Aug 7 2009
This article is a tribute to Fred Stevens, Jr., (1922 - 1983) Navajo Indian Sandpainter and Medicine Man who is acknowledged to have been the foremost developer and practitioner of permatizing Navajo Sandpaintings and Barbara Harris, (1933 - 2003) lifelong student of anthropology, writer, and avid collector of Sandpaintings. It was submitted by Michael Harris, sandpainting collector, who has 50 Fred Stevens Paintings. He feels this collection is probably the largest in existence. According to Mr. Harris, "Most do not know about his contribution to preserve Navajo religious designs and their significance."
Sandpaintings as an Art Form
Both Fred and Barbara spent decades trying to preserve and publicize this particular art form in an ongoing effort to retain some of the precious knowledge of the traditional Navajo curative ceremonies that were and are still being lost, following in the footsteps of some of their more notable predecessors like Hosteen Klah and Gladys Reichard. The children of both families continue in their footsteps. We hope that the information presented will help to continue the efforts of sharing this rich heritage with the world.
A Thumbnail Biography of Fred Stevens Jr. By S. Harris
1922 - 1944
Fred Stevens, Jr., was born in Sheep Springs, New Mexico, in 1922, a member of the Kinyaà áanii clan. His mother was a diagnostician and his father a Blessingway singer. Stevens' father, Hosteen Sonny Bitsuie, began teaching him the Blessingway Chant when he was six years old. At the age of eighteen Stevens conducted his first Blessingway ceremony, but his apprenticeship in other chants continued for many more years until he eventually became a singer for the Nightway, Blessingway and Female Shootingway chants. Stevens finished high school at Fort Wingate, NM during World War II, and continued his education, graduating from a vocational training program as a pastry chef.
1944 - 1952
Fred Stevens started demonstrating sandpainting commercially in 1944 at the age of 22, and began experimenting with permatizing methods in 1946. He produced some permatized sandpaintings in the late 1940's and the few records available indicate that they weren't very good, nor was he at all happy about the quality. He worked giving demonstrations at a roadside tourist shop off of US Route 66 near Lupton, AZ for several years as he worked to develop and refine a usable method of permatizing. It was during this time that he met Bertha his wife. Both Fred and Bertha worked for the Atkinson’s. Their Daughter Wilmerine Stevens was named for Wilmerine Atkinson. In 1950 he gave a demonstration of sandpainting at the Arizona State Fair. In 1952, he and his family moved to Tucson, AZ with his employers, where he continued to give demonstrations. The number of demonstrations continued to increase as time passed.
1952 - 1959
It was in Tucson during 1952 that he met Luther Douglas with whom he worked to develop a successful permatizing method. Between the years of 1956 and 1959, he did over 100 demonstrations on live television. In 1959 he did a demonstration at the Arizona State Museum. Shortly afterward, he and his family moved back to the reservation where he continued to work on his own version of permatizing sandpaintings.
He was successful in 1960, and developed the method that practically all commercial sandpainters have adopted and which is still the primary method in use today.
1960 - 1983
After 1960, he was to live in or near Chinle, AZ for the next 23 years. In 1967 and again in 1970, Bertha and Fred Stevens toured Europe as goodwill ambassadors for the US State Department, and demonstrated at Buckingham Palace for Queen Elizabeth II. In the United States, Stevens demonstrated at the Arizona State Museum, the Hudson River Museum, Denver Art Museum, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Smithsonian Institute as well as hundreds of others. Fred Stevens, Jr. gave literally thousands of demonstrations during the 35 years he was active. The number of institutions where he demonstrated is so great that it becomes prohibitive to list them all.
During the period from 1960 until 1983, he produced several hundred permatized sandpaintings, most of which are characterized by being of high quality, generally accurate to traditional ceremonial standards except in deliberately changed minor details, and on the whole being produced out of naturally colored sands or crushed minerals. It was also early during this period that he began teaching others how to make permatized sandpaintings. He started with his immediate family and the teaching spread from there, primarily to his more distant clan relatives. Research indicates that of approximately 500 people making sandpaintings commercially in the late 1970's, between 80% and 90% trace their teaching directly to Fred Stevens. (Nancy Parezo – “Navajo Sandpainting – From Religious Act To Commercial Art”, University of Arizona Press, 1983. A superior reference work, and extremely well researched. S.H.)
It was during this time frame that I first met Fred Stevens. My family moved to the Chinle, AZ area in 1967 and met him shortly afterward. During the years of our association, the family acquired nearly 200 sandpaintings, most by Fred Stevens, although some 40 to 50 were works produced by his son, Thunder Arrow, his daughter Bright Rainbow, and his daughter-in-law Juanita. There were also several by his grandsons and a couple by his brother Leroy. Many were resold or donated to various institutions such as Navajo Community College in Tsaile AZ and the Red Rock State Park Museum in Gallup, NM. At the present time, the collection is comprised of approximately 70 sandpaintings by Fred Stevens and another 30 by his various family members.
