PABLITA VELARDE

The following video is an interview with Santa Clara Pueblo artist Pablita Velarde at her home in Albuquerque, NM on May 3rd 1999. Pablita created 84 art works at the Bandelier National Monument, NM

The interview was done by Kathy Flynn, who is the executive Director of the National New Deal Preservation Association and the New Mexico Chapter of the NNDPA.

Tse Tsan, or Golden Dawn, as Velarde was known among her people in the Santa Clara Pueblo, was bom in 1918. In her youth she lost her eyesight temporarily and the trauma inspired her to examine and remember everything. Following her mother's death when she was a child, the father sent her and her sister to St. Catherine's Indian School and she also studied later with Dorothy Dunn while a student at the Santa Fe Indian School.

As a young woman, she sold her work under the portal of the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, but in time was discovered by the New Deal art program and was hired to create numerous depictions of daily life in her home pueblo, Santa Clara, for Bandelier National Monument. This got her into some trouble with the elders at the pueblo. Throughout her adult life, she proudly indicated that the WPA gave her the opportunity to become an artist and changed her life forever.

Velarde's daughter, Helen Hardin, became well known for her art prior to her early death and her granddaughter, Marguerite Bagshaw Tindel, now continues to carry on this familial talent.

As an older lady with limited vision again, Velarde, who lived in Albuquerque, began creating unique Native American dolls dressing them in their specific pueblo or reservation attire. She had many one-woman shows, and she was honored by the Governor at the Governor's Gallery and selected as a "Living Treasure" by a caring program in Santa Fe that gives recognition to significant contributors to life during their lifetimes. Her death in 2006 left her known as one of the most outstanding Native American women artists of her time.