Peyote Bird and Symbols

Unlike the other murals in his
series, Peyote Bird and Symbols by
Potawatomi artist Woody Crumbo is a more stylized and linear composition.
Conveying an important emblem of the Peyote Religion, the Peyote bird is an
aquatic spirit bird that represents the renewal of life. Painted from above,
the bird’s sweeping feathers mirror the tassels and design elements included by
Crumbo to flank and structure the central image. The Peyote Religion, also
known as the Native American Church, originated in the territory now called
Oklahoma and is still in practice today.

Woodrow Wilson Crumbo, better known as Woody
Crumbo, was Director of Art at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, when he
traveled to Washington, D.C. to complete his mural series at the new Department
of the Interior building in 1940. He was one of four Native American artists
who painted 2,200 feet of murals for the eighth-floor penthouse, which served
as the employee lounge. While Crumbo painted the south corridor, Zia Pueblo
artist Velino Herrera covered the north corridor. In the main room, the walls were
divided between Chiricahua Apache artist Allan Houser and Navajo painter Gerald
Nailor. The Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, insisted on commissioning
artwork by Native American artists. Because of this mandate, the Section of
Fine Arts invited Crumbo, Herrera, Houser, and Nailor to participate in the
penthouse project and contacted two Kiowa artists, James Auchiah and Stephen
Mopope, to paint murals for the cafeteria.