Margaret Roach Wheeler | |
---|---|
Born | Margaret Roach 1943 (age 80–81) |
Nationality | American, Chickasaw Nation |
Movement | Southeastern Woodlands Native art |
Spouse | Glenn Wheeler |
Website | margaretroachwheeler |
Margaret Roach Wheeler (born 1943) is a Chickasaw/Choctaw weaver and Native American fashion designer. Her work has been widely recognized for her scholarship in researching designs and techniques which existed prior to conquest and incorporating design elements into her woven garments. Her work has been featured in numerous collections including the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, where she has also served as a visiting artist and received a research fellowship. She was inducted into the Chickasaw Nation Hall of Fame in 2010 and was honored by the State of Oklahoma with the Governor's Arts Award in 2018 for her unique contributions to art. She is the founder of Mahota Textiles.[1]
Early life
Margaret Roach was born in 1943 in South Dakota to Rubey (née Massey) and Diamond Roach.[2][3] Her Chickasaw[4] mother grew up in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, after her great-grandmother, Nancy Mahota (also named Emahota) had walked the Trail of Tears from her ancestral homelands in the area between Holly Springs and Oxford, Mississippi.[2] Her Choctaw[5] father worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) as a teacher and the family moved often, living in "North Carolina, Arizona, South Dakota, Washington state and Montana" at different times. She had two older siblings, Lawanda and Robert. Among the various tribes with whom they lived, Roach enjoyed the rich cultural exposure and was encouraged to pursue her interest in painting.[2] As a child, Roach watched her mother and grandmother use various fibers in their knitted and crocheted, embroidered, and sewed works.[6]
By the time Wheeler entered high school the family lived in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. After completing high school, Roach married in 1960 with Glen Wheeler, a classmate.[6][2] Subsequently, the couple had two children, Kristine and Wade. Like her father, Glen was a teacher for the BIA and the family first lived on the Navajo Nation and then relocated to Joplin, Missouri, when he was posted at the Seneca Indian School. Up to that time, Wheeler had remained at home and raised their children,[2] but she decided to go to college, pursuing a degree in education with a goal to teach sculpture.[6] She enrolled at Missouri Southern State College in Joplin and earned a bachelor's degree in 1975.[6]
Teacher career
After completing her studies, Roach began her career teaching. Between 1975 and 1984, she taught batik, jewelry design, paper making, and weaving, at Parkwood High School.[2][7] During her time there, she enrolled in a master's degree program at Pittsburg State University studying with Marjorie Schick and received a master's degree in fiber arts in 1978.[6][2] Though Schick was primarily known for oversized jewelry bordering on body sculpture, her influence led Wheeler into using textiles as wall art and later into fashion design. While preparing some of her wall hangings for an exhibit, Wheeler decided to weave her dress for the event and soon was weaving articles with Native American motifs which looked like buckskin or fabric with beadwork.
