Monroe Tsatoke
Encyclopedia
Monroe Tsatoke was a Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...

 painter, one of the Kiowa Five
Kiowa Five
The Kiowa Five or Kiowa Six is a group of six Kiowa artists from Oklahoma in the 20th century. They were Spencer Asah, James Auchiah, Jack Hokeah, Stephen Mopope, Lois Smoky, and Monroe Tsatoke.-Background:...

, from Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

.

Early life

Monroe Tsatoke was born on 29 September 1904 in Oklahoma Territory
Oklahoma Territory
The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as the State of Oklahoma.-Organization:Oklahoma Territory's...

, near present day Saddle Mountain, Oklahoma
Saddle Mountain, Oklahoma
Saddle Mountain is an unincorporated community in Kiowa County, Oklahoma, United States, along State Highway 115. The Saddle Mountain Post Office existed from January 2, 1902, until May 31, 1955. It was named for the Saddle Mountain Indian School...

. Tsatokee was his Kiowa name, which meant "Hunting Horse." His father was also named Tsatokee, and was a Kiowa scout. His grandmother was a European-American captive.

Tsatoke never received art instruction until Susan Peters, the Kiowa agency field matron arranged for Mrs. Willie Baze Lane, an artist from Chickasha, Oklahoma
Chickasha, Oklahoma
Chickasha is a city in and the county seat, business and employment center of Grady County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 15,850 at the 2000 census. Chickasha is home to the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma and hosts an annual Festival of Light celebration located at...

 to teach painting classes for young Kiowas in Anadarko. Recognizing the talent of some of the young artists, Peters convinced Swedish-American artist, Oscar Jacobson, director of the University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...

's School of Art to accept the Kiowa students into a special program at the school.

Kiowa Five

The Kiowa Five included six artists: Spencer Asah
Spencer Asah
Spencer Asah was a Kiowa painter, one of the Kiowa Five, from Oklahoma.-Early life:Spencer Asah was born around 1905 in Carnegie, Oklahoma. His Kiowa name was Lallo . His father was a buffalo medicine man. His father provided Asah extensive cultural information that he later used in his art.Asah...

, James Auchiah
James Auchiah
James Auchiah was a Kiowa painter, one of the Kiowa Five, from Oklahoma.-Early life:James Auchiah was born in on 17 November 1906 in Oklahoma Territory, near present day Meers and Medicine Park, Oklahoma...

, Jack Hokeah
Jack Hokeah
Jack Hokeah was a Kiowa painter, one of the Kiowa Five, from Oklahoma.-Early life:Jack Hokeah was born around 1900 or 1902 in western Oklahoma. He was orphaned at a very young age and raised by his grandmother. His grandfather was the Kiowa warrior, White Horse.Hokeah attend St...

, Stephen Mopope
Stephen Mopope
Stephen Mopope was a Kiowa painter, dancer, and flute player of Spanish descent, from Oklahoma. He was the most prolific member of the Kiowa Five-Early life:...

, Lois Smoky
Lois Smoky
Lois Smoky Kaulaity was a Kiowa painter, one of the Kiowa Five, from Oklahoma.-Early life:Lois Smoky was born in 1907 near Anadarko, Oklahoma. Bougetah was her Kiowa name, meaning "Of the Dawn." Her father, Enoch Smoky, was the great-nephew of Kiowa Chief Appiatan.Smoky first studied art at St...

, and Monroe Tsatoke. James Auchiah was the last to join the group at OU in 1926.

The Kiowa Fives' first major breakthrough into international fine arts' world was the 1928 First International Art Exposition in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

, Czechoslovakia. Dr. Jacobson arranged for their work to be shown in several other countries and for Kiowa Art, a portfolio of pochoir prints artists' paintings to be published in France.

Individual pursuits

Tsatoke took additional art classes at Bacone College
Bacone College
Bacone College is a private four-year liberal arts college in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Founded in 1880 as the Indian University by Almon C. Bacone, Bacone College is the oldest continuously operated institution of higher education in Oklahoma...

 and worked at Indian City USA in Anadarko as a guide.

