Tazbah Gaussoin (Picuris Pueblo and Diné) ’15

IAIA Alum Tazbah Gaussoin (Picuris Pueblo and Diné) ’15 exemplifies carrying connections forward through her family experiences, time as a Museum Studies undergrad and a current MFA in Cultural Administration student at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), work with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), and northern Tiwa language studies with Picuris Pueblo.

Gaussoin grew up with a family in the arts, learning silversmithing from her mother, Connie Tsosie-Gaussoin (Picuris Pueblo and Diné) and brothers Wayne, David, and Jerry; modeling for her family; and being inspired to sew. One of her leather bags was included in We Walk Together in Strength, her family’s group donation for the 2023 IAIA Benefit & Auction.

Gaussoin credits her late father, Jerry Gaussoin Sr., for her decision to pursue Museum Studies at IAIA. “Every time we’d go to an art show with my mom and my brothers, they would be at the booth selling,” she shares. “And if I wasn’t playing underneath the booth table with my Barbies or Madeline doll, then my dad was taking me into the museums and walking me through the exhibits.” After Gaussoin graduated from St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she attended an expansive university. Overwhelmed by some of the comparatively large classes, Gaussoin went to IAIA instead with her family’s encouragement.

After graduating with her BFA, Gaussoin was invited to join a meeting for the School for Advanced Research’s Guidelines for Collaboration for institutions and communities, where staff from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) were also present. She connected with former IAIA trustee Dr. Cynthia Chavez Lamar (San Felipe Pueblo, Hopi, Tewa, and Diné), who has since become the director of NMAI, and then-Head of Conservation Marian Kaminintz, and inquired about work opportunities. “…I came out of IAIA just with my eyes wide open, feeling like the possibilities were endless…when I briefly spoke with Cynthia at SAR, she had told me to send her my resume. And I did that week, I believe, and sure enough, I was contacted by her and her team and was brought on to NMAI in a temporary trust position.”

She moved to Washington, DC, with her now-husband Carl Sutter and has been in the region since. After several years, she moved on to a permanent position with the collections and archives departments at NMAI. “That position was really incredible. I was working with both departments to be a liaison between the two and Native communities or researchers that were interested in coming to the CRC—the Cultural Resources Center—to see collections and archives from their communities,” explains Gaussoin. In December 2022, she began working in the NMAI director’s office as an assistant to Chavez Lamar. “It’s been a whirlwind of changes from my previous positions at NMAI—it’s been so incredible to be able to have that privilege of seeing a leadership position firsthand with someone so incredible as Cynthia.”

IAIA’s experiential undergrad Museum Studies classes with faculty such as Dr. Jessie Ryker-Crawford (White Earth Anishinaabe), the MFA in Cultural Administration Director, helped prepare Gaussoin for the NMAI workplace. “And I mean, really, when I first started working at NMAI, all of the classes that I had taken at IAIA had helped with jumping into collections work because even though it was with the Community Loans Program, we were still hands-on with.” A class project even came with her: “…we had to make a clamshell box that was made out of coroplast, and then within it, it had all kinds of different archival materials that are used in museum collections,” she explains. “And that was a huge help because I brought it out here and used it occasionally as a reference.”

Adjunct Professor and IAIA Archivist Ryan Flahive’s oral history class proved to be particularly pivotal to Gaussoin’s work. Since her senior project focused on Picuris Pueblo and an excavation there in the 1960s, she interviewed two Picuris Pueblo elders. During her interview with the late former Governor Joe Quanchello, some sensitive information arose. She discussed the situation with Flahive. He advised her to talk to the elder about it, and she ultimately decided not to use it in her project.  “…I loved that about IAIA and having that understanding of sensitivities and such,” she notes. Gaussoin also interviewed Picuris Pueblo elder, tribal historian, and former Governor Richard Mermejo. “And I think most elders saw me as, like, ‘Oh, that’s Connie’s daughter,’ and so when I went and asked him about the interview, it started that relationship, and I still am able to continue that relationship with him, and it’s evolved from there.” During the pandemic, Gaussoin attended a Tiwa language class via Zoom taught by Jordan Fragua and Picuris elders, including Mermejo.

At NMAI, Gaussoin searched for Picuris Pueblo items in NMAI’s collections and archives and found photos of Picuris Pueblo from the early 1900s. In February 2020, Gaussoin brought NMAI archivists to Picuris Pueblo for a photo documentation project. “It was so cold the day we went. There was this huge snowstorm.” However, they were warmly welcomed by her family and other Picuris Pueblo members with a potluck. Community members, including elders such as Gaussoin’s late maternal grandmother Lydia Duran and Mermejo, shared information to accompany the Picuris photos. The participants chimed in with each other and built upon the stories shared. “…and it was so cool to be able to hear different perspectives from different families,” she says.

“And it was not just NMAI gathering that information to be able to put it back into the archives for further documentation and how Picuris people want it, but also, NMAI provided the high-resolution images to Picuris for their future use,” she emphasizes. Gaussoin credits IAIA with giving her the “courage” and “support to be able to reach out to community members from your community to be able to do these projects.”

Gaussoin set aside grad school when she began working at NMAI, but a new possibility arose during the annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market. “My brother Wayne and I were sharing a booth, and IAIA had a couple of folks walking around with the big news of the MFA program for Cultural Administration. I was like, ‘Wait, what?!’ I was freaking out because I had been in search of a master’s program that I was truly interested in for what felt like so long,” she says. The application deadline was quickly approaching. “And so, David and I were talking, and we’re like, ‘Well, I’ll do it if you do it.’” She and David became part of the inaugural summer 2022 cohort. The low-residency format allows her to study while working and prioritizing family, and she values the administrative point of view from Native perspectives. “… having that knowledge to be able to use that in my work today is so important,” she asserts.

Visit www.najaclub.com to see works by Tazbah Gaussoin and family.

Quotes have been edited for brevity and clarity.

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