Woody Crumbo

(1912 - 1989)

Profession: Artist

Hometown: Okmulgee

Inducted: 1978

A trailblazer in the world of modern Native American art, Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Crumbo was born in Lexington, Oklahoma, to his Pottawatomie mother and French father. After graduating from Chilocco Indian School Crumbo moved into residence at the American Indian Institute in Kansas. There, Crumbo befriended several Kiowa tribal members who taught him Kiowa dance, song, and flute making. Bestowed to Crumbo by the Kiowa Nation in 1931, the lifelong spiritual responsibility of Flute Maker followed him until 1976 when he returned the rights to the Kiowa Tribe. While attending the University of Oklahoma, Crumbo taught the first jewelry-making courses offered by the university.

In 1939, Crumbo painted murals for the Department of the Interior which housed the Bureau of Indian Affairs. During his tenure as the Director of Indian Art at Bacone College in Muskogee, Crumbo designed The Rose Window for the Rose Chapel on campus which, at that time, was the only recorded piece of stained glass created by a Native Person in the world. Following World War II, Thomas Gilcrease employed Crumbo to curate his Native American art collection. In the decades following, Crumbo served as the Director of the El Paso Museum of Art in southern Texas. In 1974, Crumbo returned home to Oklahoma and dedicated his later years to working with the Citizen Potawatomi Cultural Heritage Center in Shawnee.