Official Extract

No. 87

Obituary and Notes

Woodrow Wilson Big Bow
Artist
 WOODROW WILSON BIG BOW (1914-1998)

Oct 03, 1974 Published in the “The Stillwell Democrat Journal”

entitled: Thunderbird veteran's reunion is Oct 4-5.Veterans of the
45th "Thunderbird" Infantry Division who served with the unit
during World War II through-out the European Campaign, and
during the Korean War, will convene during the 29th annual
national convention and reunion of the 45th Infantry Division
Association at Fountainhead State Lodge near Eufaula, Oklahoma,
from Friday, Oct. 4, through Sunday, Oct. 6. The veterans who
will be attending the reunion will represent at least 35 states and
the District of Columbia, along with former members of the
division who are current members of the Oklahoma National
Guard from which the division was formed. A feature of the
reunion, according to acting Association President Donald G.
Smith, Oklahoma City, will be the presentation by Mike Murphy,
Tulsa, of the original artist's rendition of the "Thunderbird" from
which the division insignia was officially adapted. The rendition
is a painting by the Indian artist, Woody Bigbow, and it will be
placed in the 45th Infantry Division Museum which is being
planned for a site near Oklahoma City's state military complex.
Smith explained that among various resolutions to be discussed
at the association's business meeting on Saturday will be current
proposals on conditional amnesty for draft evaders, disposition of
Vietnam War era cases concerning deserters, proposed
Congressional cuts in the national defense budget, and
representation of the association's board of directors by out of
state members.
Jul 12, 1988 Published in the “The Daily Oklahoman” entitled:
Heart attack claims Indian artist BigBow. Well known Kiowa
painter and sculptor Woodrow “Woody” BigBow died Sunday at
Bethany General Hospital after suffering a heart attack. He was
73. Born Jan. 31, 1915, in Carnegie, BigBow became famous in
Indian and artistic circles during World War II for his American
Indian art work. His paintings have been displayed at the RCA
building at Rockefeller Center in New York and hang in private
collections and galleries throughout the country and Oklahoma.
BigBow’s son, Steve BigBow, said he remembers his father as a
loving, generous man who painted in recent years at his home in
Yukon. “My dad was an American Indian artist since 1932,” he
said. “He has works all over including the Philbrook Museum and
at the Center of the American Indian at the Kirkpatrick Center.
He was a good man, he helped people and I’m very proud of
him, for one.” Steve BigBow said admirers of his father’s
watercolor and oil paintings include such notables as actress
Lucille Ball to the late Gov. Robert S. Kerr. BigBow married
Vivian Faye Roubideaux in 1933. She died in 1987. He is
survived by his daughter, Vivian Cordrey of Yukon; his two
sons, Larry and Steve both of Oklahoma City; four grandchildren
and five great grand children.
When the swastika was adopted by Adolph Hitler and his Nazi
party in Germany during the late 1930s, it became an odious
symbol and was abandoned in the fall of 1938 as the insignia of
the 45th Division.

While members of the 45th took off their swastikas and wore no
insignia for many months, the adjutants general and commanders
of units of the 45th Division in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado
and Arizona called on guardsmen and citizens of all four states
to suggest designs for a new insignia. Hundreds of designs were
submitted, and a board of officers was appointed to consider all
of the designs and recommend one for adoption.

The board composed of Colonel George Ade Davis, Chief of Staff,

45th Division; Lt. Col. Clyde M. Howell, finance officer, 45th
Division’ Lt. Col. Ellis Stephenson, G-3, 45th Division; Major
Bryan W. Nolen, Executive Officer, 90th Brigade; and Captain
Ross H. Routh, Headquarters, Oklahoma National Guard, and in
the spring of 1939 held the first meeting of the board, held in
Oklahoma City. Members went through all of the designs and
discarded those that were considered too fanciful, those that
were not representative of all four states, and others that were
lacking in symbolism. In a discussion following this action,
members of the board agreed that the new insignia should retain
the original red square background and the red and yellow colors
of the original insignia, with a new design replacing the
swastika. All suggested designs which did not meet these criteria,
or which could not be adapted to meet them, were then
eliminated from consideration.

