ID#:
2009.0050.000010
Description:
Untitled (Lummi Dancer), c.1945
Watercolor on paper
Gift of Ron Kellen, 2009.50.10
Helmi's fascination with Lummi ceremonial dance is documented in a letter to Alexander Wetmore, Secretary at the Smithsonian Institution, on September 18, 1942:
I am an artist very much interested in our N.W. Indians, especially those of Western Washington. I attend all of the ceremonies and I have done hundreds of pencil sketches of their dances, costumes and face paintings. Some of the older ones are doing crayon sketches of their guiding "spirits" that inspire them in their songs and dances.
The songs of old Frank Hillaire, when sung by two or three hundred Indians, are exceptionally beautiful and should be recorded. The Indians very willingly tell of their spirit contacts and discuss tribal history and legends. I know an Indian who is undoubtedly the only one who possesses old Duwamish tales. He offered to relate them to me if I would take them down. He is blind and has tried to type them but with little success.
When I go to visit the Lummis I stay with Chief Martin, a very fine man. He kindly tells all he knows, even attempting to teach me his language. Old Patrick C. George is still living on that reservation. He is blind, but can yet recall his acquaintance with Gov. Stevens.
I want very much to do a series of portraits of these older Indians, who may not even survive another winter. Each year several go, mainly of pneumonia. I would like also sometime to write and illustrate an article for the National Geographic Society's Magazine on Washington Indians. I can scarcely think for an Indian is practicing his songs and dances. I am distracted by the rhythm of the tom—tom and jingling bells.
From Dr. Ulrich Fritzsche, manuscript of second edition, Helmi Dagmar Juvonen: Her Life and Work: A Chronicle.
Watercolor on paper
Gift of Ron Kellen, 2009.50.10
Helmi's fascination with Lummi ceremonial dance is documented in a letter to Alexander Wetmore, Secretary at the Smithsonian Institution, on September 18, 1942:
I am an artist very much interested in our N.W. Indians, especially those of Western Washington. I attend all of the ceremonies and I have done hundreds of pencil sketches of their dances, costumes and face paintings. Some of the older ones are doing crayon sketches of their guiding "spirits" that inspire them in their songs and dances.
The songs of old Frank Hillaire, when sung by two or three hundred Indians, are exceptionally beautiful and should be recorded. The Indians very willingly tell of their spirit contacts and discuss tribal history and legends. I know an Indian who is undoubtedly the only one who possesses old Duwamish tales. He offered to relate them to me if I would take them down. He is blind and has tried to type them but with little success.
When I go to visit the Lummis I stay with Chief Martin, a very fine man. He kindly tells all he knows, even attempting to teach me his language. Old Patrick C. George is still living on that reservation. He is blind, but can yet recall his acquaintance with Gov. Stevens.
I want very much to do a series of portraits of these older Indians, who may not even survive another winter. Each year several go, mainly of pneumonia. I would like also sometime to write and illustrate an article for the National Geographic Society's Magazine on Washington Indians. I can scarcely think for an Indian is practicing his songs and dances. I am distracted by the rhythm of the tom—tom and jingling bells.
From Dr. Ulrich Fritzsche, manuscript of second edition, Helmi Dagmar Juvonen: Her Life and Work: A Chronicle.
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