We are grateful that a few people preserved photographs so that we can see a young Tahoma painting a mural at Santa Fe Indian School.

Dorothy Dunn, who had studied ancient pueblo art, based her ideas of what American Indian art should be on what she had seen in archaeological digs uncovering old Kivas walls. She and the archaeologists that had begun to work around New Mexico in the early 1900′s believed that “real” Indian art would look like the paintings of flat figures they had discovered on the mud-covered walls. Thus murals painted by American Indians became very popular.

This popularity of murals coincided with Tahoma’s beginning work with Dorothy Dunn.  In 1932, when Tahoma was in 5th grade, a non-Indian artist, Olive Rush, supervised several local adult Pueblo painters and some students as they created murals in the dining room of the Santa Fe Indian School. From Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist:

“Things were looking up for the young Tahoma, who passed fourth grade on his second try and now had a teacher who praised his drawing.  Surely it was a thrill to see these grown-up artists and older students painting larger-than-life dancers on panels between the windows in the school’s dining room.  While most pictures featured Pueblo dancers, at least one was a familiar Navajo Yei surrounded by the curved rainbow figure that resembled a sand painting. The very presence of these paintings taught him that painting was a serious pursuit.“

The legendary early artists who painted the murals included Abel Sanchez, the father of Ramos, whose home Tahoma would visit often with his friend. Another of the artists was Julian Martinez, the husband of the famous potter Maria.

In March, 1934, Tahoma painted a cactus design on his sixth-grade classroom wall. But in December, 1934, when he was in seventh grade, he joined with boys in higher grades to paint a map of the United States on the wall of the social studies classroom.

Then came the charming mural that circled an entire room. On page 11 of  Modern by Tradition:American Indian Painting in the Studio Style, by Bruce Bernstein and W. Jackson Rushing,  you can see the entire classroom in a photograph. This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to learn more about Tahoma’s training as an artist.

We described the scene pictured in their book in Quincy Tahoma’s biography.

“Tahoma donned a white coat over his school clothes and climbed up on makeshift scaffolding above bookshelves.  Miss Cruz had assigned him a space about six feet wide in one corner of the room. After several days of planning, making sketches, grinding colored earth, and making paints, he joined with other boys like Belardo Nieto, Ignacio Palmer, Ben Quintana, and Theodore Suina to create a classroom mural.”

“The other students painted scenes from their memories of home life in Pueblos or around hogans and Quincy painted an idealized Navajo family tending sheep.  Unlike his earlier experience with murals, when he painted a small portion of a picture planned by someone else, he had total responsibility for portraying Navajo life in his portion of the mural.”

‘How wonderful that these permanent art works were left behind at Santa Fe Indian School for people today to enjoy and study,’ you may be thinking. Unfortunately, the school’s murals have been destroyed. Despite the fact that the buildings were granted historic landmark status, the board of governors (All Indian Pueblo Council) deemed the buildings too dangerous to remain standing. Not only were some destroyed and other murals painted over, but those in charge used none of the usual historic preservation steps of recording the art and architecture. That is why I said we were fortunate that a few photographs remained to remind us of what an outstanding center of art the school once was.

Other famous murals by Indian artists include those at the Indian Arts store in Albuquerque and the Gerald Naylor murals that line the walls of the Navajo legislative building in Window Rock. If you ever have a chance, go to the top floor of the Interior Department building on the mall in Washington D.C. to see a very fine collection of murals. Have you seen these or other American Indian murals?

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Last weekend I had a phone call from Ramos Sanchez from San Ildefonso pueblo.  Ramos had read the manuscript of Quincy Tahoma: The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist and wanted to make two small corrections.  “Is that all?” I asked. “Yep. You two sure did a lot of research,” Ramos said.

Yes we did, and Ramos was a very large part of the research Charnell and I did. Way back at the beginning of Charnell’s quest, before I was involved, her first questions were put to Indian art dealers. I’ll let her tell you the details, but one of the Santa Fe Indian traders she talked to in 2001 suggested several names for us to contact.  One of those names was Rex Arrowsmith, who used to have a store in Santa Fe. Turned out that he now lives in Tucson, so it would be very easy for me to see him.  Well, of course, because he lived so close, I kept thinking I’d get around to it one of these days.

Finally in 2004 I reached him on the telephone just as he was getting ready to go to Santa Fe for the Indian Market. We agreed to talk when he got back to Tucson.  As it turned out, Rex had never met Tahoma personally, but as we talked in his home, he showed me the wonderful art collection he had assembled during his years in the business.  He has several Tahoma paintings, and also showed me some by Ramos Sanchez, who paints as Oqwa Owin, and told me that Sanchez’ father was the famous Pueblo painter, Owi Pi (Abel Sanchez.)

Rex said that Abel definitely knew him and it was possible that Ramos might remember him, too. It was probably a long shot. Well, in fact, when I called Ramos, I learned that he had known Quincy in school, and that Quincy spent a lot of time with his family when they were young. But even better, when I sat down in January 2005 to talk to Ramos and Gerdy, I learned that Tahoma had spent a lot of time with Gerdy Montoya Sanchez’ family before she married Ramos. Quincy and her brother Sonny were best friends, she said. It got better. Gerdy’s mother was a Navajo, and Quincy liked to visit because he liked having someone to speak Navajo with.

Then after Gerdy and Ramos married, Quincy continued to visit the families at San Ildefonso. Except for the time that Ramos Sanchez was in the Navy during World War II and until Ramos and Gerdy moved out of state in the 1950′s, they had spent a lot of time together.

The January 2005 conversation was the first of several long conversations I had with Ramos and Gerdy in the following years, as we talked about Quincy Tahoma. They knew details about his life that nobody else had a record of. Eventually, we would be contacted by their neice who had a collection of snapshots of Quincy, with her father Kee Yazzie, another school boy friend of Tahoma’s.

                                                                                                                          

I am pleased to say that I count Ramos and Gerdy as  friends, and I have twice visited San Ildefonso Pueblo in January on their most important feast day.  We truly could not have put together this book without the help of people like Ramos and Gerdy Sanchez who shared their memories, and helped us understand Native American culture, and people like Rex Arrowsmith, who scoured their memory for someone who might be able to help.

Of course we never stop looking for more information, so if you know someone who knows someone who might have a snapshot or a memory, please let us know.

Please tell us your story about how strangers may have helped you complete a task some time in your life. We would like to know.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.