The first-floor lobby of the historic McKinley County Courthouse is decorated “in the round” with sixteen Diné (Navajo) sandpainting-style wall paintings that appear on nearly every wall. The only documentation so far identified for these wall paintings is a July 5, 1939 local newspaper article that states that “state art directors . . . made provision for selection of a young Navajo painter to aid with the murals for the new McKinley county [sic] courthouse” (the courthouse was built through the New Deal and opened in 1939).1
The paintings are organized as pairs and intentionally placed to flank entrances, lobbies, and passageways; most of the designs are traditional symbols of guardianship and blessing. This is an example of one of the buffalo paintings that appears along the lintel of the entrance to the rear staircase. While only three of the four original buffalo paintings have survived, they were originally depicted in sets of two, each with one blue (as seen here) and one yellow buffalo, and painted on either side of the passageway.
