He also began to paint using acrylics, his work making the most of ideas and inspiration
from the native environment he was in.
Lipan Apache Band of Texas
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Indigenous American Art by
Timoteo Ikoshy Montoya
Timoteo Ikoshy Montoya was born in Corpus
Christi,Texas in 1956. When he was nine his family
moved to San Francisco, California. His artistic abilities
have been with him since his youth. As he made his
way through school, his creativity was encouraged by
his family and instructors. He remembers, "When I was
growing up in Texas and later in California, my older
brother and I spent a lot of time drawing and creating.
Our family didn¹t spend time on emphasizing our
"Indianess". The Indian people in our family was
common knowledge just as it was with many Tejano
families. It seemed that we were just trying to survive
and make a place for ourselves just like the rest of
America."
He lived in the San Francisco bay area until his move up
to Humboldt County where he attended College of the
Redwoods. It was there when he entered the Native
American Studies Program and began his involvement
with other native peoples in securing their culture and
history. He remembers an elder Lakota brother
referring to it as becoming a Born Again¹ Savage. "It
was at this time that I fully understood how much the
Indian part of our family was a very important part of
the foundation of my own life."
He also began to paint using acrylics, his work making
the most of ideas and inspiration from the native
environment he was in. His art, from it¹s inception,
represents the evolution of immersion in native
teachings as it traced it¹s way through ceremonies and
the everyday part of his own personal life. Ikoshy has
never had any formal art training. " I was born with my
artistic abilities and my elders, the sweat lodge and
related ceremonies have been my art instructors", he
states.
Ikoshy is an enrolled member of the Lipan Apache
Band of Texas. He currently lives in the community of
Yankee Hill, California with his wife, Nadine and two
children, Raina and Teo. His art has been featured in
documentary videos on Native America, in various
periodicals, on book covers, CD jackets and cassettes.