Who would
expect to find wonderful art in the middle of nowhere? There I was on a ranch in Northern New
Mexico. We had passed through the town
of Los Vegas, New Mexico and gone along roads that seemed like they hadn’t been
repaved in way too long and then arrived at the 3,300 acre spread known as the
Pritzlaff Ranch.
Richard
Pritzlaff died in 1997 and left the ranch to the Nature Conservancy. When they decided to sell it Pritzlaff’s
grand nephew, also named Richard bought it and passed it on to the Biophilia Foundation, which is devoted to the
protection of natural resources and especially wildlife habitat.
This organization now wants to donate the
ranch to the US Fish and Wildlife Service as a second unit of the new Rio Mora
National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area. Herein
lies the rub: Fish and Wildlife does not
have the mandate for art preservation and the situation is complicated by the
culturally sensitive nature of murals on the property.
The ranch,
like many had been stitched together between the 1930’s and the 1950’s. As an Easterner I can remember just waiting until
our neighbors moved so we could put two apartments together! For reasons that we do not know in 1942 a
Native American artist born at the Zia Pueblo, Velino Shije Herrera (1902-1973) whose Indian name was Ma Pe Wi
showed up at the ranch. Quite possibly he went from ranch to ranch looking for
work or since Richard Pritzlaff (1902-1997) was known as a collector of Chinese
and Native American art he may have been invited. He painted murals there, not in the large
main house but in one of the outlying buildings where the ranch hands lived
consisting of two large rooms suitable for 3 or 4 beds on each side and the bathroom
in between.
Herrera was born
at Zia Pueblo and studied at the Indian School in Santa Fe with the legendary
teacher Elizabeth De Huff. Herrera was then taken under the wing of Edgar Lee
Hewitt, an archeologist and founder of the Museum of New Mexico, who had him
paint the walls of the kiva reconstructed in 1938 at the Coronado Historic
Site. Herrera went on to depict Native imagery in murals in the U.S. Department
of the Interior in D.C. and the Koshare Indian Museum in La Junta, Colorado. He won numerous awards including the Caldecott
Award for his illustrations of children’s books and the French Ordre de Palmes
d’Academiques, but his work was not
always appreciated by his Native brethren because he sometimes depicted sacred ceremonies. As the factionalism got worse Herrera decided
to leave the Pueblo in the 1930’s.
The meeting to
which I was invited as an observer was called to address the question of how the
ranch could pass to Fish and Wildlife and preserve the Herrera murals. It began with typical Western hospitality with
a lunch including a home grown Elk stew made by the ranch manager, Manuel
Jauregui. Included were Sharon
Franklet, the program director of the Ranch, who acted as liaison in this case
between the owner and Fish and Wildlife; Rob Larranaga, a representative from Fish and Wildlife; Jeff Pappas, State Historical Preservation
Officer; Deborah Jojola, curator of the Exhibitions at the Indian Pueblo
Cultural Center, Bruce Bernstein, Cultural Preservation Officer at Pojoaque and
curator at the Ralph T. Coe Foundation, who brought me and two representatives from
the Native communities. It was quickly
agreed that the room Herrera painted with a buffalo hunt was not a problem, nor
was the bathroom which appeared to be by another, lesser, hand. That left the room painted with
representations of Katsinim of the Navajo, Zuni and other Rio Grande pueblos.
(The Katsina is best defined as a deified ancestral spirit in Native religions).
The issue
was quite different from those I had dealt with when I served on the
President’s Cultural Property Advisory Committee in Washington D.C. It’s objective was to protect cultural
property from being looted from foreign countries and brought into the United
States (a laudable objective seriously flawed by its politicized execution).
Here we are dealing with two different cultures living within the same
borders. For lack of a better name we
will call one of the constituencies the Anglos (alternatively the new comers)
and the other the Native Americans, aka Indians. The Indians who are of many different tribes
(think Nationalities in other parts of the world) have their own rituals and
religions which they feel are proprietary and not for public
dissemination. Therefore, when you go
onto an Indian Reservation there is usually a sign “No Photography”. In some
cases dances that are not of a social but rather a religious nature are closed
to outsiders.
The possibly
culturally sensitive material had bumped the Pritlzaff Ranch case to Washington
and federal regulations require consultation with all those who might have an
interest in a transaction. The Native Americans at the meeting explained how to
notify the tribes so that they might designate representatives. Everyone in the room wanted to find a solution
and the State Historical Preservation Officer even expressed an interest in
consulting with the representative from Fish and Wildlife and go to Washington
if necessary. No one wanted to see the
expedient solution of painting over the murals for it would be a loss to the
art and heritage of this part of the world.
Out of
respect for the sensitive issues involved here I have not illustrated the
Katsinim but the images shown are all from the buffalo hunt.
Looking forward to learning how F&W and other stakeholders solve this one....
ReplyDeleteI fear for Richard's place if the Government has a hand in it. Unfortunately, in instances like this, the government doesn't seem to give a damn. So much art, heritage here. Save it please.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid that Fish & Wildlife still have not agreed to take over the bunkhouse and the art!
DeleteI am very happy to read this article. I was there in the mid 90's to help with the dispersal of Mr. Pritzlaff's Arabian herd. The entire situation was heartbreaking, but I will cherish the trip there for ever. We were given a tour of the home, and I had many photographs of it's beauty, and the murals. Alas, they are being held hostage by my ex's mother now. Maybe I will get them back someday. Seeing some of the murals here brought back amazing memories of a week spent with my friends and the wild horses of Rancho San Ignacio.
ReplyDelete