Alice Blue Legs | |
---|---|
1985, Alice Blue Legs by H. Jane Nauman | |
Born | Rosaline Alice New Holy (1925-07-26)July 26, 1925 Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Grass Creek, Shannon County, South Dakota |
Died | January 2, 2003(2003-01-02) (aged 77) Rapid City, South Dakota |
Nationality | American |
Other names | Alice New Holy Blue Legs |
Occupation | craftsperson |
Known for | quillwork |
Alice Blue Legs (July 26, 1925 – January 2, 2003) was a Lakota Sioux craftworker, notable for her quillwork. She received a 1985 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and was a featured artist for the documentary film Lakota Quillwork—Art and Legend. Her work was seen in the epic film Dances with Wolves and exhibited in museums such as The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, the Heard Museum, the Sioux Indian Museum. Examples of her work are in the permanent collection of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board at the Washington, D. C. headquarters of the United States Department of the Interior and the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
Early life
Rosaline Alice New Holy was born on July 26, 1925 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, near Grass Creek, in Shannon County, South Dakota to Julia (née Kills at Lodge) and Joseph New Holy. After her mother's death in 1937, she was raised by her father, his second wife, and her grandmother. She attended the Oglala Community School, graduating after completing high school.
Career
New Holy remembered her mother and grandmother, Quiver, doing decorations and medallion work when she was small and she learned some techniques from her grandmother, but both had died when she wanted to learn the craft. Her father encouraged her to learn the traditional quillwork skills of the Lakota and though he encouraged her, he would not touch the quills as they were women's objects. He showed her samples in magazines of various designs and through trial and error New Holy taught herself the craft.
To make designs, quills were collected, boiled, and then dyed bright colors, before they are dried. There are three basic types of techniques then used in decoration, but only two were traditionally women's handiwork. For fringes and jewelry, quills were softened and flattened, typically by chewing as soaking them causes an alkaline reaction making them brittle. They were then wound around strips of buckskin. In the stitching technique, quills were woven through flat fabrics and the third method, which New Holy rarely used as it was typically for men's objects like pipe stems and tampers, was to braid the quills. Her motifs replicated geometric and free-flowing designs found among Lakota artists who had quilled in the past.
By the time she married Amil Blue Legs, New Holy was an accomplished quiller. His family was known for trapping and hunting porcupines, and she taught Amil how to quill. Subsequently, the couple had five daughters, all of whom she taught quilling. The couple lived in a log home, hand-hewn by Amil and covered with a sod roof near her family's traditional home at Grass Creek. They earned income by producing crafts and garments, including dresses; regalia such as armbands or breastplates; and jewelry, among other items. Concerned that the skill would be lost, Blue Legs taught native craftspeople and offered workshops at various venues, including Brown University, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, Dartmouth College, and The University of South Dakota, as well as other places.
Blue Legs also exhibited at major museums known for featuring Native American artwork, including the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, the Sioux Indian Museum of Rapid City, South Dakota, and the Southern Plains Indian Museum in Anadarko, Oklahoma. Her work was also included in a special exhibit hosted in 1977 at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Sacred Circles: 2000 Years of North American Art, which brought together 850 artifacts from 90 museums and private collections in six countries, including objects from the British Museum. In 1985, she was honored by the National Endowment for the Arts with the highest honor it bestows upon craft workers, a National Heritage Fellowship for her effort in preserving the traditional craft.
That same year, the Blue Leg and New Holy families were the subjects of a documentary film, Lakota Quillwork—Art and Legend, produced by H. Jane Nauman. The first half of the film showed women working with quills and the second half demonstrated the way of life of Blue Legs, her husband, and daughters, depicting how their contemporary life revolved around hunting, preparing, and working with quills. She was also one of the artists featured in the Sioux Indian Museum's celebrations for the South Dakota Centennial in 1987. Her work was included in the epic film Dances with Wolves in 1990 and in 1993, Blue Legs was selected as one of the co-chairs and featured artists for the Dakota Arts Congress. The documentary featuring her work, won the 1985 National Heritage Master Award and was broadcast by the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka, Alaska in 2002.
Death and legacy
Blue Legs died on January 2, 2003, at Rapid City Regional Hospital in Rapid City, South Dakota and was buried in her family cemetery in Grass Creek. She has works in the permanent collections of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, housed in Washington, D. C. at the headquarters of the United States Department of the Interior and the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
Notes
- Several sources give her birth date as July 25, but the registration of her birth in the Office of Indian Affairs shows July 26.
- On the 1930 census Alice's name appears to have been erroneously recorded as Laura, as in the 1940 census, the same aged daughter is styled as Alice.
References
Citations
- ^ Congdon & Hallmark 2012, p. 365.
- ^ Marken 2003, p. 41.
- Births, Pine Ridge Reservation 1925, p. 29.
- Indian Census 1932, p. 394.
