Anna Mitchell

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For the American Red Cross worker, see Anna V. S. Mitchell.

Anna Mitchell
Anna Mitchell in 2006
Born
Anna Belle Sixkiller

(1926-10-16)October 16, 1926
Sycamore, Delaware County, Oklahoma
DiedMarch 3, 2012(2012-03-03) (aged 85)
Vinita, Oklahoma
NationalityCherokee Nation, American
Other namesAnna Belle Mitchell, Anna Belle Sixkiller Mitchell, Anna Sixkiller Mitchell
Occupationpotter
Years active1967–2012
Known forCherokee National Treasure

Anna Mitchell (October 16, 1926 – March 3, 2012) was a

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
, among others.

Early life

Anna Belle Sixkiller was born on October 16, 1926, near

Haskell Institute, her mother's alma mater[3][7] and an intertribal boarding school in Lawrence, Kansas.[8]

On April 17, 1946, in Oswego, Kansas, Sixkiller married Robert Clay Mitchell,[3] a Cherokee and descendant of Sequoyah,[9] the man that invented the Cherokee syllabary. The couple settled in Vinita, Oklahoma, and had five children: Nena, Clay, Victoria, Betty, and Julie.[3] Busy with raising her children, most of her time was spent on domestic work and school activities over the next years.[9] In 1967, her husband asked Mitchell to create a clay pipe for him similar to the one often depicted in portraits of Sequoyah.[2][10] Using clay found in their pond, she fashioned the pipe,[2] which though she did not intend to become a potter, piqued her curiosity about how traditional Cherokee pottery was made.[11]

Career

For the next several years, Mitchell embarked on a course of self study. She knew nothing about the properties of clay and had no idea what Cherokee pottery was supposed to look like. She began by visiting museums in Oklahoma and Arkansas and then made trips to the

Pueblo peoples and the Northeastern Woodlands people, all the while experimenting with making different pots, though she was often not satisfied with her result.[12] In 1973, Mitchell held her first public exhibition at the Tulsa Indian Trade Fair and met Clydia Nahwooksy (Cherokee. 1933–2009),[13] a director of programming at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Nahwooksy encouraged Mitchell's work and helped her access material in the Smithsonian archives.[2]

Mitchell learned that the adopted of trade items during the

forced removal of the Trail of Tears of the Southeastern Woodlands people had led to a decline in their historic arts. Finding the book Sun Circles and Human Hands at the University of Arkansas of Fayetteville, she also learned the techniques used by precontact Mississippian artists to produce Eastern Woodlands pottery.[2] Though similar pottery shapes and coiling techniques were used by Western and Wastern Indigenous people, Mitchell learned that the designs were different. In the Southwest, motifs were typically angular with geometric shapes and stylized depictions from the natural world of animals and landmarks, placed on the pot in specific locations. Designs of the Southeast tended to employ arches and swirls with realistic images of birds and human forms, with a free-flowing placement pattern on the vessel.[14] Many of Mitchell's early works were influenced by precontact Quapaw pottery of Arkansas.[15]

Aiming to remain true to the techniques and designs of Southeastern pottery making and determined to preserve ancestral methods,[2][16] Mitchell began with low-firing clay. She later mixed it with high-firing porcelain clay to obtain a stronger, but lighter, result. Grinding, pounding and sifting the clay to remove large particles, Mitchell worked to soften the clay and then tempered it with ground shells and sandstone before adding water.[17] To shape the pot, she had to replicate stamping tools and wooden paddles based upon designs she had seen on pottery fragments in museums.[15] After the vessel was formed and to maintain the historic color palette of gray, red, and yellow, she then brushed on slip, made from the clay on her land,[18] and fired it over an open pit fire. Placing the pots on a metal sheet above a brick enclosure, where a wood fire was kept burning for an entire day, Mitchell allowed them to harden and gradually cool as the fire burned out.[2] Once cooled, pieces were burnished with small stones to create a smooth texture.[19]

Among her many awards and honors were the first prize in

Kennedy Center. That year, she took first, second, and third prize in the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folk Life[20] and was designated as a National Treasure of the Cherokee Nation.[3]

In 1983, Mitchell was invited to participate in an exhibition at the

Creek Council House Museum in Okmulgee and the other at the Cherokee National Museum, in Park Hill. In 1987, she held one-woman exhibitions at the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual in Cherokee, North Carolina and at the Tekakwitha Indian Crafts Center of Helen, Georgia. In 1990, Mitchell was featured at a solo exhibition at the University of Arkansas and the following year won first, third, and honorable mention at the Intertribal Indian Market of Dayton, Ohio.[21] She continued to show her work in local art shows like the annual Cherokee Art Market until her death.[2]

Mitchell's goal was to revive the art of Cherokee pottery-making for Cherokee people in Oklahoma.

