Clara Archilta
Clara Williams Archilta, was a Kiowa/Apache/Tonkawa painter and beadworker from Oklahoma. A self-taught artist with no formal art training, Archilta is known for her watercolor painting and her pictorial beadwork.
Personal life
Clara Williams was born in Tonkawa, Oklahoma. Her parents were David Williams and Helen Tseeltsesah-Sunrise. Clara attended Boone School in Apache, Oklahoma, followed by two years at the U.S. Chilocco Indian School, through the eighth grade. She married Ward Archilta and had six children between 1930 and 1949.Art career
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. She was the first woman to exhibit a collection of paintings at the American Indian Exposition. She also exhibited work at the Philbrook Museum of Art. Her work has been in the collection of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Anadarko.Archilta was also the head woman dancer for the Apache Blackfeet Society. 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 20th century.