Background
Plenty
Coups
Coups
Lone Wolf
(Guipago)
(Guipago)
I was born in a small West Texas town named Colorado City, located on the Colorado River, in an area where the Comanches and Kiowas once roamed, and where buffalo hunters once camped, at a nearby watering hole named Seven Wells. The historic Spade Ranch also lies just south of town.
Lone Wolf Creek, named after the Kiowa chieftain, ran through the middle of town,
Lone Wolf Creek, named after the Kiowa chieftain, ran through the middle of town,
and Lone Wolf Mountain lay northeast of town, so from about the age of six I began to be aware of Indian life. As soon as I learned to read, I devoured everything I could find in the town’s small library about Lone Wolf, Plenty Coups (a Crow, made famous among whites by the author Frank B. Linderman), and other famous Indians. Before long, I began “thinking Indian,” building up an affinity with the American Indian that has only intensified over the decades.
Among other things, this has led to a lifetime of writing, illustrating, painting and the crafting of objects, all centered on Indian life and imagery, and to the study of Indian cultures, eventually concentrating on the Hopi, and to a lesser extent Zuni and other New Mexico Pueblo people. This deep and abiding interest also led to friendships with Hopis and with Ekkehart Malotki, a noted scholar of the Hopi language and rock art, with whom I’ve worked on editing, writing, and illustrating a number of books, including providing a number of drawings for the first Hopi dictionary, which has been lauded by critics.
Among other things, this has led to a lifetime of writing, illustrating, painting and the crafting of objects, all centered on Indian life and imagery, and to the study of Indian cultures, eventually concentrating on the Hopi, and to a lesser extent Zuni and other New Mexico Pueblo people. This deep and abiding interest also led to friendships with Hopis and with Ekkehart Malotki, a noted scholar of the Hopi language and rock art, with whom I’ve worked on editing, writing, and illustrating a number of books, including providing a number of drawings for the first Hopi dictionary, which has been lauded by critics.
