Remember that celebration of peace, that period of time when people lived together despite their differences? It was this big, successful party last winter in Utah, built on the ideal of many nations sharing common ground.
Phillip Haozous remembers the 2002 Olympics as a time when, at long last, his people were shown respect. Visitors from around the world marveled at the monumental art created by his father, Apache sculptor Allan Houser. From September 2001 through March 2002, 18 Houser works were displayed around Salt Lake City.
This week, Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson announced that Houser's work, and the Olympic spirit it represents, will stay in the heart of the city. "May We Have Peace," an 11-foot-tall bronze sculpture of a Plains Indian holding a sacred peace pipe aloft, is to be purchased with help from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee and several private donors. The city itself also allocated $200,000 of its own Olympic revenue. The acquisition was announced Tuesday by members of the Houser family, who gathered next to the sculpture on the north side of the City-County Building.
"May We Have Peace" was installed on Sept. 11, 2001. That day's attacks on America, Haozous said, stand in tragic counterpoint to his father's hopes. The American Indian people, including Haozous' Apache tribe, withstood similarly brutal attacks and the taking of their lands centuries ago. Relatively few acknowledge that today, Haozous said. "But we know. And we want peace now." He lamented the Bush administration's talk of more war in Iraq.
Haozous grew up in Brigham City, reading school books that portrayed his people as savages. He was taught to hate himself — and after moving with his family to Santa Fe, N.M., Haozous had to re-learn the story of his tribe. "I never wanted to come back here," he said. "But things have gotten better." He was proud to travel with his mother, Anna Marie Houser, to Salt Lake City when Allan Houser's sculptures were chosen for the 2002 Cultural Olympiad.
Anna Marie Houser, Haozous' 90-year-old mother, sought to illustrate how people can share each other's gifts. Before she left Utah a friend, "a nice Mormon lady," gave Anna Marie a crocus plant. She transplanted it to her garden in New Mexico, where it still blooms each spring. "I still thank her for that. And now you," Anna Marie said to the small group of Utahns gathered at the City-County Building, "you have something of Allan's."
If $1.5 million more can be raised, Salt Lakers will also have three other Houser sculptures, including "Unconquered II," an image of two Apache men resting in the southwest corner of the City-County Building's lawn. While "May We Have Peace," with its pipe raised to the eastern sky, expresses a hope for peace at the dawn of a new era, "Unconquered II" symbolizes resilience. "We're still here. We're tough. We're adaptable people," Haozous said. To Americans, the Apache example means, "You can overcome — no matter what somebody does to you."
Two Salt Lake women are leading the effort to raise some $1.5 million to purchase, and give to the city, the three other Houser works. "Homeward Bound," which depicts a Navajo woman carrying a lamb, is in the northwest corner of the City-County Building grounds. "Spirit of the Wind," a 10-foot swirl of bronze, is on the building's east side.
The women, Sharon Newton and Karen Edson, have until March 2003 to raise the rest of the money. "People have been so generous in this community," Edson said. "But we keep asking the same people." Contributions from Annette and Ian M. Cumming, whose family owns the Park City Mountain Resort, and the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation helped purchase "May We Have Peace." Yet Edson is optimistic that all four Housers will stay, and with them the ideal of peace among Utah's peoples.
E-mail: durbani@desnews.com