Art career
Hiring a firm to analyze the market and design a business plan in 1981, the consultant told Wheeler the business would likely be unsuccessful. Ignoring the advice, she left her teaching job and opened Mahota Handwovens, named after her maternal great-great-grandmother. She conducted her own study with museums which were known for promoting Indigenous art. When she consulted with Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum, curators asked her to design 20 garments for a fashion show.[2] Wheeler combines her fine arts training with classical weaving techniques to make garments which are "an expressive cultural art form."[8]
Wheeler viewed clothing as wearable art, merging function with display, as she considered that the body was simply a canvas upon which art could be seen.[9] As her childhood had been spent among numerous Indigenous groups, Wheeler's woven goods tend to merge design elements and motifs from many Native cultures.[10]
Interested in history, Wheeler researches in museum and archaeological collections, to discover historic techniques used prior to and after European colonization. Her interest includes discovery of diverse materials, such as hides, feathers, beadwork, ribbonwork, bison fur, and others that she adds to woven fabrics, using natural fibers.[11][7][12] She does not use actual beads or feathers in her designs but weaves various fibers to mimic other materials.[12] Her craftsmanship has won awards at the Santa Fe Market and earned her a Smithsonian Fellowship,[11] in 2000, where she served as a visiting artist for the National Museum of the American Indian.[13] She has also worked as an adjunct professor at Southwest Missouri State University[7] and conducts lectures at various universities on textile arts.[14] In 2009, she branched into costume design, working with composer Jerod Tate and poet Linda Hogan on the production Lowak Shoppala (Fire and Light). Using dancers from Cara Crawford Dance Studio and members of the Chickasaw Children's Choir, Chickasaw Dance Troupe, Chickasaw Hymn Singers and Oklahoma Youth Orchestra, the multi-media production was a celebration of Chickasaw culture.[15] Wheeler has exhibited internationally and conducted weaving workshops throughout the United States. In 2010, she taught courses in Devon and Reading, England, having previously taught twice in England.[12]
Exhibitions
In 1985, Wheeler exhibited the pieces for Gilcrease, and then in 1986 and 1987, she participated in the Red Earth Festival fashion show.[2] She also participated in 1986 in the Talking Threads: Contemporary Native American Fashions exhibition held at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe.[9] In 1988, she participated in the Handweavers Guild of America international fashion show, known as Convergence. The biannual exhibit occurs at the end of a conference to teach weaving techniques and ends with a juried selection of works. She was the only Native American artist who participated and her work was selected for the fashion show. Wheeler continued her participation in the event through the late 1990s, but also began exhibiting at the Santa Fe Indian Market.[2]
Wheeler has participated in group exhibitions at the Heard Museum, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Institute of American Indian Arts, the Museum of Arts and Design, and the National Museum of the American Indian. During Native Fashion Now at NMAI's George Gustav Heye Center in Manhattam, she was also chosen as one of four Native American fashion designers chosen to speak on textile arts.[12]
Awards and honors
She has won numerous awards and honors throughout her career, including Best of Class in the weaving and textiles category at the 2009 annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market,[16] as well as first in 3-D division in the 2008[17] and 2010 Southeastern Art Show and Market (SEASAM) competition hosted by the Chickasaw Nation in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.[18] She was inducted into the Chickasaw Nation Hall of Fame in 2010.[19][20] In 2018, she was given a Governor's Arts Award from the State of Oklahoma for her unique contributions to the arts.[21][22] She received the 2020 Chickasaw Nation Dynamic Woman of the Year award, which recognizes a Chickasaw woman who has made great accomplishments in her career field and contributed towards the preservation and perpetuation of Chickasaw culture.[23]
References
Citations
- ↑ "About". Mahota. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Green 2016.
- ↑ Oklahoma Marriage Records 1922, p. 194.
- ↑ Dawes Chickasaw Final Rolls 1907.
- ↑ Dawes Choctaw Final Rolls 1907.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Thompson 1986, p. 76.
- 1 2 3 The Tulsa World 1994.
- ↑ Metcalfe 2010, p. 42.
- 1 2 Metcalfe 2010, p. 230.
- ↑ The Santa Fe Reporter 1986, p. 54.
- 1 2 Olmstead 2008, p. 22.
- 1 2 3 4 Choate 2010, p. 5.
- ↑ Welton 2007, p. 28.
- ↑ UMKC News 2012.
- ↑ Choate 2009, pp. 1, 4.
- ↑ Buckley 2009, p. 10.
- ↑ Buckley 2008, p. 23.
- ↑ Buckley 2010, p. 28.
- ↑ Elliott 2010, p. 7.
- ↑ Lance 2010, p. 3.
- ↑ The Oklahoman 2018.
- ↑ The Ada News 2018.
