Apache “Maiden’s Puberty Rite” [R]

Pop Pina was the daughter of Pop Chalee of Taos Pueblo. Her English name was Betty Jean Hopkins.  She lived with her parents at Taos Pueblo until her father, who was proficient with metal working, was hired to work at the secretive Manhattan Project at Los Alamos in 1943. 

Pop Pina was enrolled in the Santa Fe Indian School in 1935 at age 9, but when her dad was hired as a teacher, she had to leave because children of teachers were not allowed to attend.  She then was transferred to public school.  In the early 1940s she was enrolled at Loretto Academy in Santa Fe in the hopes of her mom that that would settle down the mischievous child.  She then attended school at Los Alamos during the two years her family lived there.

There is very little information regarding the art of Pop Pina.  She probably did not paint often as she feared to compete with her famous mother, Pop Chalee.  This is the only painting of the artist we have had, so it is difficult to describe her style or competence.  One painting does not define an artist.

Interestingly, she chose to paint an Apache ceremony, that of a young Apache girl undergoing a puberty ceremony officiated by Apache Gaan Dancers.  Perhaps she witnessed one of these July ceremonies and decided to paint the subject.  It appears to be watercolor on paper, is signed but not dated.

Recommended Reading: The World of Flower Blue: Pop Chalee an Artistic Biography by Margaret Cesa.  This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery.

Condition: original condition

Provenance: from the collection of a mid-western gentleman