The Buffalo Dance
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
In The Buffalo Dance, Zia Pueblo artist Velino Herrera stages a line of four drummers next to six dancers in a nondescript background. By doing so, he focuses the viewer’s attention on the movement of the dancers and the colorful ceremonial clothing they wear. Two dancers impersonate the buffalo and wear headdresses with prayer feathers. Next to them, deer dancers mimic the movement of deer. Herrera described the buffalo dance as “a feast or ceremony” that took place long ago after hunters returned from a buffalo hunt. “Today,” he noted, “the Indians dance only in memory of long ago buffalo hunts.” Fittingly, Herrera painted a mural of The Buffalo Chase next to The Buffalo Dance, suggesting their relationship to one another.
Velino Shije Herrera, also known as Ma Pe Wi, was commissioned in 1939 to create a series of murals at the new Department of the Interior building in Washington, D.C. 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 Herrera painted the north corridor, Potawatomi artist Woody Crumbo covered the south 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 at the time, Harold Ickes, insisted on commissioning artworks 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 commissioned two Kiowa artists, James Auchiah and Stephen Mopope, to paint murals for the cafeteria.Velino Shije Herrera, also known as Ma Pe Wi, was commissioned in 1939 to create a series of murals at the new Department of the Interior building in Washington, D.C. 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 Herrera painted the north corridor, Potawatomi artist Woody Crumbo covered the south 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 at the time, Harold Ickes, insisted on commissioning artworks 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 commissioned two Kiowa artists, James Auchiah and Stephen Mopope, to paint murals for the cafeteria.
