SANTA FE, NM On a clear, windy day last September, Anthony
Moquino, a former governor of the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, walked quickly
up the steep stone steps that lead to a breathtaking panoramic view
of Santa Fe's northern horizon, on this day dotted with billowing
white clouds. Struck by the beauty of the place, he stopped for
a moment before entering the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture on
Museum Hill.
Moquino was on a mission to locate artwork by his late father,
Ignacio Moquino. He had been told that 13 of his father's original
paintings were in the museum's Dorothy Dunn Collection. Moquino
said that his father, who painted under his Zia Pueblo name, Waka
Yeni Dewa, was one of the first American Indian painters who learned
easel painting from Dunn at the Santa Fe Indian School in the 1930s.
Moquino recalled how later on his father opened up a studio
with fellow students, Navajo artists Harrison Begay and Quincy Tahoma
and Taos artist Pop Chalee (Marina Lujan) on Canyon Road in Santa
Fe. There they continued the style Dunn taught them: painting scenes
of traditional life Ñ before Westernization Ñ on flat
surfaces from canvas to walls.
At that time, they sold their paintings for a few dollars, according
to records kept at the museum. Today, Moquino said they could be
worth thousands.
Even more than the monetary value, Moquino said, the historical
images and the meanings behind them are priceless, maybe even more
important now than they were back then.
Healthy relationship to nature
"These artists, like my dad, profiled daily life that was
true to their nature," he said, explaining that the lifestyle
focused on healthy eating and exercise.
"In today's society, we don't have that relationship with
nature. We are bombarded with fast foods and we forget about the
health risks of a sedentary lifestyle," he explained, emphasizing
the impact of diabetes, which continues to devastate tribal communities.
At the museum, Valerie Verzuh, curator of individually catalogued
collections, greeted Moquino then led him to a room on the museum's
bottom floor to see the Dunn Collection.
Wearing specially made gloves to keep oils from getting on the
artwork, Verzuh laid down one after another of Waka Yeni Dewa's
paintings on a light table for Moquino to see, some for the first
time.
Among the scenes are corn growing in fields, women gathering
wheat, hunters riding horses and dancers paying homage to animals
and nature while children play with Kachina dolls to teach them
respect for the sun, the rain, the plants and animals.
In "Thunder Bird and Fawns," an image of a thunderbird,
a legendary creature with unearthly powers, hovers over a mother
deer and two fawns.
"Deer are the essence of our life," Moquino said.
Wearing the black plastic gloves Verzuh delicately places "Mythical
Corn Ceremony," a painting Waka rendered in watercolors in
1938, on the light table.
The painting depicts traditional Zia Pueblo dancers and drummers
paying tribute to the ripening of the corn.
"The existence of the corn represents the survival of the
people," Moquino said.
Looking closer at the images in the painting, Moquino tells
Verzuh, "You can see they are raising the corn and giving gifts
back to the spirits that gave it to us."
He explains that such images preserve a visual history of what
is important traditionally Ñ healthy food and active lives.
Moquino continues that his father's 1934 painting, "Baby Playing
with Kachina Doll," which he created at age 17, aims to instill
children with these values early on. "At young ages, children
were already being enculturated into the Pueblo world to appreciate
everything the earth provides," he said.
Messages from the past
Moquino stressed that paintings from his father's
era and the messages they hold exist for anyone to see and learn
about, but they might not be obvious to the untrained eye.
Every day crowds of travelers walk by Taos painter Pop Chalee's
mystical images of horses and buffalo at the Albuquerque International
Airport. Each is about 16 feet long and hangs above the elevators
that run up to the second floor at the airline check in.
Paintings from that era can also be found at the Wheelwright
Museum, also on Santa Fe Ôs Museum Hill.
As manager of the Case Trading Post, located on the Wheelwright's
bottom floor, Ken Williams is going about his daily routine of customer
service, arranging art and preparing for meetings with Native American
artists. Williams, Northern Arapaho and Seneca, is one of the few
Native American art buyers in the United States.
Walking across the creaky, wooden floors, Williams gives a concise
history of more than a century of American Indian art, describing
how it evolved in more contemporary times.
Art from the Dunn era are among the treasures. Like Waka Yeni
Dewa's work, Tonita Pena, Pablita Velarde and Vincent Mirabel's
paintings depict scenes showing indigenous people's natural co-existence
with nature.
"It was important for the artists to uphold those images
Ñ and the messages behind them Ñ for the next generation,"
he said.
Relevance for the 21st Century
Marketing director Tazbah McCullah said that the All
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque has created a project
that provides a contemporary venue for that to happen. The cultural
center includes a restaurant, museum, exhibitions and education
programs.
Next fall, the center will roll out the Native Fusion Culinary
Tour, which includes having a Pueblo feast, "comprised of the
three sisters Ñ beans, corn and squash," she explained.
After the feast, visitors will learn about traditional farming
methods, making piki and oven bread and their nutritional value.
Art from the Dunn era and beyond surrounds the dance ground
at the All Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque.
On one side, a mural by Santa Clara Pueblo artist Pablita Velarde
depicts a dance honoring the buffalo, the deer and the antelope,
while on the other side Jemez Pueblo artist Jose Ray Toledo portrays
12 dancers giving thanks for the beauties of life, abundant rain
and plentiful crops.
Across the dance grounds, a dramatic mural more than 25 feet
high painted by Thomas Montoya depicts the solitary figure of an
Ohkay Owingeh deer dancer in motion. He's holding sticks representing
the front legs of a deer, while one foot is on the ground and the
other raised.
With these images of dancers dancing, hunters riding horses,
people working in fields, Moquino said that the cultural tour will
also remind people of the old ways, ways he said that can lead to
healthy lifestyles, rather than ones that take their lives away.
Looking at the last of his father's painting, tears come to
Moquino's eyes. "To survive," he reflects, "everything
still revolves around healthy living."
(Editor's note: Colleen Keane wrote this article for the Navajo
Times with support from a MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging
Fellowship, a program of New America Media and the Gerontological
Society of America. The Navajo Times and Koahnic Broadcast Corporation
represented Native media in the fellowship, which includes 17 news
agencies from across the country.)
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