Qoyawayma, Polingaysi 1892(?)-1990

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QOYAWAYMA, Polingaysi 1892(?)-1990

PERSONAL: Christian name Elizabeth Qoyawayma; born c. 1892, in Oraibi, AZ; died 1990; married Lloyd White, 1931. Education: Attended Bethel Academy, KS, 1910, and Bible Institute, Los Angeles, CA.

CAREER: Painter and potter, with solo and group exhibitions and permanent collection at Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ. Teacher at Hopi and Navajo reservations, early 1930s-54; operator of guest house for academics and writers at a Hopi reservation. Hopi Scholarship Fund, founder, 1959.

AWARDS, HONORS: Distinguished Service Award, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1954; Museum of Northern Arizona honor, 1976; Gold Medal and Arizona Indian Living Treasure tribute, Heard Museum, 1978; outstanding alumna award, Bethel College, 1979; Arizona Author Award, Arizona State Library Association and Libraries Limited Group, 1989; inducted into Arizona Women's Hall of Fame, 1991.

WRITINGS:

The Sun Girl (juvenile), [Phoenix, AZ], 1941, reprinted as The Sun Girl: A True Story about Dawamana, the Little Hopi Indian Maid of Old Oraibi in Arizona—and of How She Learned to Dance the Butterfly Dance at Moencopi, Museum of Northern Arizona Press (Flagstaff, AZ), 1978.

(With Vada F. Carlson) No Turning Back: A True Account of a Hopi Indian Girl's Struggle to Bridge the Gap between the World of Her People and the World of the White Man (autobiography), University of New Mexico Press (Albuquerque, NM), 1964.

(With Vada F. Carlson) Broken Pattern: Sunlight and Shadows of Hopi History, Naturegraph Publishers (Happy Camp, CA), 1985.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Linder, Jo, editor, When I Met Polingaysi underneath the Cottonwood Tree, privately printed, 1983.

Polingaysi Qoyawayma (Elizabeth Q. White), Arizona Women's Hall of Fame (Phoenix, AZ), 1991.

Qoyawayma, Polingaysi, and Vada F. Carlson, No Turning Back: A True Account of a Hopi Indian Girl's Struggle to Bridge the Gap between the World of Her People and the World of the White Man (autobiography), University of New Mexico Press (Albuquerque, NM), 1964.

St. James Guide to Native North American Artists, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1998, pp. 476-477.

Trimble, Stephen A., Talking with the Clay, [Santa Fe, NM], 1987.