The artist Joan Hill (1930–2020), of Muscogee¹ and Cherokee heritage, is one of the most celebrated Indigenous female painters from Oklahoma. Her Cherokee name is Chea-se-quah, meaning “red bird.” Hill, the daughter of boarding-school survivors William M. and Winnie Harris Hill, began painting in grade school. She lived on her family’s allotment in Muscogee territory her whole life, on land with rich historical roots that greatly predate Oklahoma statehood. An ancestral mound on the family’s homestead, for example, connects to Indigenous histories long before colonialization or westward expansion. Hill’s heritage and her deep connections to her ancestry, land, and Indigenous territories are intrinsically embedded within the content and subject matter of her artwork.

Hill received a BA in education from Northeastern State College (now Northeastern State University) in 1952, and she studied Indigenous art at Bacone College (Muskogee, Oklahoma) under W. Richard “Dick” West (1912–2012). She painted in a variety of styles throughout her career, among them Abstract Expressionism and Flatstyle. She received hundreds of awards during her lifetime. In 1974, she was the first woman to be honored as a Master Artist by the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and the Philbrook Museum of Art (Tulsa) awarded her the Waite Phillips Special Artist’s Trophy for lifetime achievement. Hill held significant appointments on both the state and national level. She was appointed to the Oklahoma Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women (1990), and she was a commissioner on the U.S. Indian Arts and Crafts Board (2001), among others.

“All of my work … owes a debt to my Creek-Cherokee heritage, for the teachings of my beloved parents and grandparents give a base or sustenance to my artwork. I was also blessed to have a deep, spiritual faith in God, a love and respect for the land, the elements, and the powers of creation, with a feeling for the eternal and the monumental. Consequently, I am inexorably drawn to the beauty, illusion, and mystery of Native American legends and history, which serve as inspiration for the images I use to create a world, not as it is ‘seen,’ but as it is ‘felt.’”² —Joan Hill, Muskogee, Oklahoma

—Jordan Poorman Cocker, Henry Luce Foundation Curatorial Scholar for Indigenous Painting Collection Research, 2021

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¹ In May 2021, the Muscogee Nation announced that they were removing the word “Creek” from their official name. Gilcrease Museum is following the wishes of the Muscogee Nation and removing “Creek” where possible as well.

² McCoy, “Joan Hill: Muscogee/Cherokee Painter.”