Susie Peters | |
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Born | Charlotte Susan Ryan November 1, 1873 |
Died | October 14, 1965 | (aged 91)
Other names | Susan Ryan Peters, Susie Swain, Susan Peters, Susie Schaffer, Susan Charlotte Peters, Susie C. Peters |
Occupation(s) | Indian agent and art preservationist |
Years active | 1891-1965 |
Known for | discovering the Kiowa Six |
Susie Peters (Kiowa name: Kom-tah-gya) was an American preservationist and matron at the Anadarko Agency, who worked to promote Kiowa artists. Born to white parents in Tennessee, she moved to Indian Territory with her family prior to Oklahoma becoming a state. While working as a matron for the Indian Agency, she discovered the talent of the young artists who would become known as the Kiowa Six and introduced them to Oscar Jacobson, director of the University of Oklahoma's art department. She was honored by the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians and both adopted by the tribe and given a Kiowa name in 1954. In 1963, the Anadarko Philomathic Club created an annual art award in her name. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in its inaugural year, 1982.
Early life
[edit]Charlotte Susan Ryan was born on 1 November 1873[1] in Huntsville, Tennessee[2] to Martha (née Davis) and Thomas Granville Ryan.[3] As a child, she moved with her family to the Chickasaw Nation in the area which would become Grady County, Oklahoma.
She married U.S. Deputy Marshal John Swain,[2] on April 15, 1891, in Alex, Indian Territory.[1] The couple moved to Purcell, Indian Territory, where she worked as a school teacher.[4] Swain was killed in a shootout over a land dispute on January 9, 1895, near Purcell[5][6] and a life-sized tribute to him was erected in the Purcell Cemetery by his wife.[7][notes 1]
On July 20, 1897, in Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, Swain was issued a license to marry James W. "Jim" Peters, but no marriage record was returned.[9] A second license to marry Peters was issued on October 23, 1901, and the ceremony was performed the following day in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Territory.[10][notes 2] Peters was accidentally shot by the Ardmore, Indian Territory police chief, Buck Garrett, on March 15, 1906, while the two men were at an informal gathering. Peters died the following day and was buried in his hometown of Newton, Kansas.[11][12][13][14]
For a brief time, Peters managed the Monarch Hotel, located at 200 E. 2nd Street in Oklahoma City.[15][16]
On June 29, 1911, she married Oscar L. Shaffer in Oklahoma City,[17] but he was also murdered.[1]
Civil service career
[edit]When she was widowed a third time, Peters went to live as among the Kiowa in Caddo County and was hired as a field matron by the U.S. Indian Service[18][19][20] for the Anadarko Agency. Peters identified several students at St. Patrick's Mission School with artistic talent and encouraged them to draw images representing their culture. She bought painting supplies and held informal art classes in her home[21] from around 1918. To encourage the students, which included Spencer Asah, James Auchiah, Jack Hokeah, Stephen Mopope, and Monroe Tsatoke,[22] Peters arranged for Mrs. Willie Baze Lane, an artist from Chickasha, Oklahoma, to give them art lessons[23] and attempted to market their work.[24] She contacted Ponca City philanthropist and millionaire Lew Wentz to help secure an education for the students.[18] By 1923, she negotiated with the University of Oklahoma to help further the artists' training and in 1926, Peters had convinced Oscar Jacobson to provide them with special courses under the direction of Edith Mahier.[21] Asah, Hokeah, Mopope, and Tsatoke were admitted as special students and joined a short time later by Auchiah and Lois Smokey. They would become known as the Kiowa Six and gained international recognition for their works.[24]
She also was instrumental in mentoring Woody Crumbo, Potawatomi artist, whom she met during his youth while he was attending the Chilocco Indian School.[25][26] In 1932, Peters arranged the sale of 22 of Crumbo's painting to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, setting his career in motion.[27][28][29] Peters continued to encourage Kiowa youth to preserve their heritage annually accompanying Kiowa dancers to programs, such as the Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial, from the 1930s into the 1960s.[20][30] Peters worked with Laura Pedrick, niece of Chief Lone Wolf and Satank, to collect folklore and memorabilia of the Kiowa Tribe.[31] She served as matron of the tribe until her death on October 14, 1965, in Anadarko. She was buried in the Purcell Cemetery beside her first husband.[2]
Awards and legacy
[edit]In a ceremony held on November 12, 1954, Peters was adopted into the Kiowa tribe[20] and given the Kiowa name Kom-tah-gya.[2] That same year,[32] she was honored by the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians, when the Susan Peters Gallery was established in Anadarko. She was also honored by the Anadarko Philomathic Club,[4] which created an annual art scholarship award in her name in 1963.[2] The archive which she and Pedrick created, known as the Susie Peters Collection, is housed at the Oklahoma Historical Society and played an important role as source material for the four-volume, two-book work, Kiowa Voices by Maurice Boyd (Texas Christian University Press, 1983).[33][34] Peters was one of the women inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in their inaugural year, 1982[35] and was one of the subjects of a play, "Jacobson and the Kiowa Five", written by Russ Tall Chief (Osage)[36] as part of the Native American New Play Festival for the Oklahoma City Theater Company.[37]
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ a b c d Bork 1974, p. 334.
