Editor’s note: This is one in an occasional series on “forgotten” ancestors who may not be fully recognized today for their achievements.
WARNING: This story has disturbing details about residential and boarding schools. If you are feeling triggered, here is a resource list for trauma responses from the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition in the US. The National Indian Residential School Crisis Hotline in Canada can be reached at 1-866-925-4419.
Raymond Wilson
Special to ICT
Angel De Cora was an artist, graphic designer, illustrator, teacher, and Indian rights advocate whose works were widely known in the early 1900s.
Her artwork was featured in Harper’s magazine and in a string of books and other periodicals, and, for a time, she taught Native students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania the importance of incorporating Native art and design into their artistry.
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A prime example of the importance that Native perspective brought to her works was in a book, “The Middle Five,” which included her illustration of a weeping Native boy in traditional clothing being consoled by another Native boy in a boarding school uniform.
History Nebraska, the state’s historical agency, describes her as “one of the most important Native American artists of the early 20th century,” and the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska operates the Angel De Cora Museum and Research Center in Winnebago, Nebraska.
She was born Hinook-Mahiwi-Kalinaka on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska on May 3, 1871. Her father was a son of a Winnebago chief and her mother was of French descent.
At age 12, she was taken from her family involuntarily — she said later she was kidnapped along with several other children — and placed in the Hampton Normal and Industrial School in Virginia, a school for Black people that was eventually opened to Native students. She remained there for three years before going home to her family, then returned to graduate in 1891.
She later attended Burnham Preparatory School for Girls and Smith College, both in Northampton, Massachusetts, graduating from the latter in 1896, receiving several awards as an exceptionally talented art major. While at Smith, De Cora worked as a custodian to finance her tuition.
She then entered Drexel Institute in Philadelphia to continue her art studies, where she remained committed to her Native perspectives. In 1899, she wrote two articles on her life that included illustrations for Harper’s.
She continued her art studies in landscaping, design, portraits, and illustrations in Boston and New York City, and later opened studios in both cities.
At the turn of the century, her commercial artwork for books and other publications enhanced her reputation as a major artist. In addition to the 1900 book “The Middle Five,” her works were included in “Old Indian Legends, in 1901; “Wigwam Stories Told by North American Indians,” in 1904; “The Indian’s Book,” in 1907; “Little Buffalo Robe,” in 1911; and “Yellow Star: A Story of East and West,” in 1911.
She attended and participated in several major art expositions, including the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
She met the man who would become her husband, William Henry “Lone Star” Dietz, at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. Dietz was more than 10 years her junior, but they married in December 1907.
By then, she had accepted a position in 1906 to be a Native art instructor at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, where she taught for nearly a decade and helped display her students’ works at several art exhibitions.
Dietz (1884-1964), was a controversial figure who said he was Oglala. An outstanding right tackle for the Carlisle football team as well as an artist, he later became De Cora’s assistant art teacher. Dietz and De Cora worked together and published their art projects.
Related stories:
— William Dietz posthumously inducted into Football Hall of Fame
— Reclaiming James One Star: Part One
— Reclaiming James One Star: Part Two
— Reclaiming James One Star: Part Three
— Reclaiming James One Star: Part Four
— Reclaiming James One Star: Part Five
Dietz left Carlisle in 1915 and became a head football coach at several colleges and for the National Football League’s team in Boston. The Boston team used a racial slur for the team name, which the team carried with it when moving to Washington, D.C. The team recently was renamed the Washington Commanders.
De Cora also left Carlisle in 1915 and continued her work emphasizing the importance of Native artistic traditions.
As an advocate of Native art and design and Native rights, De Cora presented papers and lectures regarding these issues, including an impressive speech at the Lake Mohonk Conference of the Friends of the Indian. She was also an active member of the Society of American Indians, a national Pan-Indian organization run by Native leaders. In her will, she donated $3,000 to the society.
De Cora and Dietz divorced in November 1918. With the Spanish Flu beginning to spread into a worldwide pandemic in 1918, she contracted influenza and pneumonia. She died on Feb. 6, 1919, in Northampton, Massachusetts. She was 47.
Sources: Carlisle Indian School newspapers, “The American Indian Magazine,” History Nebraska, and the 2008 book, “Fire Light: The Life of Angel De Cora, Winnebago Artist,” by Linda M. Waggoner.
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