In 1924, Tsatoke married Martha Kooma. Together they four children; Jewell, Lee Monette, Ross Maker, and John Thomas. Lee Tsatoke also became a respected Kiowa artist. Monroe and Martha lived in Red Rock, Oklahoma
Red Rock, Oklahoma
Red Rock is a town in Noble County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 293 at the 2000 census...

. Besides painting, Tsatoke also farmed, sang at Kiowa ceremonials, and was a fancy war dancer.

He was diagnosed with tuberculosis and joined the Native American Church
Native American Church
Native American Church, a religious denomination which practices Peyotism or the Peyote religion, originated in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and is the most widespread indigenous religion among Native Americans in the United States...

. He painted about his religious experiences and is credited with creating stylized representations of symbols associated with Church, such as the water birds and feathers.

Public collections

Tsatoke's work can be found in the following public art collections:
  • Anadarko City Museum
  • Cleveland Museum of Art
    Cleveland Museum of Art
    The Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum situated in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, the museum houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 43,000...

  • Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
    Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
    The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is an art museum on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma.-Overview:The University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is one of the finest university art museums in the United States. Strengths of the nearly 16,000-object permanent collection...

  • The George Gustav Heye Center
    The George Gustav Heye Center
    The George Gustav Heye Center is a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City, USA. The museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution...

  • Gilcrease Museum
    Gilcrease Museum
    Gilcrease Museum is a museum located northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. The museum now houses the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West as well as a growing collection of art and artifacts from Central and South America...

  • Museum of the Great Plains
    Museum of the Great Plains
    The Museum of the Great Plains is a history museum located in Lawton, Oklahoma, USA. The museum’s major exhibits reveal the diverse cultures inhabiting the Great Plains region beginning with the arrival of the Paleo-Indians known as the Clovis culture at approximately 11,500 BCE...

  • Heard Museum
    Heard Museum
    The Heard Museum of Native Cultures and Art is a museum located in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. There is also the Heard Museum North Scottsdale branch in Scottsdale and the Heard Museum West branch in Surprise....

  • Indian Arts and Crafts Board, US Department of the Interior
  • Joslyn Art Museum
    Joslyn Art Museum
    The Joslyn Art Museum is the principal fine arts museum in the state of Nebraska, United States of America. Located in Omaha, it is the only museum in the state with a comprehensive permanent collection...

  • McNay Art Museum
    McNay Art Museum
    The McNay Art Museum, founded in 1950 in San Antonio, is the first modern art museum in the State of Texas. The museum was created by Marion Koogler McNay's original bequest of most of her fortune, her important art collection and her 24-room Spanish Colonial Revival-style mansion that sits on ...

  • Museum of Northern Arizona
    Museum of Northern Arizona
    The Museum of Northern Arizona is a museum in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, that was established as a repository for Native American artifacts and natural history specimens from the Colorado Plateau.The museum was founded in 1928 by zoologist Dr. Harold S...

    , Katherine Harvey Collection
  • Museum of New Mexico
    Museum of New Mexico
    The Museum of New Mexico consists of six separate institutions in Santa Fe, New Mexico, including :* New Mexico Museum of Art* Palace of the Governors* Museum of Indian Arts & Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology* Museum of International Folk Art...

  • Millicent Rogers Museum
  • Oklahoma Historical Society
    Oklahoma Historical Society
    The Oklahoma Historical Society is an agency of the government of Oklahoma dedicated to promotion and preservation of Oklahoma's history and its people by collecting, interpreting, and disseminating knowledge and artifacts of Oklahoma....

  • Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
  • Philbrook Museum of Art
    Philbrook Museum of Art
    The Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma is an art museum and former home of Oklahoma oil pioneer Waite Phillips and his wife Genevieve Phillips. , the museum has a staff of 60 and an operating budget of nearly $6 million....

  • Seminole Public Library
  • Woolaroc Museum
    Woolaroc
    Woolaroc is located in the Osage Hills of Northeastern Oklahoma on Oklahoma State Highway 123 about southwest of Bartlesville, Oklahoma and north of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Woolaroc was established in 1925 as the ranch retreat of oilman Frank Phillips...



Death

In 1934, the Oklahoma Historical Society commissioned him to paint several murals. Although he was sick with tuberculosis, he worked on the murals until his death. Tsatoke died on 3 February 1937 from tuberculosis, at the age of 32 years old.

External links

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