- ^ a b c d e The Lawton Constitution 1965, p. 2.
- ^ U.S. Census 1880, p. 2.
- ^ a b The Purcell Register 2009.
- ^ The Guthrie Daily Leader 1895, p. 1.
- ^ McClain County Probate Records 1899, p. 11.
- ^ Bass 1895, p. 2.
- ^ The Chronicles of Oklahoma 1959, pp. 127, 263–264.
- ^ Logan County, Oklahoma Marriages 1897, p. 187.
- ^ Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Marriages 1901, p. 356.
- ^ Muskogee Daily Phoenix 1906, p. 2.
- ^ The Daily Ardmoreite 1906, p. 4.
- ^ The Evening Kansan-Republican & March 16, 1906, p. 3.
- ^ The Evening Kansan-Republican & March 19, 1906, p. 1.
- ^ U.S. Census 1910, p. 1A.
- ^ Oklahoma City Daily Pointer 1910, p. 3.
- ^ Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Marriages 1911, p. 398.
- ^ a b McShane 1984.
- ^ U.S. Census 1920, p. 3A.
- ^ a b c The Gallup Independent 1954, p. 3.
- ^ a b Eldridge 2006, p. 38.
- ^ The Lawton Constitution 1975, p. 50.
- ^ Smithsonian Institution 2016.
- ^ a b Wishart 2011.
- ^ Neuman 2014, p. 323.
- ^ Reese & Loughlin 2013, p. 140.
- ^ Neuman 2014, p. 172.
- ^ LeComte 1990.
- ^ Mid-America All Indian Center 2007.
- ^ The Gallup Independent 1960, p. 1.
- ^ Wallace 1985, p. 219.
- ^ Manta Profile 2016.
- ^ Wallace 1985, pp. 218–219.
- ^ Irving Daily News 1979, p. 10.
- ^ The Paris News 1982, p. 6.
- ^ Tall Chief 2016, p. 243.
- ^ dAngelo 2016, pp. 9–11.
Bibliography
[edit]- Bass, Jno H. (February 21, 1895). "From Johnson". Muskogee, Oklahoma: Our Brother in Red. Retrieved 28 June 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- Bork, June Baldwin, ed. (1974). Wayne County, Kentucky pioneers: biographical sketches and civil court records. Vol. 4. Huntington Beach, California: JB Bork. OCLC 423901887.
- dAngelo, Sarah (2016). "A Creation Story". In dAngelo, Sarah; Grijalva, Regina McManigell (eds.). The Native American New Play Festival: A Four Year Celebration. South Gate, California: NoPassport Press. pp. 5–14. ISBN 978-1-365-01825-1.
- Eldridge, Laurie A. (October 2006). Ruthe Blalock Jones: Native American Artist and Educator (Ph.D.). Ann Arbor, Michigan. ISBN 978-0-542-85004-2.
- LeComte, Richard (September 23, 1990). "Daughter Examines the Art of Crumbo". The Lawrence Journal-World. Lawrence, Kansas. Archived from the original on June 30, 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
- McShane, Bernice (May 27, 1984). "Scrapbooks Hold Women's History". Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: News OK. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- Neuman, Lisa K. (2014). Indian Play: Indigenous Identities at Bacone College. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-4945-5.
