Jump to content

Susie Peters

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by SusunW (talk | contribs) at 19:22, 30 June 2016 (→Awards and legacy). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Susie Peters
Born
Charlotte Susan Ryan

(1873-11-01)November 1, 1873
Huntsville, Tennessee
DiedOctober 14, 1965(1965-10-14) (aged 91)
Anadarko, Oklahoma
NationalityAmerican
Other namesSusan Ryan Peters, Susie Swain, Susan Peters, Susie Schaffer
Occupation(s)Indian agent and art preservationist
Known fordiscovering the Kiowa Five

Susie Peters (Kiowa Name: Kom-tah-gya) was an American preservationist who worked to promote Kiowa artists. Born to white parents in Tennessee, she moved to Indian Territory with her family prior to Oklahoma statehood. While working as a matron at the Andadarko Indian Agency, she discovered the talent of young artists who would become known as the Kiowa Five and introduced them to Oscar Jacobson, director of the University of Oklahoma's art department. She was honored by the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians and both adopted by the tribe and given a Kiowa name in 1954. In 1963, the Anadarko Philomathic Club created an annual art award in her name. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in its inaugural year, 1982.

Early life

Charlotte Susan Ryan was born on 1 November, 1873 in Huntsville, Tennessee[1] to Martha (née Davis) and Thomas Granville Ryan.[2][3] As a child, she moved with her family to the Chickasaw Nation in the area which would become Grady County, Oklahoma and married U.S. Deputy Marshal John Swain.[1] The couple moved to Purcell, Indian Territory where Susie worked as a school teacher.[4] Swain was killed in a shoot-out over a land dispute on January 9, 1895 near Purcell[5][6] and a life sized tribute to him was erected in the Purcell Cemetery by his wife.[7][notes 1] On July 20, 1897, in Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, Swain was issued a license to marry James W. "Jim" Peters, but no marriage record was returned.[9] A second license to marry Peters was issued on October 23, 1901, and the ceremony was performed on October 24th in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Territory.[10] Peters was accidentally shot by the Ardmore, Indian Territory police chief, Buck Garrett on March 15, 1906, while the two men were at an informal gathering. Peters died the following day and was buried in his hometown of Newton, Kansas.[11][12][13][14] For a brief time, Peters managed the Monarch Hotel located at 200 E. 2nd Street in Oklahoma City.[15][16] On June 29, 1911, Peters married Oscar L. Schaffer in Oklahoma City.[17]

Civil service career

When she was widowed a third time, she went to live as the only white woman, among the Kiowa in Caddo County and was hired as a field matron by the U.S. Indian Service[18][19][20] for the Anadarko Agency. Peters identified several students at St. Patrick's Mission School with artistic talent and encouraged them to draw images representing their culture. She bought painting supplies and held informal art classes in her home[21] from around 1918. To encourage the students, which included Spencer Asah, James Auchiah, Jack Hokeah, Stephen Mopope and Monroe Tsatoke,[22] Peters arranged for Mrs. Willie Baze Lane, an artist from Chickasha, Oklahoma, to give them art lessons[23] and attempted to market their work.[24] By 1923, she was negotiating with the University of Oklahoma to help further the artists' education and in 1926, Peters had convinced Oscar Jacobson to provide them with special training under the direction of Edith Mahier.[21] Asah, Hokeah, Mopope, and Tsatoke were admitted as special students and joined a short time later by Auchiah and Lois Smokey. They would become known as the Kiowa Six and gained international recognition for their works.[24]

She also was instrumental in mentoring Woody Crumbo, Potawatomi artist, whom she met during his youth while he was attending the Chilocco Indian School.[25][26] In 1932, Peters arranged the sale of twenty-two of Crumbo's painting to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, set his career in motion.[27][28][29] Peters continued to encourage Kiowa youth to preserve their heritage annually accompanying Kiowa dancers to programs, such as the Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial, from the 1930s into the 1960s.[20][30] Peters worked with Laura Pedrick, niece of Chief Lone Wolf and Satank, to collect folklore and memorabilia of the Kiowa Tribe.[31] She served as matron of the tribe until her death on 14 October, 1965 in Anadarko. She was buried in the Purcell Cemetery beside her first husband.[1]

Awards and legacy

In a ceremony held on November 12, 1954, Peters was adopted into the Kiowa tribe[20] and given the Kiowa name Kom-tah-gya.[1] That same year,[32] she was honored by the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians, when the Susan Peters Gallery was established in Anadarko. She was also honored by the Anadarko Philomathic Club,[4] which created an annual art scholarship award in her name in 1963.[1] The archive which she and Pedrick created, known as the Susie Peters Collection, is housed at the Oklahoma Historical Society and played an important roll as source material for the four volume, two-book work, Kiowa Voices by Maurice Boyd (Texas Christian University Press, 1983).[33][34] Peters was one of the women inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in their inaugural year, 1982.[35]


[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] http://wokal.us/family/family_files/f3277.htm#f4824 http://wokal.us/family/family_files/sources.htm#52 http://www.worldcat.org/title/wayne-county-kentucky-pioneers-biographical-sketches-and-civil-court-records/oclc/423901887&referer=brief_results

Notes

  1. ^ In the early 1920s, Peters loaned the statue to the Oklahoma Historical Society. In 1959, her request to have it returned was denied.[8]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e The Lawton Constitution 1965, p. 2.
  2. ^ Ryan 2008.
  3. ^ U.S. Census 1880, p. 2.
  4. ^ a b The Purcell Register 2009.
  5. ^ The Guthrie Daily Leader 1895, p. 1.
  6. ^ McClain County Probate Records 1899, p. 11.
  7. ^ Bass 1895, p. 2.
  8. ^ The Chronicles of Oklahoma 1959, pp. 127, 263–264.
  9. ^ Logan County, Oklahoma Marriages 1897, p. 187.
  10. ^ Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Marriages 1901, p. 356.
  11. ^ Muskogee Daily Phoenix 1906, p. 2.
  12. ^ The Daily Ardmoreite 1906, p. 4.
  13. ^ The Evening Kansan-Republican & March 16, 1906, p. 3.
  14. ^ The Evening Kansan-Republican & March 19, 1906, p. 1.
  15. ^ U.S. Census 1910, p. 1A.
  16. ^ Oklahoma City Daily Pointer 1910, p. 3.
  17. ^ Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Marriages 1911, p. 398.
  18. ^ McShane 1984.
  19. ^ U.S. Census 1920, p. 3A.
  20. ^ a b c The Gallup Independent 1954, p. 3.
  21. ^ a b Eldridge 2006, p. 38.
  22. ^ The Lawton Constitution 1975, p. 50.
  23. ^ Smithsonian Institution 2016.
  24. ^ a b Wishart 2011.
  25. ^ Neuman 2014, p. 323.
  26. ^ Reese & Loughlin 2013, p. 140.
  27. ^ Neuman 2014, p. 172.
  28. ^ LeComte 1990.
  29. ^ Mid-America All Indian Center 2007.
  30. ^ The Gallup Independent 1960, p. 1.
  31. ^ Wallace 1985, p. 219.
  32. ^ Manta Profile 2016.
  33. ^ Wallace 1985, pp. 218–219.
  34. ^ Irving Daily News 1979, p. 10.
  35. ^ The Paris News 1982, p. 6.

Bibliography


Category:1873 births Category:1965 deaths Category:People from Scott County, Tennessee Category:Articles created via the Article Wizard

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Susie_Peters&oldid=727709804"