Allan Houser

Houser was born near Apache and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the grandson of Chief Mangas Coloradas and great grand-nephew of Geronimo. He was the first member of his family to be born outside of captivity (Geronimo and his people were prisoners of war from1886 to 1913). In the mid-1930s, Houser was a student at Dorothy Dunn’s Santa Fe art studio at the Santa Fe Indian School. In 1939, he painted mural commissions for the Main Interior Building and Department of Interior. He was the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in sculpture and painting in 1949; the Palme Académique from France in 1954; and a National Medal of Arts in 1992. Houser taught at Haskell Indian School, Intermountain Indian School, and the Institute of American Indian Arts. A prolific and iconic sculptor, Houser is considered an important influence in the development of Native American art.