- Reese, Linda W.; Loughlin, Patricia, eds. (2013). Main Street Oklahoma: Stories of Twentieth-Century America. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-5056-7.
- Tall Chief, Russ (2016). "Jacobson and the Kiowa Five". In dAngelo, Sarah; Grijalva, Regina McManigell (eds.). The Native American New Play Festival: A Four Year Celebration. South Gate, California: NoPassport Press. pp. 243–367. ISBN 978-1-365-01825-1.
- Wallace, Ernest (Spring 1985). "Reviewed Work: Kiowa Voices: Myths, Legends and Folktales by Maurice Boyd". American Indian Quarterly. 9 (2). Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press: 218–220. doi:10.2307/1184594. ISSN 0095-182X. JSTOR 1184594.
- Wishart, David J., ed. (2011). "Kiowa Six". Plains Humanities. University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Nebraska: Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. Archived from the original on August 24, 2012. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
- "1880 US Federal Census". FamilySearch. Huntsville, Tennessee: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. June 1, 1880. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- "1910 US Federal Census". FamilySearch. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. April 15, 1910. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
- "1920 US Federal Census". FamilySearch. Caddo County, Oklahoma: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. June 20, 1920. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
- "Ceremonial Ends on Success Note". Gallup, New Mexico: The Gallup Independent. August 15, 1960. Retrieved 30 June 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Died with Their Boots on". Guthrie, Oklahoma: The Guthrie Daily Leader. January 11, 1895. Retrieved 28 June 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Garrett's Trial". The Daily Ardmoreite. Ardmore, Oklahoma. March 28, 1906. Retrieved 28 June 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "James Peters Buried". Newton, Kansas: The Evening Kansan-Republican. March 19, 1906. Retrieved 28 June 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Jim Peters". Muskogee, Oklahoma: Muskogee Daily Phoenix. March 18, 1906. Retrieved 28 June 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "John Swain". FamilySearch. Purcell, Oklahoma: McClain County, Oklahoma Probate Administration records 1895-1907, Vol. A. May 15, 1899. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- "Kiowa life recorded". Irving, Texas: Irving Daily News. November 7, 1979. Retrieved 29 June 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Kiowas Adopt Pioneer Woman Who Brought Them Arts, Crafts". Gallup, New Mexico: The Gallup Independent. November 12, 1954. Retrieved 29 June 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Marriage Record". FamilySearch. Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory: Logan County, Oklahoma Marriage records March 1897-March 1899, Vol. 3. July 20, 1897. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- "Marriage Record". FamilySearch. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Territory: Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Marriage records 1900-1902, Vol. 5. October 24, 1901. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- "Marriage Record". FamilySearch. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Territory: Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Marriage records 1911, Vol. 17. June 29, 1911. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- "Monarch Hotel". Vol. 4, no. 294. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Oklahoma City Daily Pointer. January 6, 1910. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
- "Mopope Indian Art Exhibit Opens Today". Lawton, Oklahoma: The Lawton Constitution. November 16, 1975. Retrieved 29 June 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Mrs. Susie Peters". Lawton, Oklahoma: The Lawton Constitution. October 15, 1965. Retrieved 28 June 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Mural attracts visitors". Purcell, Oklahoma: The Purcell Register. March 19, 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
- "Official Minutes of the Quarterly Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Oklahoma Historical Society". The Chronicles of Oklahoma. 37. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Historical Society. 1959. ISSN 0009-6024. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
- "Pochoir prints of ledger drawings by the Kiowa Five, 1929 (Manuscript 7536)". Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
- "Railroad News". Newton, Kansas: The Evening Kansan-Republican. March 16, 1906. Retrieved 28 June 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Susan Peters Gallery". Manta. 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
- "Women's Day Saturday at Okla. state capitol". The Paris News. Paris, Texas. September 30, 1982. Retrieved 30 June 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Woody Crumbo: a legacy of culture and keeper of the plains". Mid-America All Indian Center. Wichita, Kansas: Mid-America All Indian Center. April 3, 2007. Archived from the original on 20 June 2007. Retrieved 30 June 2016.