Earth and Sky, plate XIV from "Where the Two Came to Their Father"

Maud Oakes

At the time that Maud Oakes created this image, the United States had been fighting in the Second World War for nearly two years. Oakes was living on the Navajo/Dine reservation conducting enthological research, and as young Navajo men were drafted into battle, Oakes was invited to observe a war ceremony performed for them by the hataatii (medicine man) Jeff King, known in his indigenous language as Hashkeh-yilth-e-yah. This ceremony, intended to keep the souls of warriors healthy and protected, was called "Where the two came to their father".

As part of the ceremony, sand paintings were created to illustrate the story of the two Navajo warriors, Monster Slayer and Child Born of Water, who traveled to the House of the Sun to prepare for battle with the evil spirits plaguing their people. Oakes carefully reproduced the paintings using gouache on deer hide, images which were then reproduced as pochoirs in a large folio. Titled "Where the Two Came to Their Father: A Navaho War Ceremonial Given by Jeff King," it included 18 color serigraphs, Oakes' retelling of the story, and additional text by writer and folklorist Joseph Campbell. It was published by the Bollingen Series I, Pantheon Books, New York, 1943.

The original paintings were executed in sand, pollen, corn meal, and ground flowers. These pochoirs were based on Oakes's watercolors of the paintings, which were destroyed as part of the ritual