Acee Blue Eagle

An indigenous artist from Oklahoma, Alex C. Mackintosh was born in 1907 with Creek and Scottish ancestry. He attended the Chilocco federal Boarding school for Native Americans in Newkirk Oklahoma, it was there that he took on the name Acee Blue Eagle to honor his heritage. The name “Blue Eagle” was reportedly from his mother’s family; this matrilineal approach to last names is traditional and accepted in many indigenous cultures. After graduating from Chilocco he would go on to attend the Bacone Indian College and from there he was accepted to study art at the University of Oklahoma, where a special program had been founded to foster Native American art. Acee Blue Eagle would go on to exhibit his art with a prominent group of artists from this program known today as the Kiowa Six, though Acee himself was not Kiowa he was an informal member of this group. Acee Blue Eagle established himself not only as a well-known artist but also as a performer. He exhibited work across the U.S. and Europe. His work was purchased by many museums and foreign dignitaries. He was also a mural painter for the WPA program and painted several murals in Oklahoma. Towards the end of his life and career, he began experimenting with printing techniques and design work including designing a set of souvenir glasses for Knox Oil, and a line of greeting cards. He illustrated books as well, even writing a few of his own, including one on Oklahoma Indian Painting and Poetry that was published the year he passed away. To the very end, Acee was an ardent supporter of Oklahoma Indian artists and traditions.

1907 – b Oklahoma, as Alex C. MacIntosh
1928 – Graduated from Bacone Indian College in Muskogee
1931-1932 – Attended University of Oklahoma to study art under Oscar Jacobson
1932 – Wrote and illustrated Echogee: The Little Blue Deer, a children’s book with full-color Illustrations
1934 – First public commissions for murals through the WPA
1934 – Paints murals in Mitchell Hall Theater on the UCO Campus
1935 – Travels to Oxford University to lecture on Native American Art
1935 – Accepts a teaching position at Bacone as the founding director of the new Art Department
1938 – Leaves his position at Bacone to practice art full-time
1950 – UCO theater murals are painted over in an effort to redecorate
1954 – begins exploring a career as a commercial artist including creating a line of greeting cards
1956 – Illustrates Mae Abbott’s book Oklahoma: Indian Cook Book
1959 – Writes and publishes Oklahoma Indian Painting–Poetry
1959 – died penniless in a veterans hospital in Muskogee of liver failure, at 52
1971 – Echogee: The Little Blue Deer is finally published

Acee Blue Eagle, Oklahoma Indian Painting–Poetry (Tulsa, Okla.: Acorn Publishing Co., 1959).

Abbott, M. W. (1956). Oklahoma Indian cook book, the best Indian recipes from the best Indian state / y Mae Abbott. (1st ed.). Acorn Printing.

American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning. (n.d.). “Kill the Indian, and Save the Man”: Capt. Richard H. Pratt on the Education of Native Americans. History Matters, The US Survey Course on the Web. Retrieved June 9, 2022, from http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4929

Anthes, B. (2014). Why Injun Artist Me. In Native Diasporas (p. 411). UNP - Nebraska Paperback.

Blue Eagle, A. (1971). Echogee : The little blue deer (Second ed.).

Blue Eagle, A., & University of Central Oklahoma. Library. Special Collections/Archives. (1959). Oklahoma Indian painting - poetry. Tulsa, Okla.: Acorn Publishing.

Broder, P. (1981). American Indian Painting and Sculpture. Abbeville Press.

Edmon Low Library. (n.d.). Chilocco Indian Agricultural School Collection. Oklahoma State University Library. Retrieved June 9, 2022, from https://library.okstate.edu/search-and-find/collections/digital-collections/chilocco-indian-agricultural-school-photo-collection/

Elder, T. (2006). Lumhee Holot-Tee : The art and life of Acee Blue Eagle.

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. (n.d.). Kiowa Agency: Stories of the Six. Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma. Retrieved June 9, 2022, from https://www.ou.edu/fjjma/exhibitions1/past-exhibitions/2020-/KiowaAgency

Kelly, M. (1991). Acee Blue Eagle Glasses. Promotional Glass Collectors Association. Retrieved June 9, 2022, from http://www.pgcaglassclub.com/articles_archives/acee.htm

Lee, R. (1995, November 3). Knox Oil Co. Offered Glasses. The Oklahoman. Retrieved June 9, 2022, from https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1995/11/03/knox-oil-co-offered-glasses/62374538007/

Lester, P. (1995). The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters. SIR Publications.

Miner, J. (2018). Remediating the "famous indian artist": Native aesthetics beyond tourism and tragedy. Studies in American Indian Literatures, 30(2), 79-105. https://libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.libproxy.uco.edu/scholarly-journals/remediating-famous-indian-artist-native/docview/2063292811/se-2?accountid=14516

Neuman, L.. (2014). Marketing Culture. In Indian Play. University of Nebraska Press - Nebraska.

Official Report of the Nineteenth Annual Conference of Charities and Correction (1892), 46–59. Reprinted in Richard H. Pratt, “The Advantages of Mingling Indians with Whites,” Americanizing the American Indians: Writings by the “Friends of the Indian” 1880–1900 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973), 260–271.

Petete, T., & Womack, C. (2006). Thomas E. Moore's Sour Sofkee in the Tradition of Muskogee Dialect Writers. Studies in American Indian Literatures, 18(4), series 2, 1-37. Retrieved June 15, 2021, from

Snodgrass, J. (1968). American Indian Painters: A Biographical Directory. The Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.

Tsianina Lomawaima, K. (n.d.). Chilocco Indian Agricultural School. Oklahoma Historical Society. Retrieved June 9, 2022, from https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=ch042

Zinn, H. (2003). A People’s History of the United States. Harper Collins. New York.