford Harvey his successor) were personally interested in Indian Arts and Crafts?

Stephen Fried: There’s little evidence that Fred was… His daughter Minnie is believed to be the first family member who collected, and after she married John Huckel in the 1890s, the two of them collected together. Ford is believed to have become more interested after a trip with E.P.Ripley–president of the Santa Fe (RR)–and other top executives of the railroad to many of the major pueblos in northern New Mexico and Arizona in the early fall of 1901. After that, the company began exploring Indian art as a way to stock what became the Indian Building at the Albuqerque depot–with the help of their longtime employee Herman Schweizer, the manager of the Gallup Harvey House.

Alvarado Hotel Indian Building, Albuquerque, Courtesy of Wheels Museum

VMB Do you think the impetus for selling Indian Art came from Fred Harvey’s business antennae, or was he following in the footsteps of Santa Fe RR who were promoting visiting Indian lands.

SF: It is often difficult for historians to separate where the Santa Fe RR ended and Fred Harvey began, and while the trip I mentioned in 1901 that Ford Harvey took with E.P. Ripley and other execs was clearly the turning point for the major promotion of visiting Indian lands, keep two things in mind: the expansion of the Santa Fe and Fred Harvey into larger resort hotels began in 1896…The expansion didn’t reach NM until 1899–the first of the Mission Style hotels in Las Vegas, NM,and then the Alvarado in Albuquerque. And, in some ways, the Indian Building was a way of taking what had always happened in Santa Fe and dramatically expanding it for a much larger audience, with easy access from the main line of the railroad (which Santa Fe itself was not on.)

It was then over 20 years before Fred Harvey started the Indian Detours, which was the major effort to control the market for visiting Indian lands. [small private automobile tours in the Southwest offered by the Fred Harvey company.] Before that there were some private tour operators going there, but the real visiting in volume began in 1926, when the Santa Fe bought La Fonda for Fred Harvey, and Fred Harvey began running car tours between Las Vegas and Albuquerque.

But starting in 1902 in Albuquerque, and in 1905 at Grand Canyon, the company got into the Indian art and collecting business at a level that I believe really dwarfed what was happening in Santa Fe.

Historic shot of Navajo weaver outside Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque, Courtesy of Wheels Museum.

I think the rise in popularity of indian arts and crafts was almost completely a creation of the Fred Harvey company (and, secondarily, the Santa Fe’s use of Indian art imagery in its promotional materials.) Herman Schweizer–the “Harvey ethnologist” based in Albuquerque–took what was then a very local and random business of selling basically out the windows of trains and turned it into a respectable, profitable business–and they also opened Indian craft stores all the way from Chicago to San Francisco in the Santa Fe depots, and put on displays other places as well.

VMB: We are very grateful to Stephen for giving us his detailed answers, and we will continue this interview in part two. Please click on the photos to see where they came from. If you are interested in purchasing Appetite for America, we have included a link to Amazon, when you click on the book cover.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Cover of a book by Eliot Porter

“I give him credit for teaching me to see”, said Dr. Elliott (Eliot) Porter, a New Jersey physician turned professional photographer of Western landscapes and nature.

The Amon Carter Museum, which houses Porter’s professional archives in Fort Worth, TX, says of him, “Eliot Porter introduced color to landscape photography. In so doing, he created a new way of viewing the world that today has become commonplace.”

1948 untitled painting by Tahoma, Courtesy of Joseph M. Montoya II

Giving credit to Quincy Tahoma in a 1976 letter to Arthur Silberman, Indian art expert and curator, Porter wrote, “…he saw beauty in everything, I couldn’t paint, but I liked (still do) photography, he would say, stop the car, get a picture of ‘that’—I give him credit for teaching me to see. This is another thing we had in common.”

Now, I don’t know what else they had in common besides art, but I do know there was a special bond between this unlikely pair that went driving and trekking through Navajoland just to “see”!  At that time, Anglos had little respect for Indians in general, but that seemed not to be an issue with Porter.

Their friendship  had a smattering of reciprocity: Tahoma sharing his artist’s eye with Porter, and Porter providing assistance – often financial – to Tahoma.

