Lisa Harbison decorated her children’s bedroom for years with an Acee Blue Eagle painting and has yearned to learn more of the artist.

Harbison, along with other Native American art enthusiasts, waited in line Saturday at the Muskogee Public Library to get a copy of a new book by Tamara Liegerot Elder.

“His painting was a wedding gift to my parents,” Harbison said of the Blue Eagle painting. “I’ve always been very curious about him, and there’s not many books about him. This is the first one I’ve noticed that is about his life and his art tied together.”

Elder’s book, “Lumhee Holot-tee: The Art and Life of Acee Blue Eagle,” was released in 2007, commemorating what would have been the artist’s 100th birthday.

According to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, Acee Blue Eagle was an internationally recognized American Indian artist who had pictures hanging in more than 50 galleries between 1946-1965, with some pieces becoming permanent holdings of many institutions.

Blue Eagle was born Alex C. McIntosh near Anadarko. He attended Indian schools at Anadarko, Nuyaka and Euchee and the Haskell and Chilocco Indian Schools. He later studied at Bacone College and the University of Oklahoma, according to the Smithsonian.

He eventually participated in a program at Oxford University in 1935, toured Europe and taught at Bacone and other colleges. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Air Force. During the 1950s, he had a television show for children on a Tulsa-Muskogee station.

During the writing of the book, Elder was surprised by how much Blue Eagle contributed to the public education and knowledge of American Indian culture.

“Nobody has ever written about him, and he’s done so much,” Elder said. “It was a labor of love.”

Kelly Anquoe, 48 of Tahlequah said his family and Acee Blue Eagle founded the Tulsa Powwow. Anquoe has been doing research on Indian artists and hoped to learn more about Blue Eagle.

“There were a lot of artists back then,” Anquoe said. “I always heard about him as a child, and I thought it (the book) would add to what I have already learned.”

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum acknowledges that Bacone College’s Art Department was founded in 1935, with Blue Eagle as its first director. Blue Eagle worked to refine the Kiowa Five painting formula and helped produce what became known as the “Bacone,” or traditional Oklahoma style. The Bacone artists continued working in the Kiowa tradition. They depicted figures from legends, mythology, and ceremonies and presented them in theatrical and mysterious forms.

Harbison spoke of her painting, describing some of this type of style.

“It has the deer and crescent moon. I always thought it was kind of whimsical,” she said.



How to buy



To purchase a copy of the book, which contains 27 color images and several black and white photos, go to www.medicinewheelpress.org.