Lois Smoky Kaulaity (1907–1981) was a

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...

beadwork artist and a painter, one of the

Kiowa Six The Kiowa Six, previously known as the Kiowa Five, is a group of six Kiowa artists from Oklahoma in the early 20th century, working in the "Kiowa style". The artists were Spencer Asah, James Auchiah, Jack Hokeah, Stephen Mopope, Monroe Tsatoke and L ...

, from Oklahoma.Watson, Mary Jo
Smoky, Lois (1907-1981)
''Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.'' (5 May 2009)

Early life

Louise "Lois" Smoky was born in 1907 near

Anadarko, Oklahoma Anadarko is a city in Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. The city is fifty miles southwest of Oklahoma City. The population was 5,745 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Caddo County. History Anadarko got its name when its post of ...

.Lester, 519 Bougetah was her Kiowa name, meaning "Of the Dawn." Her mother was Maggie Aukoy Smokey (1869–1963), and her father was Enoch Smokey (1880–1969), the great-nephew of Kiowa chief Appiatan. Her parents lived in

Verden, Oklahoma Verden is a town in western Grady County, Oklahoma, United States. It abuts the Caddo County line, and is probably best known as the site of the 1865 Camp Napoleon Council. The population was 530 at the 2010 census, a decline from 659 in 2000.< ...

. Smoky first studied art at St. Patrick's Indian Mission School, under the guidance of Sister Mary Olivia Taylor, a Choctaw/

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classif ...

nun, and received encouragement from Father Aloysius Hitta and Sister Deo Gratias at the school. Susan Peters, the Kiowa agency field matron, arranged for Willie Baze Lane, an artist from

Chickasha, Oklahoma Chickasha is a city in and the county seat of Grady County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 16,036 at the 2010 census. Chickasha is home to the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. The city is named for and strongly connecte ...

, to teach painting classes to young Kiowas in Anadarko. Recognizing the talent of some of the artists, Peters convinced Swedish-American painter

Oscar Jacobson Oscar Brousse Jacobson (May 16, 1882 – September 15, 1966) was a Swedish-born American painter and museum curator. From 1915 to 1945, he was the director of the University of Oklahoma's School of Art, later known as the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of ...

, director of the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

's School of Art, to accept the Kiowa students into a special program at the schoolPochoir prints of ledger drawings by the Kiowa Five, 1929.
''Smithsonian Institution Research Information System.'' (retrieved 5 May 2009) in which they were coached and encouraged by Edith Mahier.

Kiowa Six

The

included Spencer Asah,

James Auchiah James Auchiah (1906–1974) was a Kiowa painter and one of the Kiowa Six from Oklahoma.Watson, Mary JoAuchiah, James (1906-1974) ''Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.'' (28 April 2009) Early life James Au ...

Jack Hokeah Jack Hokeah (December 4, 1901 - December 14, 1969) was a Kiowa painter, one of the Kiowa Six, from Oklahoma. Early life Jack Hokeah was born in 1901 in western Oklahoma.Lester, 239 He was orphaned at a very young age and raised by his grandmother ...

, Stephen Mopope, Lois Smoky Kaulaity, and Monroe Tsatoke. In the mid-20th century the group was known as the Kiowa Five. Smoky was the only woman and the youngest of the group.About the Kiowa Six.
''Jacobson House Native Art Center.'' (retrieved 25 September 2019) Finances were tight for the artists, so Smoky's parents helped them out by renting a house in Norman, where all they lived together. Smoky only studied at OU in 1928. James Auchiah joined the group after she left. Unfortunately, Smoky was not able to attend in person the Kiowa Six's major breakthrough into the international fine arts world at the 1928 First International Art Exposition in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

, Czechoslovakia, although her work was included. Dr. Jacobson arranged for their work to be shown in several other countries and for ''Kiowa Art'', a portfolio of

pochoir Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface, by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object, to create a pattern or image on a surface, by allowing the pigment to reach ...

prints and artists' paintings, to be published in France. It is only in recent decades that her place among the Kiowa Six has been restored, thanks in part to the scholarship of Dr. Mary Jo Watson (

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

) and the

Jacobson House Native Art Center Jacobson may refer to: * Jacobson (surname), including a list of people with the name * Jacobson, Minnesota, a place in the United States * Jacobson's, an American regional department store chain See also * Jacobsen (disambiguation) * Jako ...

