InnoNative Consulting

Oscar Howe broke norms and redefined design expectations.

He was born on May 9, 1915, at Joe Creek, South Dakota, on the Crow Creek Reservation. He identified as a Yanktonai Dakota man.

At the age of seven, Howe was sent to the Pierre Indian Boarding School, which sought to assimilate its students by forcing them away from their Indigenous cultural practices. Howe did not know English and endured violent behavior because of it. He ended up losing months of education when he was sent home due to a medical condition that was dismissed as incurable.

In 1938, he graduated from the Santa Fe Indian School and was encouraged by his teacher, Dorothy Dunn, to use his Indian culture to inspire his artwork. By 1940, he joined the South Dakota Artists Project and began making public artworks. Howe served three years in the U.S. military before enrolling at Dakota Wesleyan University in 1948 to earn his undergraduate degree.

As Howe developed his early work, he extended beyond his boundaries and developed a more abstract approach to painting. He continued to develop his skills while earning his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1954.

Howe worked as the art director at T.F. Riggs High School in Pierre, South Dakota. In 1957, he was given a professorship at the University of South Dakota in Vermilion, where he continued his teaching for 25 years.

In 1958, Howe submitted artwork to the Philbrook competition. This artwork completely defied the jury's expectations and resulted in a rejection letter, which Howe refuted on the grounds that his paintings are the "traditional Indian style" and that whoever disagrees has a poor knowledge of Indian art. His rebuttal letter led Philbrook to change their rules.

Howe is widely credited with opening museums to a greater range of styles and expressions by Indigenous artists. His art has been displayed at many museums, such as the Plains Art Museum, the South Dakota Art Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, and more.

Today, Howe's achievements stand as a beacon, altering the landscape of Native American art and empowering Indigenous voices.

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