Clara Archilta
Born
Clara Williams

(1912-09-26)September 26, 1912
Tonkawa, Oklahoma
DiedSeptember 30, 1994(1994-09-30) (aged 82)
Apache, Oklahoma
SpouseWard Archilta
Watercolor painting depicts six figures performing a traditional dance.
Kiowa Apache Black Feet Dance (1959) shows Manatidie dancers in an older version of the Kiowa-Apache-Blackfeet Dance.

Clara Williams Archilta (September 26, 1912–30 September 1994), was a Kiowa-Apache-Tonkawa painter and beadworker from the San Ildefonso Pueblo tribe.[1] A self-taught artist with no formal art training,[2] Archilta is known for her watercolor painting and her pictorial beadwork.[3]

Clara Williams was born to David Williams (of the Tonkawa tribe) and Helen Tseeltsesah-Sunrise (Kiowa-Apache) in Tonkawa, Oklahoma. She attended Boone School in Apache, Oklahoma, followed by two years at the U.S. Chilocco Indian School,[1] ultimately received schooling through the eighth grade. She married Ward Archilta and had six children between 1930-1949.[1][4]

Her husband died in 1956, and Archilta began to paint the following year as a means to support her family. Despite a severely injured arm, she soon began to sell her work and make a name for herself.[1][5] She was the first woman to exhibit a collection of paintings at the American Indian Exposition (Anadarko, Oklahoma).[5] She also exhibited work at the Philbrook Art Center. Her work has been in the collection of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Anadarko.[1]

Archilta was also the head woman dancer for the Apache Blackfeet Society.[4] In the late 1950s, she painted a rare version of the Kiowa-Apache Blackfeet Dance. In the painting the Manatidie dancers are depicted in an earlier version of the dance which was no longer performed after the early 1900s.[6]

She died in 1994 at the age of 82 in Apache, Oklahoma. Her funeral was held at the Apache Tribal Complex in Anadarko. She was buried at Memory Lane Cemetery.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 King, Jeanne Snodgrass (1968). American Indian painters; a biographical directory. Smithsonian Libraries. New York : Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. p. 6.
  2. ↑ Reno, Dawn E. (1995). Contemporary Native American Artists. Alliance Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9641509-6-6.
  3. ↑ "Clara Archilta". Heard Museum. Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives: Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives. Retrieved 2021-07-31 – via Native American Artists Resource Collection Online.
  4. 1 2 3 "Clara Williams Archilta (obituary)". USGENWEB. Caddo County, Oklahoma. 1994-09-30. Archived from the original on 2021-07-31.
  5. 1 2 "Arts, Crafts Exhibit Important Feature Of Indian Exposition". Anadarko Daily News. 1957-08-18. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-07-31 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ Contemporary Southern Plains Indian painting. Anadarko: Oklahoma Indian Arts and Crafts Cooperative. 1972 – via Internet Archive.


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