Although Porter knew Tahoma from 1949 to 1954, their paths crossed only intermittently when Porter was visiting New Mexico or Arizona. Porter was part of the circle of artistic friends of Georgia O’Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz, and he traveled with them in New Mexico also. We can’t help but wonder if Tahoma ever met O’Keefe, since their time in New Mexico art circles overlapped.

The photographer bought several of Tahoma’s paintings in 1951 and, concerned about the artist’s alcoholism, joined several other Tahoma supporters in trying to keep him sober.  Even though that didn’t work, Porter remained a faithful friend.  In 1953, Tahoma sent the photographer a telegram urgently asking for $50 in exchange for a painting or repayment. Porter later reported that he did send the fifty dollars to Tahoma but “never got a picture or the fifty—and I don’t give a dam (sic).”

1953 Telegram from Quincy Tahoma to E.R. Porter

Now, that’s a true friend!

[Note: Although nearly all the references found on the Internet spell his first name as Eliot, in Dr. Porter's hand written letter, which we cite in Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist, and which we copied from the Amon Carter Museum files, he signature reads quite clearly Elliott Porter. Since his book titles are all spelled with one "l" and one "t", that is apparently the way he spelled his name during most of his life. We have no explanation for why he spelled it differently in the letter regarding Tahoma, but we decided to follow his own spelling in the book.]

High praise indeed for the Navajo artist from the world famous photographer!  Have you had a friend who gave you the same kind of praise and encouragement?

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

One of the pinnacles of Quincy Tahoma’s life as an artist happened in 1946, when he was 28 years old. He displayed a painting  at the Art Gallery of the Museum of New Mexico, as he did frequently during the forties. The soft brown Pueblo Revival building still sits at the northwest corner of the Plaza in Santa Fe, but now goes by the title, New Mexico Museum of Art. That museum forwarded the painting, In the Days of Plenty to Tulsa, Oklahoma to be entered in the first Annual Philbrook Art Museum Indian Art competition.

In August when the judging took place, Tahoma won first prize in the Southwestern Painting division. It was a stunning award for the Navajo artist, just six years out of school. Although, to be honest, he probably was most excited about the cash he received, as this award was a purchase prize.

[To see the winning artwork, which is still owned by the Philbrook Museum, open up your new copy of  Quincy Tahoma, The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist when it is available in April.]

The Philbrook Art Museum no longer sponsors the competition, which once ranked as the most prestiguous of all Indian art shows.  Similarly, the Scottsdale National Indian Art Exhibition, which first attracted my attention to Navajo painting and Hopi jewelry and all the other beauty created by Southwestern tribal artists, ceased operation in the late 1960′s.

In Scottsdale, I met artists like Al Momaday, Fritz Scholder,  the incredible Hopi jeweler Charles Loloma and the popular painter R. C. Gorman.

As both the Philbrook and the Scottsdale National had begun to use native artists as judges, as well as entrants, I met some of these men in that new capacity. Giant steps had been taken from the days of Dorothy Dunn and her cohorts in Santa Fe who felt they were better equipped to judge what was “real” in American Indian art and to set standards of quality. In effect, those early patrons of Indian art believed that old was better than new.

A new web site, Ahelenia, carries summaries of important articles and books being currently published on Native American Arts.  Ahelenia’s article about a book by Heather Ahtone, a Choctaw-Chickasaw,  makes the reader ponder the way that we evaluate art in America, and suggests ways to judge American Indian art on its own merits.

That question caused quite a shake-up in the Indian Art World back in the 1960′s, barely fifty years after Native American art had been made popular by government campaigns, and the emergence of artists like Tahoma who made a living selling art. American Indian artists who had discovered they did not have to rely on shows and museums operated by non-Indians, rebelled against the categorization of art by tribe rather than by style or genre as in the greater art world.

Do you have questions or comments about the judging of American Indian Art? Why do we tend to classify any art by a Native artist as Indian art, regardless of style? Why have most Native American artists had a hard time  becoming part of mainstream American art?  Let’s talk about it here.

(If you read this in your e-mail or RSS feeder or on Facebook, you’ll need to click on the title to go to the web site so you can join the discussion.)

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.