Customer Reviews

Fire Light: The Life of Angel De Cora, Winnebago Artist

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FIRE LIGHT: THE LIFE OF ANGEL DE CORA, WINNEBAGO ARTIST tells of an artist, teacher and Red Progressive who painted her Nebraska Winnebago memories around the turn of the century, and was one of the first Native American artists accepted into the mainstream art world. While scant documentary evidence is available about her private life, Waggoner succeeds in offering a fine biography packed with details on her dreams, Indian education, social and cultural influences, and more. Art libraries will find it excellent; libraries specializing in Native American studies that will find it a key acquisition.

FIRE LIGHT: THE LIFE OF ANGEL DE CORA, WINNEBAGO ARTIST represents a phenomenal amount of careful research on the part of author and independent scholar Linda Waggoner. I was thrilled to understand the role DeCora played in the arts and crafts movement and to learn about how she overcame great odds to stay with her art. But I was saddened to read of the obstacles she faced, the discrimination, the loneliness, the lack of recognition during her own lifetime. This is an important book that should be a part of any American Indian studies program and in the library of any art historian, not to mention that anyone with a sincere interest in art will love this story and not be able to put it down until the last page has been turned!

I found this book to be very interesting. It is a fascinating in-depth story of an amazing American Indian woman, Angel DeCora, along with an inciteful and accurate historic perspective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Lots of background information in the first 50-70 pages (reminded me of the Book of Genesis, or Tolkien's Silmarillian in breadth and scope of geneology). Once through those first couple of chapters, the book reads very well and captures your curiosity. Very well researched and written, I highly recommend "Fire Light" to anyone interested in this era and period of american cultural history.

Author Linda M. Waggoner writes a compelling true story of a young Native American girl, Angel De Cora. Destiny calls her on an alternative pathway from her Winnebago Reservation to a well deserved place in Art History.

Angel was blessed with a natural talent and pure determination to succeed. However, her road to success as a woman artist was not easy.

The author, Mrs. Waggoner, also is another "Determined One."
Her attention to historical detail with family stories
brings Angel to life to inspire a new generation.

Memorably throughout the book, Angel's enduring vision sets her apart
from all artists. Angel strongly felt that she must be true to her own individual style of art, even after studying with Renowned Artist,
"Howard Pyle."

Artistically, I found Angel to be a "Kindred Spirit,"
as she always proved that anything is possible with perseverance.

This heartwarming story by master story teller, Linda Waggoner,
is highly valuable as the book rediscovers a forgotten
and important part of Native American History.

Thank you,

Sandy Austin Stein
"Mother & Child" Native American Artist
www.askart.com/sandystein

Sacagawea Speaks: Beyond the Shining Mountains with Lewis and ClarkPirates, Patriots, and Princesses: The Art of Howard Pyle (Dover Books on Fine Art)Walk with Spirit, a Native American Approach to SpiritualityThe Painter Lady, Grace Carpenter HudsonThe Pomo, gifts and visions: Paintings of Pomo Indians by Grace Carpenter Hudson (1865-1937), augmented by Pomo gift baskets : exhibition and catalogVisions of LoveThe Determined One (Cross Stitch) (Something In Common, #023)

In the ninteenth century, the government sent Native Americans to Indian schools in an attempt to Americanize them. Not all Indians went willingly and some, like Angel De Cora, had to be duped, or as she said, "kidnapped" to make possible her attendance at Hampton Indian School in Newport News, Virginia. Leaving the Winnebago culture where women held positions of honor, Angel entered the white world, where men were in charge while women engaged in domestic duties. Angel struggled throughout her life against this cultural bias, and ultimately became recognized as a celebrated artist.

Born in 1869, Angel's ancestry included Winnebago, French fur traders, and Métis. She lived between the Civil War and World War I, when Indians lived on or near reservations and treaties changed often. She lived in Nebraska near the Winnebago reservation with her younger sister and extended family, until their father left the family when she was seven. When Angel was fourteen, she left the reservation and unwillingly traveled to Hampton Indian School.

Biographer Linda Waggoner provides detailed descriptions of Angel's genealogy, her time spent in Hampton, and her transfer to Smith College in 1891. Angel had already shown her artistic skill in Hampton and benefactors enabled her to transfer to Smith by paying her tuition and finding a place for her to live. A reserved, unassuming young woman, Angel spent her time making art, but spent little time promoting herself.

After graduating from Smith, Angel moved to Philadelphia to study at Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry under the direction of Howard Pyle. A leader in painting historical scenes, Pyle encouraged Angel to paint or illustrate scenes from her Indian childhood. However, her former teacher in Hampton had discouraged Angel from returning to the reservation, fearing that the old scenes might entice Angel to stay, so Angel went to visit a friend in North Dakota where she made many sketches and photographs of the Indians living there.

Angel became a founding member of the Society of American Indians, "a progressive organization to work toward social justice for their people." Known as the "Red-Progressives" this group of educated Indians worked through peaceful means to better the conditions of their fellow Indians. Angel continued to teach and illustrate and presented her educational philosophy to many groups/ She believed in using the inherent abilities of Indian students to incorporate their native designs into their work. Her marriage to William "Lone Star" Dietz, a white man who pretended to be Indian, pushed her achievements to the background while Dietz used her talents to promote his own art and prowess on the football field. Eventually they divorced.

Although Angel's career blossomed, she encountered many obstacles, such as the negative attitudes held by whites toward Indian culture and her role in society as a woman. However Waggoner details Angel's faithfulness to Indian ways in her art. Through Angel's art works and letters, Waggoner shows how she continued to champion Indian culture as the first Winnebago to receive a college degree and become a major artist. She died of influenza in 1918. Although few original works remain by Angel De Cora, the ones that do "bravely offered the best productions of her mind and hand and created a permanent record for her race."

by Susan M. Andrus
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women