Sharron Ahtone Harjo


Marcelle Sharron Ahtone Harjo is a Kiowa painter from Oklahoma. Her Kiowa name, Sain-Tah-Oodie, translates to "Killed With a Blunted Arrow." In the 1960s and 1970s, she and sister Virginia Stroud were instrumental in the revival of ledger art, a Plains Indian narrative pictorial style on paper or muslin.

Background

Sharron Ahtone Harjo's parents were Evelyn Tahome and Jacob Ahtone. Evelyn's parents were A. Jane Goombi and Stephen "Tahome" Poolant. Jacob served as Kiowa Tribal chairman from 1978 to 1980. Jacob's parents were Tahdo and Samuel Ahtone. Samuel attended the Hampton Institute in Virginia and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Samuel was a ledger artist.
Her great-grandmother, Millie Durgan, was taken captive by the Kiowas as a young girl. Durgan acculturated into Kiowa society and became a renowned cradleboard-maker.
In 1963, Ahtone Harjo graduated from Billings West High School in Billings, Montana. She studied art under Southern Cheyenne artist Dick West at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, from 1963 to 1965. In 1965, she earned her AA from Bacone and earned her BA from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
In 1965, Ahtone Harjo was chosen as Miss Indian America.

Art career

Sharron Ahtone Harjo paints in acrylic, oil, gouache, and watercolor. In the 1970s, Ahtone began showing her work professionally. Due to the lack of acceptance for women artists in her area and nationally, she exhibited under the name Ahtone Harjo. She later taught art in schools.

Personal

Ahtone Harjo primarily lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, although she also stays in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is from the Zoltone District 2 of the Kiowa tribal nation. Her sister is Deborah Ahtone, a Kiowa visual artist and writer. Sharron is married to Amos Harjo. Their daughter Tahnee Ahtoneharjo-Growingthunder is a successful beadwork and textile artist, and an American art curator and museum administrator. Ahtone Harjo is the mother-in-law to artist George Growingthunder, son of Joyce Growing Thunder Fogarty.

Public collections

Sharron Ahtone Harjo's work can be found in the following public collections.