Family's past has meaning for busy artist

By Sharon Johnson

Published: December 23, 2007

Never having lived more than three miles from her birthplace in rural Haskell County, Howard has only to close her eyes to feel the presence of her Mississippi ancestors. They settled in Oklahoma in 1903 on the same property on which she and most of her siblings still live today in their small homes.

The stories translated by her mother into English from Howard's Choctaw-speaking grandmother remain vivid in her memory. She told about the "second coming” of her native people on the Trail of Tears. Howard says she felt the spirits of her people during a recent stop in the cotton fields of Mississippi.

"I still look at things, especially wildlife, and consider certain things they do to be a sign,” she said. "My mom always thought everything was a sign for something, and although my brothers and sisters don't really believe it anymore, I still do. I don't think it is right to disrespect my mother's beliefs.”

"She used berries to dye the baskets,” Howard said. "Her trademark on each of her baskets was the Thunder Bird, and people wanted to buy them. Mom says she remembers them taking the wagon filled with baskets to town on Saturday to sell.”

She also remembers growing up in a family of nine and the bare ground behind their house where the siblings had worn off all the grass playing stickball and marbles.

"We used to get the broom and sweep the dust off the ground,” Howard said. "I also used to draw in the dirt with sticks.”

Howard said dirt was one of several palettes she used as a child for her desire to draw.

"My dad would bring home brown paper sacks for me to draw on,” she said. "I think he was trying to keep me from drawing on the walls. I was also always drawing in our set of encyclopedias and still have some of those around that I've drawn in.”

Shy and insecure about her talents, Howard said she never believed that people would someday pay hundreds, much less thousands, of dollars to own one of her paintings.

"I don't want to ever forget my roots and the local people who supported and bought my art back then,” she said.

Howard has shown and competed the past 11 years at the Santa Fe Market in New Mexico, placing first and second this past year there and selling all 22 of the paintings she took.

Her artwork also is on display year round at the Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe.

She was most recently honored by being asked to represent Oklahoma at the 12th Annual International Epcot Food and Wine Fest at Epcot Center in Florida. It was on this trip that she stopped at one of the many cotton fields in Mississippi and explained to her grandchildren that their ancestors once lived on that very land before coming to Oklahoma.

Toolbar sponsored by: David Stanley Ford

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