A decade ago a friend of mine turned up a painting that features a trio of Southwestern Native American dancers that is signed Niotaze and dated 1966. I could not find any information on the artist that did a painting.
A little physical detective work on the painting yielded that it was on Bristol board and that the company address did not have a zip code. That checked with the dated age of the painting. Zip codes become mandatory around the mid 60s, but you can bet some old stock sat around awhile before being sold. The frame was also a type generally not seen after the late 1960s. The painting was originally purchased in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area, although that was thin proof as to its origin. The name Niotaze is Native American but with no other name attached, the databases yielded little information. There is a tiny village of less than 100 people in Kansas called
Niotaze, but I could find no family burials with that name and more provocatively there was a reservation just south of the village across the state line in Oklahoma
.
I have looked for years and not been able to find anything about an artist named Niotaze. A few months ago I began looking anew on the internet as new information is being added constantly. I did turn up the Niotaze name in conjunction with some land transfers located outside of Albuquerque in the mid 1950s, but it didn’t make much sense because Niotaze seemed to me a first name rather than a last name. The last name seemed to be connected with Powers or Sutherland, which were not very Native American sounding at all.
Hoping for more clues, another routine image sweep on Google search, brought up a painting that was on eBay. The color palate was the same and the name was Niotaze! I looked closer and the listing showed it to be by a Niotaze! Although the subject was a southwestern looking landscape, the style and the colors seemed to be very similar. I may have found a match. Interestingly it was also signed just Niotaze but not dated, so there had to be more information available. It has a 60s style frame also.
Here is a link to the Niotaze Painting on eBay.
I contacted the eBay seller via email and found out more. The name Niotaze Sutherland was written in pencil on the back but lacked a date. The owner also provided the fruits of their research which were greatly improved by knowing the first and last names. The seller on eBay had discovered a Niotaze Sutherland Born September 6, 1909 and that she passed on October 1, 1978 in Grants New Mexico. She was married to a Roy Powers for a while and lived in Colorado during which time she applied for and received a social security number there, possibly early 1940s. She later married Jack Sutherland, date unknown, but I have to wonder if Powers died and left her the aforementioned land outside of Albuquerque in the mid 1950s.
I made subsequent searches for Niotaze Sutherland place of rest centering on Grants and moving out to the rest of New Mexico and found nothing. She may have been buried on private land or even on a reservation and no online records are available. I even moved the search back to Niotaze Kansas for a Sutherland but found nothing. At this point I don’t know her maiden name, but it would help the search.
So between the two of us and two known paintings of Niotaze Sutherland and with a bit of Googling and a few records, we have reconstructed only a fragment of what is know of Niotaze Sutherland. I am hoping this post will bring to light other Niotaze works or information from friends or family about this outstanding southwestern artist.
From the two paintings that I have now had the privilege of seeing that Niotaze created I can safely say that this artist as I have felt from the first time I saw her work was a talented artist. She may not have been one of histories great luminaries, but she was capable of creating at least two works that have held up to the tests of time and changing styles. These pieces have a beautiful feel to them that seems to say nothing less than art well done. I would so much like to see more of her work and discover more about Niotaze Sutherland
If you have any further information or images of art works by this American artist please feel free to contact me and I will post your information or images on this blog.
