Pop Chalee

Pop Chalee, also known as Merina Lujan (March 20, 1906 – December 11, 1993), was an American painter, muralist, performer, and singer.

In 2021, she was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.

Pop Chalee was born on March 20, 1906, in Castle Gate, Utah.

Her father, Joseph Cruz Lujan was from Taos Pueblo and her mother Merea Margherete Luenberger, who became known as Myrtle Lujan, was primarily Swiss.

Her uncle was Tony Lujan, who had married Mabel Dodge Stern.

In 1910, her brother Lawrence died of scarlet fever.

Part of the Lujan family—Joseph, Chalee, and her sisters Mattie and Eva — moved back to the Taos Pueblo soon after their brother's death.

Her father was in ill health due to consumption (tuberculosis).

Her mother and her sister Wilma did not return to New Mexico.

Chalee and her sisters attended the Santa Fe Indian School.

Pop Chalee, which means "blue flower", is a Tiwa name given to at the pueblo.

Chalee's father married a second time to a woman named Tomacita by 1918.

On the journey back to Utah, she realized that she could not remember what her mother looked like.

When they arrived at the station their mother never arrived to get them.

After seeking out the help of a family friend they finally found their mother's home but were met with an unwelcome greeting.

Chalee recalls their mother turning them away and calling them "little black devils".

On July 20, 1922, the artist married Otis Fred Hopkins, a European-American craftsman of wood and metal.

As she was starting her married life, international interest was growing for Native American art, which was defined more as the subject of Native Americans and not made by Native Americans.

While Native American art shows were traveling around the county, Chalee gave birth to her first son at 18 years old; Jack Cruz (also named Kun Funa or Black Buffalo).

Less than two years later, her daughter Betty (named Pop Pina or Red Flower) was born.

Only after a year of living back in Taos, that the Hopkins family moved back to Salt Lake City.

This pattern of "shifting from one residence to another continued."

During the Great Depression, Native American received increasing national attention.

Chalee was not yet part of the movement, but instead she made public appearances in LDS churches on Native American life.

"These thematically linked her to her Native American culture".

Chalee had not considered a career in art until “[a]n unexpected visit in Utah to a fortune teller and a subsequent recurring dream-inspired one of the most dramatic turning points in Pop Chalee's life."

Chalee started with some difficulty as she was much older than most of the students and the only woman for some time.

However, her insecurities about her artwork were put to ease by Dorothy Dunn's supportive encouragement and patience.

Chalee seemed to enjoy the school and finally settled into her new role as an artist: "I'd always been kind of funny—I never did anything right. I'd try different things like dancing and couldn't make it. But when I got into the art, I just stuck to it until I finally developed myself, then it just kind of opened the gates and I went on."

In Chalee's biography by Margaret Cesa, her progress and involvement at "the Studio could be compared to jumping into a raging river, frightened at first and then later enjoying the speed and power of the rapids so much that she never leaves the water."

At the school, Chalee was exposed to art techniques and art history that strengthened her pride in the work of Native American artists.

Responding to a lecture given about modern American art, Chalee commented "Some of our Indian artists paint in a style that the white man says can not be done, but still the Indian gets a perfectly balanced picture and the white artist generally puts a lot of unnecessary lines in a picture. We strive to tell a story in our paintings with as few lines as possible and leave out all unnecessary details. It is all done from memory."

After finishing her first year, Chalee began to work at the Laboratory of Anthropology as a paid copyist for Kenneth M. Chapman To document designs from the Laboratory's vast collection of Native American pottery.

"These tasks served to increase Pop Chalee's appreciation of Native American arts and heighten her pride in her Pueblo heritage."

During this time Chalee was also invited to show her work at an exhibit at Stanford and also contribute to the magazine School Arts.

During the 1930s, when Chalee was becoming a household name, there was a "dense thicket of misinformation and sensationalism that circulated" about this new and upcoming artist.

She was called Princess Popshilee or Princess Blue Flower.

During the Works Progress Administration, she worked for the Indian Division of the Public Works of Art Project, which was funded in 1934.

Chalee produced several art works that were distributed around the country.

"Her works are included in numerous museum collections, including the Gilcrease Museum (Phoenix, Arizona), (Tulsa, OK), the Heard Museum and the Millicent Rogers Museum (Taos, New Mexico). Several of her murals are permanently displayed at the Albuquerque Airport."