Buffalo Dance

Tonita Peña (Quah Ah, translated as “White Coral Beads”) was one of the most significant Pueblo painters of the early to mid-twentieth century. She descended from a leading family of potters—both in the San Ildefonso and Cochiti Pueblos. Like other young Pueblo women, she was taught traditional pottery making by her relatives. Peña was also encouraged by a Euro-American instructor to experiment with painting and drawing on paper, documenting Pueblo life, especially Tewa ceremonies and their ritual dances.

Peña was the first Pueblo woman to paint works on paper as freestanding artistic expressions. As painting was generally associated with Indigenous men, she was an innovator both within her Pueblo community and the Euro-American art world, successfully selling her art to support her growing family. Peña also supplemented her income by teaching at the Santa Fe Indian School, where she inspired the next generation of Pueblo artists. She exhibited her watercolors in a range of venues, from New York City to abroad, including at the 1932 Venice Biennale—the first time Native American artists were featured in the major international display.

The highly detailed and vividly colored frieze-like arrangement of Buffalo Dance, set against a neutral undefined background, is representative of the Pueblo watercolor style. In this striking work, Peña depicts four participants in the buffalo dance, one of the animal dances she witnessed multiple times in her Pueblo community and one that became a frequent subject of her art. Distinctive from Peña’s other buffalo-dance scenes, this watercolor focuses on four large figures, viewed from the side—two men and two women—rendered with greater individuality in their dress as well as facial features and expressions, perhaps indicating they were known community members.