A charcoal and pastel by Villa, done on paper around 1920, signed in charcoal in the lower right and titled in charcoal in the lower left.

Villa did this drawing, a portrait of a Tewa man on horseback. The Tewa tribe is located in northeastern Arizona and in New Mexico. The Arizona Tewa are related to the Tewa communities living in the Rio Grande Valley, such as Santa Clara and San Juan.

Tewa (also known as Tano) is one of five Tanoan languages spoken by the Pueblo people of New Mexico. Though these five languages are closely related, speakers of one cannot fully understand speakers of another (similar to German and Dutch speakers). The six Tewa-speaking pueblos are Nambe, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Santa Clara, and Tesuque.

The Tewa pueblos developed their own orthography (spelling system) for their language, San Juan Pueblo has published a dictionary of Tewa.