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ONE OF A KIND / OOAK
OA / ORIGINAL ART
BY NOTED ARTIST
MELODY LIGHTFEATHER
OF THE PIMA TRIBE
THE WORK DEPICTS THE "INDIAN SYMBOL OF THE HOGAN / ADOBE - SIGN OF THE PERMANENT HOME"

HEAVY WOODEN FRAME
DARK OAK
MEASURES ABOUT 32" x 25"
THE WORK IS PROFESSIONALLY MATTED
FOUR ROWS
THE IMAGE IS 17" x 22"

THE WATER COLOR DEPICTS
NATIVE INDIGENOUS LIFE ON THE PUEBLO
WITH CONSTRUCTED STRUCTURES
OF EARTH WERE MADE TO PERMIT A MORE PERMANENT  LIVING QUARTERS FOR THE DESERT PEOPLES.
 

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Internationally known artist killed in New Mexico crash
Posted: Wednesday, November 14, 2001

The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Melody Lightfeather Watson, an internationally acclaimed Pima Indian artist whose work has appeared in the White House and Smithsonian Institution, was killed Nov. 7 in a car crash. She was 49.

Lightfeather, of Albuquerque, was a passenger in a car that veered into the median of Interstate 40 and rolled several times just west of Santa Rosa, state police said.

Lightfeather's acrylics and watercolors, based on ancient Indian symbols and the history of New Mexico, have been shown in galleries and permanent collections in the United States and Europe.

Melody Lighfeather was a Pima Indian based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico who tragically died in 2001 from a horrific car accident.  She was an award winning water colorist who also made custom designed hand beaded clothing and accessories to beaded shoes and jackets for Hollywood stars mid-late 1980's.  Melody's paintings reached people worldwide, including 5 past presidents, Barbara Bush, the White House and The Smithsonian Institution.

Education: Bachelor, Glenville (West Virginia) State College, 1978; Master of Arts, Glenville University, 1981.

Teacher public schools and Indian schools, New Mexico, Arizona, Connecticut, West Virginia. Owner American Indian Marketing Services, Albuquerque, Lightfeather Productions Incorporated, Albuquerque. Lecturer Native American arts and crafts.

Her Artwork Honored in the Smithsonian & Presidential White House

Recipient Gold medal International Le Salon Competition of Art of Nations, 1984, National Thorpe Memorial Competition of Arts, 1984, International Congress on Arts and Sciences, 1988; Nepenthe Munde International Arts Competition award, 1987; named Poster Artist of Year, American Cancer Society, 1985.

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FYI

The Pima (or Akimel O'odham, also spelled Akimel O'otham, "River People", formerly known as Pima) are a group of Native Americans living in an area consisting of what is now central and southern Arizona. Currently, the majority population of the surviving two bands of the Akimel O'odham are based in two reservations: the Keli Akimel O'otham on the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) and the On'k Akimel O'odham on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC). They are also closely related to other river people, the Ak-Chin O'odham, now forming the Ak-Chin Indian Community, and the Sobaipuri, whose descendants still reside on the San Xavier Indian Reservation or Wa:k (together with the Tohono O'odham) and in the Salt River Indian Community. Together with the kindred Tohono O'odham ("Desert People", formerly known as Papagos) of Eastern Papagueria and the Hia C-ed O'odham ("Sand Dune People", formerly known as Sand Papagos) of the Western Papagueria they form the Upper O'otham or Upper Pima (also known as Pima Alto).

The short name, "Pima" is believed to have come from the phrase pi 'añi mac or pi mac, meaning "I don't know," used repeatedly in their initial meetings with Europeans.

Akimel O'Odham and the Salt River: The Akimel O'Odham ("River People") have lived on the banks of the Gila River and Salt River since long before European contact.

Their way of life (himdag?, sometimes rendered in English as Him-dag) was and is centered on the river, which is considered holy. The term Him-dag should be clarified, as it does not have a direct translation into the English language, and is not limited to reverence of the river. It encompasses a great deal because O'odham him-dag intertwines religion, morals, values, philosophy, and general world view which are all interconnected. Their world view/religious beliefs are centered on the natural world, and this is pervasive throughout their culture.

