Funeral of Agnes (Mrs. Abel) Bigbow (Kiowa), Hog Creek, Okla., 1947.


volvement: deacons smiling outside of church, military men and gatherings that honor mili- tary service, men and boys displaying their fishing catch, sports teams and school bands, Native people dressed in regalia at fairs and social dances. Many photographs show Native people at the American Indian Exposition in Poolaw’s hometown, Anadarko, which at the time hosted the largest annual Native fair in the United States. In all these images, whether happy or serious, a sense of security abounds, and the buzzing civic life of rural Oklahoma comes forward. Poolaw trained under two commercial


photographers, George Long and John Coyle. He used professional cameras, and sold some of his photographs and postcards. He worked a variety of jobs during his lifetime. He oversaw Native arts and crafts for a federal agency during the New Deal and served in the Army Air Forces at MacDill Field in Florida through World War II, where his responsi- 82 AMERICAN INDIAN SUMMER/FALL 2014


bilities included teaching aerial photography. On returning to Oklahoma, he made a living by raising cattle. Poolaw’s interest in commemorating mili-


tary service reflects a family legacy in line with the Kiowa warrior tradition. His father, Kiowa George Poolaw (Kiowa), served in Troop L of the U.S. Calvary at Fort Sill, Okla.. Horace Poolaw’s sons all served in the military, and he was related to his photographic subject Pas- cal Cleatus Poolaw, Sr., who would become the most decorated American Indian soldier in U.S. history, serving in three wars until his death in Vietnam. Exhibitions of Poolaw’s work have been


shown at Stanford University, and his photog- raphy was included in the Museum of Modern Art exhibition Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the American West. The exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York was made possible through the digital restoration of the negatives held by the


University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. In 2008, University of Wisconsin–Madison students scanned the extant negatives of Poolaw’s photographs under the direction of Tom Jones (Ho-Chunk) and Nancy Marie Mithlo (Chiricahua Apache) through the Poolaw Photography Project, which began with the research of Linda Poolaw (Kiowa/ Delaware) on her father’s photography in 1989 at Stanford University. Visitors interested in learning more may


attend programs on Saturday, Nov. 22, with exhibition curators Jones and Mithlo, the photographer’s daughter Linda Poolaw, and art historian Laura Smith. Poolaw’s contributions to American pho-


tography continue to attract more notice, while providing insight into the values and community life of his time. X


Margaret Sagan is visitor services manager at the National Museum of the American Indian–New York.


©2014 ESTATE OF HORACE POOLAW


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