Bert Geer Phillips, much like the Pilgrims, ruined the lives of Native Americans by making their land a hot commodity.

Sure, he didn’t do the small pox blanket thing, but it still wasn’t chill. Phillips was born in Hudson, New York in 1868. He was fascinated by Western explorers, fur trappers, and painting. The first frontier that he conquered was New York City, where he attended the Art Students League of New York and the National Academy of Design. The second was Paris where he studied at the Académie Julian. Unfortunately he went all the way to Paris to find out that where he really wanted to be was in the American Southwest. So he and his buddy, Ernest Blumenschein packed their bags and headed on a road trip via wagon. Despite what you may be thinking, this is not the origination of the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie, though their bonehead stunt begs to differ.

Bert and Ernie thought they were super sick, but somewhere around New Mexico, fate intervened. And you know how Fate can be; she’s highly temperamental. So Bert and Ernie’s wagon wheel broke and Ernie had to ride into the nearest town, which happened to be Taos, New Mexico. He returned three days later and told Bert how great the town was. They fixed the wagon wheel and went to Taos where they sold all their frontier-exploring materials and set up a studio.

Ernie decided to leave after a couple months but Bert married Rose Martin, the sister of the town’s doctor, Thomas “Doc” Martin. No, this is not the man who later founded the popular shoe company. But Bert was the founder of the Taos Society of Artists, an artist colony that lasted from 1915 to 1927. They made beautiful realist paintings of the New Mexican scenery and the Pueblo people. Unfortunately this drew more and more tourists to the area, essentially forcing out the Native Americans….again.