The Solemn Pledge, Taos Indians

In The Solemn Pledge, Walter Ufer portrayed three generations of Native Americans, combining a bright, saturated palette with sensitively modeled figures. The white robes worn by the boy and two of the men suggest that the group is considering pledging the boy to kiva instruction, a Pueblo tradition of education in ceremonial practices, history, and language. The painting’s subject alludes to the necessary deliberation among early 20th-century Native communities about holding fast to traditions amid governmental assimilation efforts, an issue with ongoing relevance. Ufer, who trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and in Munich, was an active member by 1917 of the Taos Society of Artists, a group of white artists dedicated to painting the region’s people and landscape.