- ↑ "Margaret Roach Wheeler named 2020 Dynamic Woman of the Year | Chickasaw Times". chickasawtimes.net. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
Bibliography
- Buckley, Carrie (April 2009). "Chickasaw textile artist takes top honor at Heard Museum show". The Chickasaw Times. Vol. 44, no. 4. Ada, Oklahoma. p. 10. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- Buckley, Carrie (November 2008). "Honors bestowed at Arts and Culture Awards ceremony". The Chickasaw Times. Vol. 43, no. 11. Ada, Oklahoma. p. 23. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- Buckley, Carrie (November 2010). "Tribe presents arts, culture awards: Catherine Wilmond, Millie Blackmon honored at event". The Chickasaw Times. Vol. 45, no. 11. Ada, Oklahoma. p. 28. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- Choate, Tony (November 2009). "'Lowak Shoppala' brings history to life". The Chickasaw Times. Vol. 44, no. 11. Ada, Oklahoma. pp. 1, 4. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- Choate, Tony (March 2010). "Southeastern focus, traditional touch sets Wheeler's work apart: Chickasaw artist weaves culture into her work". The Chickasaw Times. Vol. 45, no. 3. Ada, Oklahoma. p. 5. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- Elliott, Nancy (September 2010). "Programs and Services book can open a new world". The Chickasaw Times. Vol. 45, no. 9. Ada, Oklahoma. p. 7. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- Green, Richard (December 6, 2016). "Profile of Margaret Roach Wheeler: "Mahota" Chickasaw". The Chickasaw Times. Ada, Oklahoma. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- Lance, Dana (August 2010). "Neal McCaleb to emcee August 19 Chickasaw Hall of Fame ceremonies". The Chickasaw Times. Vol. 45, no. 8. Ada, Oklahoma. p. 3. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- Metcalfe, Jessica RheAnn (2010). Native Designers of High Fashion: Expressing Identity, Creativity, and Tradition in Contemporary Customary Clothing Design (PhD). Tucson, Arizona: The University of Arizona. hdl:10150/194057.
- Olmstead, Donna (17 August 2008). "Cloaked in Meaning: Outfits at clothing contest 'are like a language' matched with dances (pt 1)". The Albuquerque Journal. Albuquerque, New Mexico. p. 20. Retrieved 9 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com. and Olmstead, Donna (17 August 2008). "Outfits scrutinized for detail and beauty. (pt 2)". The Albuquerque Journal. Albuquerque, New Mexico. p. 22. Retrieved 9 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- Thompson, Mary Ann (January 19, 1986). "Inheriting an art". The Springfield Leader and Press. Springfield, Missouri. p. 76. Retrieved 8 August 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- Welton, Jessica, ed. (2007). Native Artists in the Americas: National Museum of the American Indian Native Arts Program: The First Ten Years (PDF). Washington, D.C.: National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 June 2017.
- "2018 Governor's Arts Awards recipients announced". The Oklahoman. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. January 11, 2018. Archived from the original on 22 July 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
- "Chickasaw artist Margaret Wheeler honored with Governor's Arts Award". The Ada News. Ada, Oklahoma. May 3, 2018. Archived from the original on 3 May 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- "Chickasaw-Choctaw Textile Artist Margaret Roach Wheeler to Lecture at UMKC". UMKC Today. Kansas City, Missouri: University of Missouri–Kansas City. April 6, 2012. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
- "Dawes Final Rolls Chickasaw by Blood". Oklahoma History Center. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Historical Society. 1907. Card 480. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- "Dawes Final Rolls Choctaw by Blood". Oklahoma History Center. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Historical Society. 1907. Card 4437. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- "Fashion Designer Presents NSU Show". The Tulsa World. Tulsa, Oklahoma. March 20, 1994. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
- "From Buckskin to Silk". The Santa Fe Reporter. Santa Fe, New Mexico. August 13, 1986. p. 54. Retrieved 9 August 2018. Odd numbered pages are missing from microfilm of this issue, thus initial part of article is unavailable.
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - "Oklahoma, Grady County Marriages, 1890-1995: Diamond Roach/Rubey Massey". FamilySearch. Chickasha, Oklahoma: Grady County Oklahoma Courthouse. December 22, 1922. p. 194. Book 10: August 14, 1922-January 1, 1924, GS Film #1316185. Retrieved 8 August 2018.