Oscar Howe
Oscar Howe (1915-1983) was an artist born in South Dakota to the Dakota people Native American tribe. He began studying and producing art at a young age and attended the Santa Fe Indian School art program. He broke out of the traditional style that had been taught at the school with works that are often described as cubism. Howe protested the long established style with his abstract art, a decision often credited with influencing other Native American artists to break out of the traditional style.
"Are we to be held back forever with one phase of Indian painting that is the most common way? Are we to be herded like a bunch of sheep, with no right for individualism, dictated to as the Indian has always been, put on reservations and treated like a child and only the White Man know what is best for him... but one could easily turn to become a social protest painter. I only hope the Art World will not be one more contributor to holding us in chains." - Oscar Howe
1958
Oscar Howe entered the abstract painting Umine Wacipi: War and Peace Dance into the annual Contemporary American Indian Painting Exhibition. The painting was designated as inauthentic to the conventions of “traditional” Native American style.