William F. O'Brien
The Edmond Sun
June 22, 2009 11:03 pm
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People who enter the Oklahoma state capital building from the southern entrance pass a large statue of a Native American woman that is titled “As Long as the Waters Flow.” In front of the Oklahoma History Center southeast of the Capital building stands a bronze sculpture of an Indian warrior that is titled “The Unconquered.”
The inscriptions on both works indicate that they were created by Allan Houser, who is identified as a Chiricahua Apache. His work also graced Oklahoma license plates in the recreation of his painting “Sacred Rain Arrow.” Earlier this year the work of Allan Houser, who passed away in 1994, was featured in an exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center.
The full story of Houser’s life and work is told in the documentary film, “Unconquered: Allen Houser and the Legacy of One Apache Family,” which was made by Oklahoma City native and New York University film school graduate Bryan Beasley.
Narrated by actor Val Kilmer and told primarily through interviews with surviving family members in Oklahoma and Santa Fe, N.M., the film documents how the artist’s father, Sam Haozous, who was a member of the Chiricahua Apache tribe, spent his early years roaming what is now New Mexico and Arizona. His uncle was the warrior Geronimo.
When Geronimo surrendered to the U.S. Army in September of 1886, the entire tribe was taken into captivity and held as prisoners of war for 27 years in Florida, Alabama and finally at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. The film documents how many members of the tribe died as a result of the harsh conditions under which they were held, but Sam Haozous managed to survive and married another member of the tribe, a young woman named Blossom. After they were released from the custody of the U.S. Army they changed their surname to “Houser” and their son Allen was born shortly thereafter in 1914.
He was one of the first members of the tribe to be born in freedom. The Housers, like many Apaches, chose to remain in Oklahoma after they were freed and lived on farm land that had been allotted to them by the federal government. Both Sam and Blossom relayed the oral history of their people that they had heard as children to Allen, and as a young boy he began to memorialize those tales in drawings made on school paper.
While visiting Anadarko with his parents as a teenager, he saw a sign that asked aspiring artists to send their work to the Santa Fe Indian School. After he submitted some of his drawings he was admitted to that institution. After he graduated he moved to Los Angeles, where he became known in that city’s many museums.
Houser received his first break in the art world, it is explained, when his marble sculpture “Comrade in Mourning” was selected to be the war memorial at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kan., for all fallen Indian soldiers. As a result of the recognition he received for that sculpture, there was a great demand for his work, and he went on to produce many great works of art that are now found in galleries and private collections throughout the world.
He also taught art to Native Americans in Santa Fe and founded an institute there that bears his name. The film also documents how Houser’s two sons, Phillip and Bob, followed in their father’s footsteps and became respected Native American artists.
Bryan Beasley has provided a great service to the state by documenting how the Houser family that came to Oklahoma in chains managed to produce renowned artists.
WILLIAM F. O’BRIEN is an Oklahoma City attorney.
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