In the fall of 1942 and the spring of 1943, Jeff King, a Navajo Medicine Man, gave to Maude Oakes (1903-1990), an American ethnologist, writer, and artist, the legend and the sand paintings of Where the Two Came to Their Father, a War Ceremonial that was and is, performed over young men who have volunteered or been drafted into the service. World War II was upon us.
Oakes had left her home in 1941 to spend two years living in a hogan on the Navajo reservation. She made friends with King and was invited to attend this ceremony, where men headed for war were given protection.
According to King, “The story is the beginning of people, East, South, West, and North. It goes everywhere because it is full of power—good power. My story has no evil in it. It is straight. It is to save and protect people. It is to save and protect men going to war or in enemy country.”
Oakes spent her lifetime studying the religious cultures and myths of indigenous people. As she gained the confidence of King, who, like Hosteen Klah, the first Medicine man to weave traditional sand paintings, was afraid these sacred blessings would be lost, they agreed to collaborate on recording this ceremony.
He first drew the paintings on paper and, after many months of deliberation, decided to share the words of the ceremony.
Working with King and American writer Joseph Campbell, who spent his life studying myths, spirituality, and religion, Oakes created a text to accompany the 18 color plates she created from King’s drawings. The portfolio was published in 1943.
In November, I got an email from Carolyn O’Bagy Davis, an Arizona author who has written many historical books about Native tribes and the Southwest.)She told me about a woman in California who had the complete collection of the original plates and wondered if we were interested in it. Are you kidding me?
I contacted the woman and drove to Riverside, where the family was moving to the Central Valley of California. It turns out that this collection of plates had belonged to her mother and had been stored for decades. They were all framed and perfectly preserved. Amazingly, she also had the portfolio cover and the original text from the portfolio! Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up!
