Houser, Allan C.

▪ 1995

      U.S. sculptor and painter (b. June 30, 1914, Apache, Okla.—d. Aug. 22, 1994, Santa Fe, N.M.), was a Chiricahua Apache who played a pivotal role in the development of native American Indian art. His works, including murals, watercolours, and sculptures made of stone, wood, and bronze, depicted such familiar Indian themes as mother and child, fire dancers, and warriors on horseback. Houser attended the School of Indian Art in Santa Fe before working for the Federal Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. He taught for some 20 years at such schools as the Intermountain Indian School, Brigham City, Utah, and the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, before retiring in 1975 to devote himself completely to sculpture. In 1992 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts, and in April 1994 he presented first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton with "May We Have Peace," a 3.4-m (11-ft) bronze sculpture of an Indian holding aloft a sacred pipe.

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