[1] His artistic talent was recognized when he was young, and Howe studied in Dorothy Dunn’s art program at the Studio of Santa Fe Indian School from 1933 to 1938.
[1] In 1940 Howe was sent by the South Dakota Artists Project (a division of the Works Progress Administration in the President Franklin D. Roosevelt administration) to Fort Sill Indian Art Center in Lawton, Oklahoma, to study mural painting techniques with Olle Nordmark.
Howe met his future wife Heidi Hampel in Germany while serving overseas during World War II.
Howe's early paintings are similar to other work produced by the Santa Fe Indian School.
In 1958 he was rejected from a show of Native American art at the Philbrook Museum because his work did not meet the criteria of "traditional" Indian style.
Howe wrote in protest, "Are we to be held back forever with one phase of Indian painting that is the most common way?
Are we to be herded like a bunch of sheep, with no right for individualism, dictated to as the Indian has always been, put on reservations and treated like a child and only the White Man know what is best for him... but one could easily turn to become a social protest painter.
[3] His works were displayed all over the world, including Paris, France and London, England, with more than 50 solo shows.
From April 17, 2007, to February 17, 2008, an exhibit of Oscar Howe's work was on display at the South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings.
[9] The Oscar Howe Memorial Association at the University of South Dakota is named after him and is dedicated to promoting research and educational projects in Native American art.
From March 11 to September 11, 2022, an exhibition of Oscar Howe's work was on display at the George Gustav Heye Center, the New York branch of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian.