Dreamers and Prophets

EDITOR'S NOTE: The past sixteen years represents a period of great change in Phoenix and the surrounding country we call the Valley of the Sun. The dreams of 16 years ago are realities today. Maggie Savoy was editor in chief of the women's pages for the Arizona Republic. Her dream was to see Phoenix and her Valley of the Sun as a community famous for beauty. In Scottsdale a talented, attractive and articulate Lloyd Kiva New was engaged in the design and execution of hand made fabrics and apparel and accessories of finest leathers. In response to dreamer Savoy's request for a letter expressing his feelings about the Indian, art, and the future of the Valley Beautiful, dreamer New's letter to the editor was printed in the Arizona Republic, September 1960. Maggie Savoy (Mrs. James Bellows) died of cancer several years ago. The seeds of her Valley Beautiful dreams have borne a rewarding harvest of realities. It has been several years since Lloyd Kiva New left our beautiful valley to pursue the great dream of heart's desire. He is now Director, Institute of American Indian Arts; Chairman, Indian Arts and Crafts Board, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Dear Maggie: On a recent trip to New York I was again amazed at the height of interest shown in Arizona and the West by people in the arts and fashion world of the East.

Judging by the remarks made by many there, it would seem that Arizona represents a kind of cultural frontier where sooner or later exciting things are expected to develop. They look upon the West as a place unfettered by convention, an area with a new way of life.

Fashion designers, artists, and other types of creative people continually search the world for inspirational material. When one stops to consider, there are many sources for inspiration right here at home. First of all, there is the very country itself the climate, the natural beauty of the desert, the mountains, the sunsets, and exhilarating open spaces. No less fascinating is its history of ancient cultures, as known by artifacts and architectural ruins throughout the state. A pre-Columbian flavor still exists in the lives of the Indian people who still inhabit much of the state, a Spanish Colonial heritage symbolized by ancient missions and a great population of Spanish-speaking people.

Is this not the same richness of stimuli one finds in the bazaars of India, life in the South Seas, the jungles of Africa, the mountains of Peru? Yes, even Europe or the Orient. But, really, what have we done about it? Easterners, in their looking to the West, have created an air of expectancy, seeming to ask, “Where is that distinction you have to give that great fashion influence, that wondrous school of painting, that epic poem, where is the Great Symphony?” Then, we realize that it is not enough that we clock in more cars per minute than ever before, that we build more houses per day, that bank deposits always go up. But what have we to offer in the cultural area? What do we contribute to the mind of man? It seems not enough to claim the loveliest sunsets, the prettiest desert, the bluest sky, the purplest of mountains. But what have we done about these things, and what have we made of the peculiar cultural inheritance we have? What of our native peoples?

Art may come and art may go, but few can refute the contribution made to the world by the Indian artist and craftsman. Here, perhaps, in the Classical Indian art form, we already have the equivalent of the Great Symphony we hope to get.

The American Indian expression is a precious heritage and except for occasional heroic efforts by a few individuals and various museum-type activities, little is being done to perpetuate it in a period of cataclysmic cultural change within Indian life today.

Indian art in the form of the classical ceramic piece, the beautifully executed basket, the textiles, the ceremonial costume, silver jewelry and shell work and turquoise these are the yardsticks of the artistic heritage of this ever-so-different land.

Unimportant, you say? The equivalent of these very items fill any museum devoted to human progress. How little we would know of all the peoples before us and what they gave to us without the artistic expressions to be found in the Egyptian room, the Greek, the Roman, the Italian, the English, and the Colonial American.

My comparison stops about here, since we aren't talking about dead cultures when we honor the Hopi by our interest in his ceremonies, or when we collect fine jewelry pieces from top Navajo silversmiths. We are directly linked to historic pre-Columbian America by these living Indian craftsmen.

Perhaps one way of meeting the challenge of “expectancy” from our Eastern friends and the world in general would be a program to ensure the continuation and extension of this unique regional American contribution to the cultural world.

Unfortunately, at this very moment many fine traditional Indian art expressions are dying out and little is being done about it. If this unique offering is to be continued, some special consideration must be given toward projecting a future for Indian arts and crafts through a specific program to interest young Indians in further artistic expression. It is a fact that in the whole of the educational offerings provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs that practically no art education opportunities are currently afforded Indian students. Two reasons for a lessening of Indian art today is that Indians no longer need traditional art objects in a rapidly changing Indian world, and artistic pursuits are not practical in an economic sense; and yet there are many, many talented youngsters throughout the reservation with no artistic outlets.

It is true that very few young Navajo girls can be excited about weaving like their grandmas did, or a Pima girl to spend the hours of training necessary to make a creditable basket. Neither project makes much sense as a personal, creative challenge or as a means of livelihood. But introduced properly to new media, new technocracy, and a new approach to personal creative expression, a new Indian art could flourish.

How exciting it would be to our Eastern friends and the world at large if suddenly they could find all the abstract magic of our country caught up in a beautiful tapestry, a hand-printed fabric, a beautiful painting, a handsome pot, an item of fashion, interpreted by our Indian artists and craftsmen all in a framework of good taste and of fine art quality.

A specific recommendation toward maintaining this particular and precious phase of “Arizonia” would be the establishment of an American Indian Design Center, whereby selected talented Indian fellows could be gathered together with a specific purpose. That would be to experiment in suitable techniques and materials for personal expression, based on Indian tradition, fitting themselves into the mainstream of contemporary American art.

Gold is our own back yard! This is my dream. Sincerely, LLOYD KIVA