Sandra Okuma Painting - Luiseno & Shoshone-Bannock, COAWIK19-02

Sandra Okuma descends from the Luiseno and Shoshone-Bannock tribes. The Luiseno are a Native American tribe that lived along the coastal area of Southern California which is around Los Angeles and San Diego. The first contacts were with the Spanish in the 16th century and named by the Spanish because of their location. There are six bands of Luiseno tribes with reservations in Southern California. Sandra lives on the La Jolla Reservation of Luiseno and this is where her father who is Luiseno Native that grew up. Sandra's mother was Shoshone-Bannock which first was a Northern Paiute tribe. There are located in northern Nevada, southeastern Oregon, western Wyoming and southern Idaho. They reservation falls in Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho where Sandra traveled to see her mother as well.

Sandra was a self taught artist. She picked up beading, drawing and sewing. She went to school for commercial art at L.A. Tech then later she worked for Universal Studios and MCA Records. She met her husband, an auto mechanic of Okinawan descent then they had Jamie Okuma. They returned to the reservation so her daughter could be around her family and culture. Sandra began to paint again and entered shows like Red Cloud Indian Art Show in Pine Ridge SD and Heard Museum and Santa Fe Indian Market. 

This painting is of a young girl dressed in Pow Wow dance outfit. The detail is very fine and colors are exact to the lighting. Its well done with a signature on the bottom left. An elegant painting to add to your collection.

Resources:

1. Indyke, Dottie. "Native Arts: Sandra Okuma" Jaunuary 31, 2006. http://southwestart.com/articles-interview/featured-artist/sandra_okuma. 

2. Website: Wikipedia.org- research: Lusieno and Bannock; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bannock_people