Oqwa Pi

Buffalo Dancers, c.1920–1925. Watercolor and pencil on paperboard. Collection of the Smithsonian Institution Oqwa Pi (from Tewa , ), also known as Kachina Stick and Abel Sanchez (1899–1971), was a San Ildefonso Pueblo painter, muralist, and politician. Pi was known for his brightly colored paintings. He served as governor of the San Ildefonso Pueblo for six terms.

Biography Oqwa Pi was born in 1899 in San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico. He was educated at the Santa Fe Indian School, where he learned watercolor and mural paintings; He attended the Santa Fe Indian School, studying under Dorothy Dunn. Pi has a mural at the Santa Fe Indian School, in the dining room.

Oqwa Pi's paintings were executed in one of the two specific styles that are associated with the San Ildefonso school, a Native art movement of self-taught artists from 1900 to 1935. His subjects include festivals, dances and native ceremonies. and Ramos Sánchez (born 1926). His grandson, Russell Sánchez is a painter and potter.

Collections His work is included in museum collections including at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Brooklyn Museum, Ackland Art Museum, and Denver Art Museum.