[6] At the time it was against government policy to allow Native students to paint what they wanted, the school was operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
[6] Edgar Lee Hewett, a professor of archaeology and the director of the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, was working closely with locals from the San Ildefonso Pueblo on excavations between 1907 and 1908.
[9] Hewett encouraged the production of art work from Native American artists and helped gain them financial support of white patrons.
[9] Mostly works on paper, the paintings focused on human figures and portrayed Pueblo dances, koshares, ceremonies, and genre scenes of daily life.
They added stylized motifs used in other Pueblo artist expressions, such as ceramics, mural painting, and embroidery.