Hemis Katsina

He studied at the Santa Fe Indian School from 1914-1920. He returned home to his village of Shungopovi on Second Mesa where he farmed and painted. Polelonema won nearly every major award in Native American art. including at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Indian Market in Santa Fe and the Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial in Gallup. New Mexico. 

Polelonema is cited in Song from the Earth by Jamake Highwater, Southwest Indian Painting by Clara Lee Tanner, American Indian Painting by Dorothy Dunn,  Pueblo Indian Painting by J.J. Brody. and the Biographical Directory of American Indian Painters by Patrick Lester. Otis Polelonema's work was included in the exhibit "Beautiful Resistance: Works on Paper from the Heard Museum Collection" May 22 - December. 2005.