Elizabeth Willis DeHuff Collection of American Indian Art

Elizabeth Willis DeHuff was born to John Turner and Ann Boyd Wilson Willis of Augusta, Georgia in the latter part of the 19th century. Some sources indicate her birth year as 1892, while others suggest it was 1886. She grew up in Augusta, one of five Willis children.

Elizabeth was educated at the Lucy Cobb Institute in Athens, Georgia, and then attended Barnard College in New York City. In 1910, she took a teaching job in the Philippine Islands. While in the Philippines, she met John David DeHuff (1872-1945), another American teacher. Elizabeth returned to the United States, married John David, and in 1913 moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania where John David assumed a post at the Carlisle Indian School. In 1916, John David was appointed superintendent of the Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the couple relocated.

Elizabeth became interested in the art and culture of the Southwest. With approval from her husband, she brought boys from the Santa Fe Indian School into the DeHuff home in the afternoons for painting lessons. The boys who received training included Fred Kabotie, Otis Polelonema (both Hopi) and Velino Shije Herrera (of Zia Pueblo). In 1919, she organized an exhibit of her students' art at the Museum of New Mexico.

Controversy erupted around Elizabeth's art instruction when critics of her work with students alleged that the sessions encouraged paganism, emphasizing traditional stories and documenting tribal religious customs. In 1927 John David became secretary of the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce, a position he held until his death in 1945; the couple left the Santa Fe Indian School and Elizabeth's lessons ceased.

Elizabeth wrote and published several children's stories on Native American themes during and after her experience with Indian School students. Her books include Taytay's Tales, a collection of Indian traditional stories illustrated with the art of her students Fred Kabotie and Otis Polelonema, published in 1922; Taytay's Memories, published in 1924; and Swift Eagle of the Rio Grande, published in 1928. Elizabeth also wrote numerous periodical articles on American Indian, Latin American, and New Mexico historical and cultural topics. She published regularly in the magazine of the Museum of New Mexico, El Palacio. A visible figure in Santa Fe, Elizabeth lectured several nights a week from 1926 through the mid-1940s at the La Fonda Hotel as part of the Santa Fe Railroad's Indian Detours.

The DeHuffs had three children: David, Ann, and Frances. After John David's death in 1945, Elizabeth returned to Georgia where she wrote and undertook genealogical research until her death in 1983.