Louise Abeita Chewiwi (E-Yeh-Shure or Blue Corn; September 9, 1926 – July 21, 2014) was a

Pueblo Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...

writer, poet and educator who was an enrolled member of Isleta Pueblo.

Early life

Louise Abeita was born and raised at Isleta Pueblo,

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, USA. Her father, Diego Abeita, was active in tribal government. Her mother, Lottie Gunn Abeita, was from Laguna Pueblo.

''I Am a Pueblo Indian Girl''

To his daughter's poems, Diego brought together artists from

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

and

communities to print a book based on them. This group formed the National Gallery of the American Indian (NGAI), and published Abeita's illustrated book. She was 13 years old at the time. ''I Am a Pueblo Indian Girl'' (1939) has been described as the "first truly Indian book" by historians Gretchen Bataille and Laurie Lisa. The book depicts the life of Abeita through

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

and poetry. Themes throughout the book touch on Pueblo traditions, with illustrations by artists from NGAI complimenting her writing. This book is considered to be the first effort in the Pueblo community to document their own art and culture for non-Native viewers. She appeared in the 1940 film short ''Fashion Horizons'', showing her book to Hollywood stars.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abeita, Louise 1926 births 2014 deaths 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers American women poets Native American poets Native American women writers People from Pueblo of Isleta American people of Laguna Pueblo descent Writers from New Mexico 20th-century Native American writers 20th-century Native American women 21st-century Native American women 21st-century Native American writers Pueblo of Isleta people

Early life

''I Am a Pueblo Indian Girl''

See also

Notes

References