Pablita Velarde (American 1918–2006), born Tse Tsan (“Golden Dawn”), was a pioneering Pueblo painter whose work preserved the traditions, ceremonies, and daily life of her community. She studied under Dorothy Dunn at the Santa Fe Indian School, becoming one of the first women enrolled in its art program. Working first in watercolor and later with hand-ground natural earth pigments, Velarde created what she called “memory paintings” to document Pueblo culture and history. Her 1939–1945 commission for the Works Progress Administration at Bandelier National Monument established her as one of the foremost Native American artists of the twentieth century and a trailblazer for future generations of Indigenous women artists.