Northeastern Oklahoma State University in Tahlequah, conducted an interview with Mitchell for a heritage course. She became fascinated with the craft of pottery-making and began studying with Mitchell.[23] Osti was later commissioned by the Cherokee Nation to create a bust of Mitchell, which was unveiled in 1990 and housed at the Bacone House on the campus of Northeastern State University.[24] Other students who studied with Mitchell and have professional art careers her daughter, Victoria Vazquez (Cherokee Nation) and Crystal Hanna (Cherokee Nation).[23] Mitchell also inspired Martha Berry (Cherokee Nation), encouraging her to revive the art of Cherokee beadwork.[25] In 2008, Mitchell was honored with the Educator of Arts and Humanities Lifetime Achievement Award by the Cherokee Nation.[24]

Family

Many of Anna Sixkiller Mitchell's family are important leaders in the Cherokee Nation. Her brother Dennis Sixkiller is a leading language instructor, who has a Cherokee-language online radio show.[26] Besides being a ceramic artist, Victoria Vazquez, Mitchell's daughter, serves as a tribal councilperson.[27]

Death and legacy

Mitchell died on March 3, 2012, in Vinita and was buried in Fairview Cemetery. A memorial scholarship fund was created by the Cherokee Nation in her honor. Her artworks are in the permanent collections of the

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian,[3] the Eastern Trails Museum in Vinita,[28] the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art,[29] and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,[30] as well as other venues abroad and in private collections.[3] In 2015, in honor of the 25th anniversary of the completion of Mitchell's bronze bust, it was removed from the Northeastern campus and placed on display at the W. W. Keeler Tribal Government Complex in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.[24] In 2016, the Cherokee Heritage Center hosted a six-month exhibition, Anna Mitchell Legacy that featured pieces in various museum collections to show her development as an artist throughout her career and showcased work by her artistic protogées including her daughter Victoria Vazquez, Jane Osti, and Crystal Hanna. The exhibition also included some of the tools she used to work on pottery.[23] The following year, a mural by Dan Mink depicting Mitchell and her work was erected in Vinita along West Canadian Avenue and South Wilson Street.[28]

The Cherokee Art Market offers an Anna Mitchell award each year to honor the artist's memory.[31]

The Cherokee Nation opened the Anna Mitchell Cultural and Welcome Center in Vinita, Oklahoma, the fall of 2022.[32]

References

Citations

  1. ^ Watson 1993, p. 228.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Chavez 2012.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i The Muskogee Phoenix 2012.
  4. ^ Watson 1993, pp. 228, 232.
  5. ^ Watson 1993, p. 232.
  6. ^ Watson 1993, p. 233.
  7. ^ Watson 1993, p. 235.
  8. ^ "Anna Belle (Sixkiller) Mitchell, Cherokee potter". The Miami News-Record. March 6, 2012. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
  9. ^ a b Watson 1993, p. 237.
  10. ^ Watson 1993, pp. 237–238.
  11. ^ Watson 1993, p. 238.
  12. ^ Watson 1993, pp. 238–239.
  13. ^ "Clydia Dotson Nahwooksy". Notable Folklorists of Color. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  14. ^ Watson 1993, p. 244.
  15. ^ a b Watson 1993, p. 240.
  16. ^ Watson 1993, p. 241.
  17. ^ Watson 1993, p. 239.
  18. ^ Watson 1993, pp. 239–240.
  19. ^ Watson 1993, p. 242.
  20. ^ Watson 1993, pp. 246–47.
  21. ^ a b Watson 1993, p. 247.
  22. ^ Watson 1993, p. 246.
  23. ^ a b c d Chavez 2016.
  24. ^ a b c Tahlequah Daily Press 2015.
  25. ^ Berry 2016.
  26. ^ Snell, Travis (January 7, 2005). "Cherokee radio show extends to full hour". Cherokee Phoenix. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
  27. ^ "Council of the Cherokee Nation". Legislative Research Center. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
  28. ^ a b Warnick 2017.
  29. ^ Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art 2016.
  30. ^ Museum of Fine Arts 1994.
  31. ^ "Cherokee Art Market hosts over 150 artists". Tahlequah Daily Press. October 19, 2018.
  32. ^ Bark, Lindsey (October 7, 2022). "Previous Previous Horses came to American West by early 1600s, study finds Horses came to American West by early 1600s, study finds The horse is symbolic of the American West, but when and how... Next Next Up Next Up 'Kasey Alert' bill could emerge from committee April 6 'Kasey Alert' bill could emerge from committee April 6 Named for a Cherokee Nation citizen who went missing, a prop... featured Cherokee Nation opens Anna Mitchell cultural, tourism facility". Cherokee Phoenix. Retrieved April 12, 2023.

Bibliography

External links

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