- ^ U.S. Census 1930, p. 3B.
- ^ U.S. Census 1940, p. 3A.
- Indian Census 1937, p. 437.
- ^ Sonneborn 2014, p. 19.
- Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center 2015.
- ^ Ball 2011, p. 17.
- ^ Marken 2003, p. 42.
- ^ Larson 1977, p. 38.
- ^ Frantz 1985, p. 24.
- The Rapid City Journal 1972, p. 21.
- ^ Nauman 1987, p. 30.
- Barnes 1977, p. 5.
- ^ The Rapid City Journal 1985, p. 30.
- The Bismarck Tribune 1993, p. 18.
- The Daily Sitka Sentinel 2002, p. 5.
- The Rapid City Journal 2003.
Bibliography
- Ball, Don (September 2011). "National Heritage Fellowships 1982-2011: 30th Anniversary" (PDF). Washington, D.C.: National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 11, 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
- Barnes, Jean (May 17, 1977). "Amazing Exhibit of American Indian Art". The Del Rio News Herald. Del Rio, Texas. Newspaper Enterprise Association. p. 5. Retrieved 18 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- Congdon, Kristin G.; Hallmark, Kara Kelley (2012). "Alice New Holy Blue Legs". American Folk Art: A Regional Reference. Vol. II. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-34937-9.
- Frantz, Ann Connery (August 9, 1985). "Film is a portrait of the lifestyle of Lakota quillworkers". The Rapid City Journal. Rapid City, South Dakota. p. 24. Retrieved 18 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- Larson, Kay (November 13, 1977). "Children Delight in New Museum Exhibit". The Anderson Herald. Anderson, Indiana. p. 38. Retrieved 18 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- Marken, Jack (2003). "Blue Legs (Alice New Holy, b. 1925)". In Bataille, Gretchen M.; Lisa, Laurie (eds.). Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary (2nd ed.). New York, New York: Routledge. pp. 41–42. ISBN 978-1-135-95587-8.
- Nauman, H. Jane (June 14, 1987). "Traditional Sioux crafts on display". The Rapid City Journal. Rapid City, South Dakota. p. 30. Retrieved 18 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- Sonneborn, Liz (2014). A to Z of American Indian Women (Revised ed.). New York, New York: Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-0788-2.
- "1930 U. S. Federal Census, Shannon County, South Dakota". FamilySearch. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. April 26, 1930. p. 3B. NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 2230, lines 60-68. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
- "1932 Indian Census, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota". Archive.org. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. April 1, 1932. p. 394. NARA microfilm publication M595, roll 378, lines 4832-4837. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
- "1937 Indian Census, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota". Archive.org. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. January 1, 1937. p. 437. NARA microfilm publication M595, roll 383, lines 5070-5077. Retrieved 18 August 2018. There is a handwritten note and strikethrough of Julia (Kills at Lodge) New Holy stating she died on May 10, 1937
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - "1940 U. S. Federal Census, Shannon County, South Dakota". FamilySearch. Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration. April 9, 1940. p. 3A. NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 3867, lines 5-11. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
- "Alice New Holy Blue Legs: Oglala Lakota (1925-2003)". Akta Lakota. Chamberlain, South Dakota: Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center, St. Joseph's Indian School. 2015. Archived from the original on July 21, 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
- "Births Occurring Between the Dates of July 1, 1925 and June 30, 1926 to Parents Enrolled at Jurisdiction (Pine Ridge Reservation)". FamilySearch. Washington, D. C.: Office of Indian Affairs. July 26, 1925. p. 29. NARA microfilm publication series M595, Roll 379, lines 4573. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
- "Blue Legs receives National Heritage Fellowship Award". The Rapid City Journal. Rapid City, South Dakota. June 21, 1985. p. 30. Retrieved 18 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- "First quill art exhibit on display here". The Rapid City Journal. Rapid City, South Dakota. July 9, 1972. p. 21. Retrieved 18 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Lakota Quillwork Video on Tap at SJ Museum". Daily Sitka Sentinel. Sitka, Alaska. January 9, 2002. p. 5. Retrieved 18 August 2018 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
- "N. D. author will co-chair Dakota Arts Congress". The Bismarck Tribune. Bismarck, North Dakota. April 9, 1993. p. 18. Retrieved 18 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Obituaries for January 8". The Rapid City Journal. Rapid City, South Dakota. January 7, 2003. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
- 1925 births
- 2003 deaths
- People from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota
- Oglala women artists
- Oglala artists
- Native American textile artists
- 20th-century Native American artists
- 21st-century Native American artists
- 20th-century American women artists
- 21st-century American women artists
- 20th-century American textile artists
- 21st-century American textile artists
- 20th-century women textile artists
- National Heritage Fellowship winners
- 20th-century Native American women
- 21st-century Native American women
- Textile artists from South Dakota
- Quillworkers