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, b ...

. Her paintings resembled the early work of the other Kiowa Six artists. They had minimal backgrounds and focused on individual figures or small groups of people. Smoky emphasized details of traditional clothing and regalia, and she painted Kiowa people attending to daily life or ceremonial pursuits.

Individual pursuits

Her family wanted her to return home, so Lois Smoky Kaulaity cut her painting career short. Upon returning home, Kaulaity married and devoted herself to her husband and children. Her married name was Lois Kaulaity,Wyckoff, 235 and she lived in

for most of her life. She did develop a reputation for her fine

beadwork Beadwork is the art or craft of attaching beads to one another by stringing them onto a thread or thin wire with a sewing or beading needle or sewing them to cloth. Beads are produced in a diverse range of materials, shapes, and sizes, and vary b ...

, creating several innovations still used by Kiowa beadwork artists today. Ironically, because hers is the rarest work among the Kiowa Six, Kaulaity's work is most collectible. Kaulaity's figurative painting was a breakthrough for Southern Plains Indian women, because historically Plains women painted geometrical designs, such as those found on

parfleche A parfleche is a Native American rawhide container that is embellished by painting, incising, or both. Envelope-shaped parfleches have historically been used to contain items such household tools or foods, such as dried meat or pemmican. They w ...

s rather than narrative, representational work. Flora Belle Schrock (Kiowa, 1919–2018), Kaulaity's niece, said in 1995, "Aunt Louise was a hard worker... for her family. hestarted doing some beadwork, too. She really enjoyed it. And I think she had ambition

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

could have furthered... erart ability... But after she got married, she said, 'It's just impossible now with the children.'"

Public collections

Smoky's work can be found in the following public art collections: *

National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center The National Museum of the American Indian–New York, the George Gustav Heye Center, is a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in Manhattan, New York City. The museum is part of the Sm ...

Gilcrease Museum Gilcrease Museum, also known as the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, is a museum northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma housing the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West, as well as a gro ...

McNay Art Museum The McNay Art Museum, founded in 1954 in San Antonio, is the first modern art museum in the U.S. state of Texas. The museum was created by Marion Koogler McNay's original bequest of most of her fortune, her important art collection and her 24-room ...

Millicent Rogers Museum The Millicent Rogers Museum is an art museum in Taos, New Mexico, founded in 1956 by the family of Millicent Rogers. Initially the artworks were from the multi-cultural collections of Millicent Rogers and her mother, Mary B. Rogers, who donated ...

Philbrook Museum of Art Philbrook Museum of Art is an art museum with expansive formal gardens located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The museum, which opened in 1939, is located in a former 1920s villa, "Villa Philbrook", the home of Oklahoma oil pioneer Waite Phillips and his ...

Death

Kaulaity died February 1, 1981.

Notes

References

* *Lester, Patrick D. ''The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters''. Norman and London: The Oklahoma University Press, 1995. . *Wyckoff, Lydia L., ed. ''Visions and voices : Native American painting from the Philbrook Museum of Art''. Tulsa, OK: Philbrook Museum of Art, 1996. .

External links

Jacobson House Native Art Center: About the Kiowa Six

Oklahoma Historical Society {{DEFAULTSORT:Smoky, Lois Kiowa people Native American painters Painters from Oklahoma People from Caddo County, Oklahoma 1907 births 1981 deaths American women painters People from Norman, Oklahoma People from Grady County, Oklahoma 20th-century American women artists Native American women artists 20th-century American painters Native American bead artists 20th-century Native American women 20th-century Native Americans