Clara Archilta

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]

Kiowa Apache Black Feet Dance (1959) shows Manatidie dancers in an older version of the Kiowa-Apache-Blackfeet Dance.

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]