A second meeting of the board concentrated on the remaining

suggested designs and selected three which were to be considered
to be the best. First choice was a Thunderbird, submitted by Joe
Tice of Oklahoma City, former enlisted man in the 45th, by Sgt
Raymond S. McLain, Jr., of Oklahoma City, and also by Brig.
Gen. Harold H. Richardson, The Adjutant General of Colorado.
Second choice was a Colt revolver, caliber 45 of the type worn
and used by frontiersmen in “winning the west”. Third choice
was the figures “45” in various configurations. Colonel Davis
then asked Woodrow Wilson Big Bow, a local Native American
Indian artist to design the thunderbird. “Woody” Big Bow; a
member of the infamous “Kiowa Five” artists; sketched many
renditions of the Thunderbird, eventually designing the divisional
shoulder patch.

Following agreement on designs, recommendations of the board

were submitted to Major General Charles F. Barrett, The Adjutant
General of Oklahoma, who approved them and forwarded them to
the Adjutants General of Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona for
concurrence.

The Adjutants General of Colorado and New Mexico readily

approved the findings of the board and recommended adoption of
the first choice of a yellow Thunderbird on a red square
background. The Adjutant General of Arizona, Major General
Alexander M. Tuthill, himself a former commander of the 45th
Division, returned the file to General Barrett with the comment:
“Of the three designs submitted, I dislike the Thunderbird the
least!”

After approval of the Commanding General, Eighth Corps Area,

and the Chief, National Guard Bureau, the Thunderbird design
was officially approved by the War Department in the Summer of
1939 and authorized for manufacture and wear. The document
approving this design, which was to be famous in WWII and
Korea, stated that the Thunderbird was an American Indian
symbol signifying “sacred bearer of happiness unlimited.” The
new Thunderbird patches first appeared on the sleeves of the
men of the 45th in the Fall of 1939.

Following a long process of submissions for new designs, a new

shoulder sleeve insignia, designed by a Carnegie, OK native
named (Woodrow) Woody Big Bow, featuring the Thunderbird,
another Native American symbol, was approved in 1939.

BIG BOW, WOODROW WILSON (1914-1998): Kiowa artist and

grandson of a Kiowa chief, Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Big Bow
was born in Carnegie, Oklahoma, on January 29, 1914. As a
teenager he attended classes at the University of Oklahoma at
Norman, where, under the personal guidance of Oscar B.
Jacobson, he took advantage of the opportunity to receive
instruction in painting. He was one of several young Kiowa
artists at the university whose work was featured in exhibitions
in Europe and subsequently published in folio editions of
American Indian art, the first of their kind ever issued.
Big Bow graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1939 and
afterward worked variously as a set painter for Western films
and as a builder and contractor. He also produced mural
decorations for the RCA Building in New York City and the
Southwest Museum in Los Angeles. During World War II he
designed the red and yellow Thunderbird insignia for Oklahoma's
famed Forty-fifth Infantry Division.

BIG BOW, WOODROW, age 73, born January 28, 1915; died July
10, 1988 at Bethany General Hospital of a heart attack. He was
a very prominent self-taught Indian artist known throughout the
US. He was the originator of the 45th Thunderbird Infantry
Division insignia which he designed in 1939 and is still being
used today. He was preceded in death by his wife, Vivian
Roubiaux Big Bow, August 19, 1987. He is survived by children,
Lawrence Big Bow of OKC, Steven Big Bow of OKC, Vivian Big
Bow Cordrey of Yukon; 3 brothers, Joe Big Bow of Anadarko,
Nelson Big Bow of Lawton, and Harding Big Bow of Carnegie,
OK; 2 sisters, Lucille Poolaw of Mountainview, OK and Ella Faye
Horse of Carnegie, OK. Funeral services are 10:00 a.m. at Wares
Chapel in Anadarko. Burial will be in Ft. Cobb beside his wife.
Established 26 February 1920