I n 1958, a Yanktonai Dakota artist from South Dakota entered a painting called Umine Wacipi: War and Peace Dance in the Philbrook Art Center’s annual juried Contemporary American Indian Painting Competition (later called the American Indian Exhibition, or simply, The Indian Annual) in Tulsa. Oscar Howe had done well repeatedly at the show in the past, taking home Grand Purchase awards in 1947, 1954, 1959, 1962, and 1963, and winning first and second place for his entries in 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1960, and 1965.
In 1958, though, the judges decided that while the painting could remain
