Background
Young Man was born on April 12, 1948, in Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Browning, Montana, United States, the ninth child of fifteen brothers and sisters born to Joseph Young Man White Horse (Sau-sti-qua-ńis) and Lillian Katherine Boushie.
83 A Van Nu Po, Santa Fe, NM 87508, United States
Young Man attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico from 1963 until 1968.
University College London, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
Young Man stayed in government Indian boarding schools at various times and places until he was 20 years old when he went to the Slade School of Art in London, England, in 1968, which was the first time ever that he attended an all-white school for any length of time.
32 Campus Dr, Missoula, MT 59812, United States
Young Man earned his Master of Arts at the University of Montana from 1972 until 1974, where George Longfish was his teacher and mentor in the Graduate Program in American Indian Art.
New Brunswick, NJ, United States
Young Man graduated with his doctor of philosophy degree in anthropology from Rutgers University in New Jersey in 1997, where he studied anthropology as a student of William Powers.
83 A Van Nu Po, Santa Fe, NM 87508, United States
Young Man attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico from 1963 until 1968.
University College London, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
Young Man stayed in government Indian boarding schools at various times and places until he was 20 years old when he went to the Slade School of Art in London, England, in 1968, which was the first time ever that he attended an all-white school for any length of time.
32 Campus Dr, Missoula, MT 59812, United States
Young Man earned his Master of Arts at the University of Montana from 1972 until 1974, where George Longfish was his teacher and mentor in the Graduate Program in American Indian Art.
New Brunswick, NJ, United States
Young Man graduated with his doctor of philosophy degree in anthropology from Rutgers University in New Jersey in 1997, where he studied anthropology as a student of William Powers.
Young Man was born on April 12, 1948, in Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Browning, Montana, United States, the ninth child of fifteen brothers and sisters born to Joseph Young Man White Horse (Sau-sti-qua-ńis) and Lillian Katherine Boushie.
Like nearly all Indian children of his generation, when Alfred was six years old he and his siblings were taken away to Cut Bank Boarding School, a Bureau of Indian Affairs government school located a short distance north of Browning. Young Man attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico from 1963 until 1968. He stayed in government Indian boarding schools at various times and places until he was 20 years old when he went to the Slade School of Art in London, England, in 1968, which was the first time ever that he attended an all-white school for any length of time.
Young Man earned his Master of Arts at the University of Montana from 1972 until 1974, where George Longfish was his teacher and mentor in the Graduate Program in American Indian Art. He graduated with his doctor of philosophy degree in anthropology from Rutgers University in New Jersey in 1997, where he studied anthropology as a student of William Powers.
Young Man has been an art teacher since the early 1970s, beginning on his home reservation at the Rocky Boy Elementary School from 1973 until 1974, after which he moved to the K.W. Bergan Elementary School in Browning, Montana, on the Blackfeet Indian reservation for a short time. He continued on to the Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell, Montana from 1975 to 1977, where he helped found the Total Community Education television training program. When that program came to a close, he moved on to the University of Lethbridge in 1977, where he eventually became chair of Native American studies from 1999 until 2010. He taught in the Faculty Exchange Program at the University of Lethbridge/Leeds University in 1985 and the Faculty Exchange Program University of Lethbridge/Hokkai Gakuen University in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, in 1992. He remained tenured at the University of Lethbridge up until 2007 when he chose early retirement and began work as department head of Indian Fine Art at the First Nations University of Canada in Regina, Saskatchewan.
In addition to his teaching activities at the First Nations University, Young Man also worked as archival curator and custodian of the school's 1500 piece art collection. In August 2010 his employment at FNUC was terminated along with approximately 52 other professors and support staff, due to financial exigency budget cuts. He was appointed in 2015 as an Adjunct Professor to the Art Department, University of Calgary.
Most recently in terms of his lifetime, Young Man did an artist/writer's residency at the Lab 26 Tejiendo Identitdad Entre Las Culturas Originarias de America, Galeria de Arte Contemporaneo Paul Bardwell, Centro Colombo Americano de Medellin, Medellin, Colombia in 2011. He has spoken at numerous conferences and other venues held on every continent on the planet throughout his long professional career.
Young Man is best known as an educator. He is a former Department Head of Indian Fine Arts at the First Nations University of Canada in Regina, Saskatchewan; and former Chair of Native American Studies at the University of Lethbridge. He is also the author of several educational books, articles, and essays.
Pedagogically Young Man teaches his courses from the Native perspective, something unheard of when he began teaching Indian fine art at the University of Lethbridge in 1977 and something that, even today, very few if any Native art professionals of whatever category claim to do.
