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• Chief Terry Saul(Choctaw, 1921-1976)
• 1950
• Casein on paper
• Gift of Denver Art Museum’s Women’s Indian Committee, 1951.258

Part of an elaborate ceremony, the Choctaw Ball Dance was popularized by a confederacy of Indigenous nations called the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois (a union of five tribes in upper New York). Chief Terry Saul, who created this painting, is believed to be the first Indigenous artist in the United States to receive a Master of Fine Arts degree, graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 1949. He captures a sense of movement in his paintings by focusing attention on the main figures with minimal contextual elements.