Oral History Interview with Sharron Ahtone Harjo
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Oral History Interview with Sharron Ahtone Harjo Interview Conducted by Julie Pearson-Little Thunder September 6, 2014 Spotlighting Oklahoma Oral History Project Oklahoma Oral History Research Program Edmon Low Library ● Oklahoma State University © 2014 Spotlighting Oklahoma Oral History Project Interview History Interviewer: Julie Pearson-Little Thunder Transcriber: Madison Warlick Editors: Julie Pearson-Little Thunder, Micki White The recording and transcript of this interview were processed at the Oklahoma State University Library in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Project Detail The purpose of the Spotlighting Oklahoma Oral History Project is to document the development of the state by recording its cultural and intellectual history. This project was approved by the Oklahoma State University Institutional Review Board on April 15, 2009. Legal Status Scholarly use of the recordings and transcripts of the interview with Sharron Ahtone Harjo is unrestricted. The interview agreement was signed on September 6, 2014. 2 Spotlighting Oklahoma Oral History Project About Sharron Ahtone Harjo… Sharron Ahtone Harjo draws artistic inspiration from a variety of sources: her personal experiences, Kiowa oral traditions, and a family ledger book. She attended school in several states and further expanded her travel experiences as Miss Indian America in 1965. Exposed to art throughout her life, her epiphany came at Bacone Junior College where she studied flat-style painting under Dick West. She was one of the early female Oklahoma painters to delve into ledger art, for which she favors pen and ink, pencil, and prismacolor. Sharron’s passion for making art is matched by a strong passion for teaching. After earning her master’s degree in education, she taught for many years in the Edmond public schools. Among her numerous accomplishments are a solo show at Southern Plains Indian Museum, Grand Award at the Anadarko Indian Exposition, and First Place in Cultural Items at the Red Earth Indian Arts Festival. She has contributed articles and artwork for a variety of publications, including Gifts of Love and Pride: Kiowa and Comanche Cradles, and her work is featured in Women and Ledger Art: Four Contemporary Native American Artists. Ahtone Harjo served as an adjunct professor at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University and has lectured on ledger art in various venues. In this interview, besides discussing her creative process, subject matter, and techniques, Sharron describes her close relationship with Dick West and his gift to her of a set of brushes. She explains why she signs her paintings “Ahtone Harjo” and the importance of her family history, including descent on her mother’s side from famed Kiowa captive, Millie Durgan. She talks about learning basketmaking from Mavis Doering and, in turn, teaching it in public schools at Doering’s request. She also describes teaching at Concho Indian Boarding School in the latter part of her career, and the pride she takes in finding her former students employed in successful careers around the country. 3 Spotlighting Oklahoma Oral History Project Sharron Ahtone Harjo Oral History Interview Interviewed by Julie Pearson-Little Thunder September 6, 2014 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Little Thunder My name is Julie Pearson Little-Thunder. Today is September 6, 2014, and I’m interviewing Sharron Ahtone Harjo as part of the Oklahoma Native Artists Project sponsored by the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program at Oklahoma State University. We’re in Oklahoma City where Sharron is packed for a move to Santa Fe, temporary move. Sharron, you’re a Kiowa tribal member with numerous accomplishments, including being the twelfth Miss Indian America, earning a degree in higher education, and working as an educator in the public schools for many years. You started painting professionally in the ’70s when Native art was male-dominated, and you were an early experimenter with ledger art. I think you helped open the door for other Native women painters. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. Harjo Thank you. Little Thunder Where were you born, and where did you grow up? Harjo I was born in Carnegie, Oklahoma, back in 1945, January 6, to be exact. My father worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and so we would move, moving around quite a bit. I started school in Washington DC. I started school in Fort Duchesne, Utah. Then I started school in Anadarko, so all these moves…. I was very young when I went to Washington DC. They didn’t have room for me in the public schools in the classes I was supposed to be in, so I started school when I was four. Little Thunder Wow. Harjo They ended up in Billings, Montana, when my dad was transferred there when I was in the sixth grade, and that’s where I graduated from high school. 4 Little Thunder What did your folks do for a living? Harjo My father worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. When he first started in his career, he was a soil conservationist. You’ll be happy to hear this: he was an OSU graduate. They were Aggies back then, I think. He was an agronomist. When he started his career he was in soil conservation. Then he went to training. I guess the big, bad word in those days was “relocation.” He was a relocation specialist working with Indian people across the country. When we moved to Billings, he became a tribal operations officer and worked with all the reservations in Montana and then the two in Wyoming. He was their tribal operations officer. When he finished from there, they came back to Oklahoma. Then he retired out of Muskogee, but before that, he also worked with the Creek Nation and the Cherokees. I think it was the Five Tribes that he was working with in the Muskogee area office. My mom was a homemaker all her time with us, but she was an excellent craftsperson, a seamstress, and had to do a lot of things. A wonderful cook. Too bad it didn’t catch on to me. It did my brothers and sisters, but not me. (Laughs) Little Thunder How about your brothers and sisters? Harjo I have two sisters, and I have two brothers. Two of them have passed away. My older sister lived in Billings, Montana. She was the line officer in education for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for a number of years. She was in education, as well. I have a younger sister, Deborah, who lives in Mountain View, Oklahoma. She was the editor for the tribal paper for a number of years, and she’s no longer doing that. She does her artwork. She’s a beadwork specialist, as well as a pretty good painter and drawing person. Then I had a younger brother, the oldest of the two brothers. He passed away. He was a computer specialist, technician. Then I have a brother, Hardy, who worked for Southwestern Bell for a number of years. Now he’s also living in Mountain View, and he does artwork, as well. Little Thunder What was your first exposure to Native art? Harjo I don’t know. I guess you can tell by looking around here. (Laughs) It was just stuff hung on the wall and on the shelf, just grew up with it. I didn’t know it was Indian art. I didn’t know it was an art at that point, but it was always there. We always had it in the house. I remember drawing when I was little. We’d always have tablets, and Dad and Mom would say, “Okay, here’s some paper. Draw.” Color crayons are my favorite. 5 Little Thunder That’s what I was going to ask, what your first memory of making art, yourself, was. Harjo I’ve tried to learn things, sometimes teach myself some things that I maybe wanted to know, and then I had a lot of good teachers, as well. It’s always been there. Little Thunder You mentioned all your different moves around the country. What kinds of exposure did you have to art that stand out for you in elementary school? I know you were in several places. Harjo Yeah, I was in Anadarko, and, like I said, I didn’t know there was anything different. (Laughs) I was always exposed to that. The murals on the wall in the post office, I was always intrigued by those. When I was with my family in Washington DC, of course, we went to the Smithsonian. Remember all that. Mom and Dad always made sure we got to the museums, had that experience of looking at artwork, being part of something that was going on, a festival, an event. That’s what I remember growing up with my brothers and sisters. It was always there. Little Thunder How about middle school or high school? Any outstanding art experiences that you remember? Harjo I won my first contest when I was in seventh grade. We had to do an illustration for the Nutcracker Suite, and my drawing won. That was exciting because I had never entered a contest, and the first one, I won. Little Thunder Very exciting. What school were you at? Harjo I went to Lewis and Clark Junior High. Can you believe that? Our friend, Jackie Sevier, (I don’t know if you remember her)… Little Thunder Yes, yes. Harjo …she went to the same school, but she was years behind me because she was quite young still. Anyway, we went to the same school. That’s just really kind of fun to know that there’s some people whose paths cross and we’re still crossing. Little Thunder Right.