Maud Oakes

Maud Van Cortlandt Oakes (1903–1990)[1] was an artist, ethnologist and writer who spent her life studying and recording the indigenous cultures of Native American tribes, including the Navajo of the American Southwest and the Mam of Guatemala. She is best known for her books recording these tribes' ceremonies, art and stories.

Early life

Oakes was born in Seattle, younger daughter and last of three children of Alaska Steamship Company co-founder and president of the Roslyn Fuel Company, Walter Oakes (1864–1911)- son of Thomas Fletcher Oakes, the president of Northern Pacific Railway from 1888 to 1893- and Mary Beekman (née Taylor).[2][3] She grew up in Manhattan.[4]

Work

Oakes's books include Where the Two Came to Their Father: A Navaho War Ceremony (given by Jeff King, with commentary by Joseph Campbell), The Two Crosses of Todos Santos: Survivals of Mayan Religious Ritual and Beyond the Windy Place--Life in the Guatemalan Highlands.[5][6][7]

Personal life

Oakes was a close friend of Natacha Rambova, at whose apartment Oakes attended classes "on symbolism, mythology, and comparative religion".[8] Oakes died at her home at Carmel, California, of Alzheimer's disease. She was survived by a niece and a nephew.[9]

References
  1. "Maud Oakes, 87, Dies; Ethnologist and Writer". The New York Times. 1990-06-13.
  2. Secretary's Report, Class of 1887, Harvard College, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary 1887-1912, p. 154
  3. History of Washington: The Rise and Progress of an American State, vol. 5, Clinton A. Snowden, Century History Co., 1911, p. 408
  4. "Maud Oakes, 87, Dies; Ethnologist and Writer". The New York Times. 1990-06-13.
  5. Oakes, Maud (1969). Where the Two Came to Their Father: Navaho War Ceremonial Given by Jeff King. Commentary by Joseph Campbell, paintings recorded by Maud Oakes. (2nd ed.). (Princeton, N.J.:) Univ. Pr.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691098463.
  6. Oakes, Maud (1969). The two crosses of Todos Santos : survivals of Mayan religious ritual. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691098357.
  7. Oakes, Maud (1968). Two Crosses of Todos Santos: Survivals of Mayan Religious Ritual. New: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781406754704.
  8. Madam Valentino: The Many Lives of Natacha Rambova, Michael T. Morris, Abbeville Press, 1991, p. 230
  9. "Maud Oakes, 87, Dies; Ethnologist and Writer". The New York Times. 1990-06-13.

Sources
  • Stone Speaks: The Memoir of a Personal Transformation, Chiron Publishers, 1987


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