Dick West, as he was commonly known, was born on September 8, 1912, in a tipi near the Darlington Agency in Oklahoma. His father was Lightfoot West. West\'s mother was Rena Flying Coyote, also known as Emily Black Wolf, whose parents were Big Belly Woman and Thunder Bull. West\'s Cheyenne name, Wapah Nahyah means "Lightfooted Runner."\n', '

West attended Concho Indian Boarding School and then Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, when it was still a high school. West graduated from high school in 1935. One of his earliest artistic mentors was the Arapaho painter, Carl Sweezy.\n', '

From 1936 to 1938, West attended Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he earned an AA degree. At Bacone, West studied under the celebrated Muscogee-Pawnee-Wichita artist, Acee Blue Eagle. As a young man, West played football and worked in oil fields.\n', '

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