American Indian Artist: Charles Loloma

On June 16, 1890, five Hopi chiefs went to Washington, D.C., to try to secure the promise of the Indian Commissioner that the rights and lands of the Hopi people would be protected. The undisputed leader and spokesman for the group was Loloma, of the Bear Clan, from the Hopi village of Oraibi. It had been prophesied before he was born, that Loloma would be a boy and a great chief of his people. At birth he was named Choyla (Burn It All Up). When he was initiated as chief, however, he was renamed Loloma (Many Beautiful Colors). The name proved very prophetic for the great chief's grand-son, Charles Loloma, for the present-day generation Loloma is world famous for creating contemporary jewelry in many beautiful colors! His creations have been recognized as being unique and so exquisite, that President Johnson presented gifts of Loloma jewelry to the Queen of Denmark and the wife of the President of the Philippines.

Charles Loloma lives in the best of two worlds. His home and studio are located near the small village of Hotevilla on Third Mesa of the Hopi reservation. One day he may dance in a centuries-old religious ceremony in Hotevilla, and the next day jet to Paris and dine with his good friend Oleg Cassini. Fashion-conscious men and women the world over covet Loloma jewelry. Intricate designs that he creates, using bits of stone, shell, bone, and wood, picked up while he is walking through his desert paradise painstakingly placed in settings of silver or gold have a market value of between $400 and $10,000. As his grandfather before him, Charles Loloma is a gentle and philosophic man, believing in the innate goodness of his fellowmen, and the right of all things to enjoy their special place in the universe. He feels a strong kinship with nature, even the minerals of the earth. This feeling is not just for the precious and semi-precious stones he uses in his creations, but for the "humble pebbles picked up at random while on a hike through the hills or a walk along the beach."

"I feel the stone and think, not to conquer it, but to help it express itself," says Loloma.

Deeply intuitive and strongly religious, Loloma feels that his jewelry can help people express themselves. Loloma likes to meet and talk with his clients before he creates jewelry for them. After the initial meeting he feels a sense of kinship with them and is able to design pieces that will have positive and beneficial effects.

Loloma was born January 7, 1921, near the site of his present home at Hotevilla on the Hopi reservation. His parents, Rex and Rachael Loloma, wanted him educated in both the Hopi and Anglo traditions. He attended Day School at Hotevilla, Hopi High School at Oraibi, and graduated from the Phoenix Indian School. The great Hopi artist Fred Kabotie was one of his instructors and did a great deal to encourage the young Loloma. In 1939 he worked with Rene d'Harnon-court and Kabotie executing murals for the Federal Building in San Francisco. He served in the United States Army from 1941 to 1945, spending three years in the Aleutians while he was in the service.

He has excelled in pottery-making and painting, as well as weaving and sculpture; however, he feels that his true means of expression is in creating his jewelry.

Another great pleasure of Loloma's is helping young Indian students express themselves. For years he taught at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona State University at Tempe, and summer extension courses in Sedona. He was one of the leaders in the first conference which launched the Rockefeller Foundation's Southwest Indian Art Project at the University of Arizona in 1959; and was instrumental in founding the American Indian Art Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1962.

In spite of his demanding teaching schedule, Loloma was able to continue working on his own jewelry creations, and in 1963, had his first successful showing in Paris, France. It was in Europe he discovered the importance of his own heritage, and decided to try to keep his work pure of other influences. Although he was impressed by the workmanship and design of the French, Scandinavian, Spanish, Italian, East Indian, and Oriental craftsmen, the more he saw of their work, the more he became convinced that the design and philosophy of the Southwestern jewelrysmiths had its own unique appeal. It is impossible to calculate the impact of Charles Loloma's thinking on the contemporary Southwestern craftsmen. He has inspired a complete generation of young Indian artists to "do their own thing," and "not be afraid to be different!"

In March 1970 he was on the arts panel for the First Convocation of American Indian Scholars at Princeton University, and the same year was included in the book Objects: USA, which resulted in an exhibition which toured the country for several years. His second show in Paris, in 1971, was more successful than his first.

In 1973 Loloma was the keynote speaker for the American Craftsmen Council convention in Fort Collins, Colorado, and later that year his work was exhibited in Houston, Texas. In January through March, 1974, thousands viewed his masterpieces at the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City. He has been appointed to the Arizona Commission of Arts and Crafts; is a board member of the American Indian Historical Society of Princeton University; and a board member of the American Indian Center for Living Arts in New York. In late 1974, under a National Endowment for the Arts program, he spent five weeks in Japan as Artist-in-Residence.

The whole world is my home All men are my brothers But my roots are as deep in the sands of Tuwaqachi as the roots of the Ironwood tree. Taiowa, the Creator, has brought forth from me blossoms-as from the corn and the melon. I have met the Spider Woman and I know her joyful movement! I know Pöqánghoya and respect his order of the Universe. I hear the Echo of Palöngawhoya. I follow my star and give thanks to Mother Earth and Father Sun. I gaze to the North and I sit in the shade of the Juniper. I watch the bird and the butterfly, the mountain lion and the antelope And I mix the minerals of the earth to carry on the plan of Creation.

Charles Loloma has achieved success in his chosen field without ever compromising his heritage. In the midst of fame and recognition, he still tends his fields of corn, melon, and squash. He has remained true to himself and his people.