The Gila and Salt Rivers are currently dry, due to the (San carlos Irrigation project) upstream dams that block the flow and the diversion of water by non-native farmers. This has been a cause of great upset among all of the O'otham. The upstream diversion in combination with periods of drought, led to lengthy periods of famine that were a devastating change from the documented prosperity the people had experienced until non-native settlers engaged in more aggressive farming in areas that were traditionally used by the Akimel O'otham and Apache in Eastern Arizona. This abuse of water rights was the impetus for a nearly century long legal battle between the Gila River Indian Community and the United States government, which was settled in favor of the Akimel O'otham and signed into law by George W. Bush in December 2005. As a side note, at times during the monsoon season the Salt River runs, albeit at low levels. In the weeks after December 29, 2004, when an unexpected winter rainstorm flooded areas much further upstream (in Northern Arizona), water was released through dams on the river at rates higher than at any time since the filling of Tempe Town Lake in 1998, and was a cause for minor celebration in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC) was established on June 14, 1879, and is made of two very distinct Native American tribes: The Pima and the Maricopa. The diversion of the water and the introduction of non-native diet had devastating effects on the health of the people as well. This is said to have been the leading contributing factor in the high rate of diabetes among the Akimel O'otham tribe.

Modern life: As of 2014, the majority of the population lives in the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC), although in historic times a large number of Akimel O'Odham migrated north to occupy the banks of the Salt River and formed the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC). Both tribes are confederations of two distinct cultures that include the Maricopa. Within the O'odham people there are four tribes in the Southwest who speak the same language called the Gila River Indian Community (Keli Akimel O'Odham - "Gila River People"), the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (Onk Akimel O'Odham - "Salt River People"), the Ak-Chin Indian Community (Ak-Chin O'odham) and the Tohono O'Odham Nation (Tohono O'Odham - "Desert People"). The remaining band, the Hia C-ed O'odham ("Sand Dune People"), are not federally recognized, but reside throughout southwestern Arizona.

Today the GRIC is a sovereign tribe residing on over 550,000 acres (2,200 km²) of land in central Arizona. The community is divided into seven districts (similar to states) with individual subgovernments "council". It is self-governed by an elected Governor (currently Gregory Mendoza), Lieutenant Governor (currently Stephen Roe-Lewis) and 18 member tribal council. The council is elected by district with the number of electees determined by district population. There are over 19,000 enrolled members overall.

Today the Gila River Indian Community is involved in various economic development enterprises that include three casinos, golf courses, a luxury resort, a western themed amusement park, various industrial parks, landfills and construction supply. The GRIC is also involved in agriculture and runs its own farms and other agricultural projects. The Gila River Indian Reservation is home of Maricopa (Piipaa, Piipaash or Pee-Posh - "People") and Keli Akimel O'Odham (also Keli Akimel Au-Authm - "Gila River People", a division of the Akimel O'Odham - "River People").

The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community is smaller in size and is governed by an elected President and tribal council as well. They are also involved in tribal gaming, industrial projects, landfills and construction supply. The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC) is home of the Onk Akimel O'Odham (also On'k Akimel Au-Authm - "Salt River People", a division of the Akimel O'Odham - "River People"), the Maricopa of Lehi (call themselves Xalychidom Piipaa or Xalychidom Piipaash - "People who live toward the water", descendants of the refugee Halchidhoma), the Tohono O'Odham ("Desert People") and some Keli Akimel O'Odham (also Keli Akimel Au-Authm - "Gila River People", another division of the Akimel O'Odham - "River People").

The Ak-Chin Indian Community is located in the Santa Cruz Valley in Arizona. The community is composed mainly of Ak-Chin O'odham (Ak-Chin Au-Authm, also called Pima, another division of the Akimel O'odham - "River People") and Tohono O'odham, as well as some Yoeme As of 2000, the population living in the community was 742. Ak-Chin is an O'odham word that means the "mouth of the arroyo" or "place where the wash loses itself in the sand or ground."

As was previously mentioned during the discussion of the diversion of the Gila River, the Keli Akimel O'odham and the Onk Akimel O'odham have various environmentally based health issues that can be traced directly back to that point in time when the traditional economy was devastated. They have the highest prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the world, much more than is observed in other U.S. populations. While they do not have a greater risk than other tribes, the Pima people have been the subject of intensive study of diabetes, in part because they form a homogeneous group. The general increased diabetes prevalence among Native Americans has been hypothesized as the result of the interaction of genetic predisposition (the thrifty phenotype or thrifty genotype as suggested by anthropologist Robert Ferrell in 1984) and a sudden shift in diet from traditional agricultural goods towards processed foods in the past century. For comparison, genetically similar O'odham in Mexico have only a slighter higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes than non-O'odham Mexicans.

Customs: From age ten until the time of marriage, neither boys nor girls were allowed to speak their own names. The Pima Indians believed this would bring bad luck to the children and their future. The names of deceased people were not to be uttered as well. The word or words in the name however are not dropped from the language. Children were given careful oral instruction in moral, religious and other matters. In addition, set speeches, which recited portions of cosmic myth, were a feature of many ceremonies and were especially important in the preparation for war. These speeches were adapted for each occasion but the general context was the same.

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