Apache SPIRIT: Carnegie showcases sculptures of influential American Indian artist

Apache SPIRIT: Carnegie showcases sculptures of influential American Indian artist: "When Geronimo, his great-uncle, surrendered to the Army in the border state of Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1886, Houser's father was among the captives sent by cattle-car to a prison in St. Augustine, Fla. His mother was born in an Alabama prison camp. Surviving Chiricahuas were later relocated to Fort Sill, Okla., remaining there for 23 years before the majority joined Mescalero Apaches on a New Mexico reservation. Houser's family was among the few who chose to remain in Oklahoma.

As a child, when not occupied with farm labor, Houser drew and carved, once getting into trouble for turning a special bar of his mother's soap into an artwork.

From 1934 to 1938, he studied painting at the Santa Fe Indian School with the legendary Dorothy Dunn, and by 1939 he was exhibiting at the New York World's Fair, the San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Art Institute of Chicago, and had received a commission to paint murals for the Department of the Interior Building in Washington."