A Tribal member struggles with painting and life: Clifford Knoxsah

by Gary E. Mitchell

Clifford Knoxsah has paid a few dues to gain some semblance of success in the art world. Knoxsah grew up in dire poverty on the Potawatomi Indian Reservation. His home was heated by an old wood stove and lit by a single kerosene lamp. An old brick was used for a toy. He improvised and used old discarded handlebars as a make-believe bike. Such were the facts of life for him and his large family. They honestly thought everyone lived under such circumstances.

To make matters worse, Knoxsah’s mother died in a car-wreck when he was only three years old. A few years later, he was sent off to an Indian boarding school in Oklahoma.

All childhood memories were not bad, though. At a very young age, his father impressed upon him the importance of practice. Henry, his father, drew him a stick man and horse and told him to practice drawing this simple scene, and drawing helped him “to lose himself in fantasy and to forget his problems.”

His drawing was interrupted many times, especially when he went through the traumatic experience of having to go to a foster home after his father died. Bitterness tainted his speech when he recalled cruel foster families and the severe beatings with razor straps and belts. These incidents were reported, but nothing was ever done. Knoxsah eventually ended up in six foster homes by the time of graduation from high school.

After high school, Knoxsah started his own life of oppression, but to himself by drinking heavily and doing drugs. And his drawing suffered again, but not totally. He would go into a bar to buy a drink to settle his nerves down and “put out the fire from the night before.” After that initial drink, he would ask the bartender for a piece of paper and pencil and drew a picture. Curious bar patrons were attracted by what he was doing and often would buy one of his drawings. This, of course, kept him drinking for the rest of the day.

Somewhere along the line, Knoxsah entertained thoughts of going into an art business with his brother, Jimmy, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Knoxsah said the shop was a good dream but never thought his artwork was good enough, at the time, to sell. Soon after, his brother was killed on the streets of Oklahoma City, and a part of Knoxsah died, too. He gave up drawing for five years after this incident.

Eventually, as it sometimes does, the rough road of life evened out when he married in 1991 and shortly after started a family. Now he realizes that a life of alcoholism only existed, and his new family helped him start a new life. The transition was far from easy. Drawing helped bridge the gap, and life soon became better.

Knoxsah had his first art show in Holton, Kansas, in 1993, and now his goal is to have six shows a year, become self-sufficient and travel the pow-wow circuit to show his art and beadwork.

Today, his artwork reflects his newly acquired inner calm, and the feelings of content are also illustrated by the way he looks at his son, Sibwasim, and his daughter, Wah was mo gue, between his many projects.