FOR A LOVE OF PLANES
Horace Poolaw’s particular love for airplanes can be seen years before his own military service in a photo of his first son, Jerry, outfitted in a miniature military uniform and perched on his toy plane. “I don’t know how many children in the early twenties who got to have their own little tricycle airplane,” recalls Linda Poolaw, Horace’s daughter. “That photo shows you not only what Dad thought about his son, but where Jerry was destined to go.” Decades later, Jerry would leave Riverside Indian School to enlist in the U.S. Navy before the outbreak of World War II.
Jerry Poolaw (Kiowa), Horace’s son. Mountain View, Okla., ca. 1929. 57FK19
ther and son went to combat together. This was not new for Cleatus, however, who had served in World War II with his father Ralph (Horace’s brother), and two brothers. Four months later, he was killed while carrying a wounded soldier to safety. Horace greatly admired his nephew Cleatus, and after his death the photographer committed his energy to seeing him inducted into the Hall of Fame of Famous American In- dians in Anadarko, Okla., where a bust of him now resides. Horace Poolaw documented a modern
Irene Poolaw receives the flag at her husband Pascal Cleatus Poolaw, Sr.’s funeral. Left to right: Donald Poolaw (Kiowa), Lindy Poolaw (Kiowa), Pascal Poolaw, Jr. (Kiowa), Lester Gene Poolaw (Kiowa), Irene Chalepah Poolaw (Kiowa/Apache). Fort Sill, Lawton, Okla., 1967. 45UFN5
Bronze Stars, three Purple Hearts (one in each war) and the Distinguished Service Cross. Although Sgt. Poolaw had retired from the
military, he reentered in 1967 hoping to prevent his son Lindy from having to deploy. (Army
regulations prevented two family members from serving in the same combat zone without their consent.) Another son, Pascal Cleatus, Jr., had recently returned from Vietnam after los- ing a leg. Sgt. Poolaw’s strategy failed, and fa-
legacy of service, recording his own and other Kiowas’ military achievements. “The more I work with his photographs and think about them,” reflects daughter Linda, “I wonder if photographing [veterans] wasn’t enough – he had to be in there. He wasn’t like some of these guys, like those who lose a leg, who are warriors. But these people affected his pho- tography.” His children have immense pride in the high level of involvement their father had in the community and military. As Corky affirms, “How do I describe my dad in one word? Patriot.” X
Alexandra Harris (Cherokee) is an editor and writer in the Publications Office at the National Museum of the American Indian and project editor of For a Love of His People: The Photography of Horace Poolaw, published by the National Museum of the American Indian and distributed by Yale University Press. Lushly illustrated with more than 150 never- before-published photographs, the catalogue accompanies the exhibition of the same name, on view at the Museum in New York until Feb. 15, 2015.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 17
© 2014 ESTATE OF HORACE POOLAW. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION. © 2014 ESTATE OF HORACE POOLAW. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION.
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