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Lawney L. Reyes (1931 – August 10, 2022) was an American Sin-Aikst artist, curator, and memoirist, based in Seattle, Washington.Reyes 2002, passim.
Reyes' early childhood with his family was largely lived on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington. In 1935–1937, during the period of construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, his parents moved to Grand Coulee and started a Chinese restaurant, even though "neither of them could prepare Chinese food except for simple dishes such as pork fried rice, egg foo-yung, and chop suey".Reyes (2002), p. 74–75. They soon acquired an ethnically Chinese partner and cook, Harry Wong whom later bought them out of the restaurant in 1937. His parents separated in 1939 and subsequently divorced.Reyes 2002, p. 90. His mother later worked again for Wong in Tacoma, Washington and she eventually married Wong.Reyes 2002, p. 185, 194.
From 1940 to 1942, Reyes was a student at the Chemawa Indian School, a boarding school five miles north of Salem, Oregon. He would later write that his consciousness of being "Indian" was largely formed through his conversations there with other students. The rest of his childhood and youth was spent living with his father, variously on the Colville Reservation and in Okanogan, Washington.
After graduating from Okanogan High School in 1949,Reyes 2006, p. 52 Reyes moved to Tacoma, Washington, where he lived again with his mother and her second husband.Reyes 2002, p. 181–182. He moved back east across the mountains and attended the Wenatchee Junior College, where he obtained a two-year degree. Biography on his official site, accessed March 11, 2007. He met Joyce Meacham, a Yakama and Warm Springs Indian and they were married in 1955. She later had a career in social work and especially in Indian Health programs.
Reyes served in the U.S. Army which gave him the opportunity to see much of Europe which confirmed his interest in working in a field related to "architecture design, and art". Upon his return he attended the University of Washington, studying painting and sculpture and majoring in interior design.Reyes 2002, p. 181–182; 184–185 for his wife's later career. He graduated in 1959.
He worked for Seafirst Bank, initially as a designer, eventually collecting and curating the Seafirst Corporate Art Collection. During this time, he also used his nights and weekends to work at sculpture (mainly in wood) and as a freelance interior designer.Reyes 2002, p. 182.
He took early retirement from Seafirst Bank in 1984, and traveled North America visiting various Indian tribes.Reyes 2002, p.185. He wrote two books, his memoir White Grizzly Bear's Legacy: Learning to be Indian (2002), and a biography of his brother Bernie Whitebear: An Urban Indian's Quest for Justice.
His second book, Bernie Whitebear: An Urban Indian's Quest for Justice (2006), is a biography of his brother Bernie Whitebear (1937–2000). He was one of the so-called "Gang of Four" or "Four Amigos" who founded Seattle's Minority Executive Directors' Coalition. Roberto Maestas , Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, University of Washington. Accessed March 11, 2007.Jamie Garner and Dorry Elias, "Bernie Whitebear: Elegy for a gone-but-never-forgotten activist", Real Change (Seattle's "homeless paper"), August 15, 2000.
Reyes' third book, B Street: A Gathering of Saints and Sinners (2008), is an exploration of the Grand Coulee area between 1933 and 1941, during the construction of the Dam. It was published by the University of Washington Press.
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