Katrina Mitten

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| name = Katrina Mitten

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| birth_date = {{Birth date text|1962}}

| birth_place = Huntington, Indiana

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| field = textile art, beadwork

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| website = {{URL|katrinamitten.com/}}

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Katrina Mitten (born 1962, Huntington, Indiana){{cite web |title=Katrina Mitten |url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/katrina-mitten-31999 |website=Smithsonian American Art Museum |access-date=16 December 2022}} is a Native American artist. She is enrolled in the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, while also living in Indiana all her life.{{Cite web |title=Katrina Mitten · Call and Response: Creative Interpretations of the Wylie House · Wylie House Exhibits |url=https://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/wyliehouse/exhibits/show/artists-in-the-museum/katrina-mitten |access-date=2025-05-29 |website=collections.libraries.indiana.edu}}

Mitten is beadwork artist, whose embroidery style of beadwork has earned her numerous awards for over 50 years and has been featured in major metropolitan museums.{{Cite web |title=Katrina Mitten |url=http://www.katrinamitten.com/ |access-date=2025-05-29 |website=Katrina Mitten |language=en}}

Biography

Mitten is a descendant of one of the five Miami families who were allowed to stay after the establishment of the Indian Removal Act by Andrew Jackson. This act was passed to remove Native people from their land and relocate west, past the Mississippi River.

At the age of twelve, Mitten learned beading from her grandmother Josephine.{{cite web |last1=Brackney |first1=Susan |title=The Maker: Beaded Embroidered bags |date=23 December 2019 |url=https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/lifestyle/fashion/the-maker-beaded-embroidered-bags |publisher=Indianapolis Monthly}} Josephine influenced a large portion of Mitten's works, including her 1950s handbag, which she has stated represents her family heritage. Mitten made this handbag collaborating with her granddaughter Saiyer Miller and teaching her using the same methods as her grandmother.

Mitten also learned more about her tribe by visiting museums and studying her families' heirlooms.{{cite web |title=Eitelijorg's Indian Market and Festival draws artists from across U.S. and Canada |date=21 June 2018 |url=http://thestatehousefile.com/eiteljorgs-indian-market-festival-draws-artists-across-u-s-canada/35966/}} She is active on the powwow circuit.

She has created utilitarian works, such as The Cradle Board, as well as necklaces, bracelets, and beaded handbags. Other influences in her art include the geometric designs found in ribbonwork and the floral patterns depicted throughout the Great Lakes tribal beadwork.{{cite web|url=https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/a-masterpiece-hours-in-the-making/article_c5843b90-671c-52b8-a269-c0f5dbb0be74.html|title=Native Art Market 2014: Katrina Mitten|last1=Edge|first1=Sami|date=18 August 2017|website=Santa Fe New Mexican|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/960881753|title=Indiana folk arts: 200 years of tradition and innovation|others=Kay, Jon., Traditional Arts Indiana., William Hammond Mathers Museum (Bloomington, Ind.)|date=2016 |isbn=978-0-692-72355-5|location=[Indiana]|oclc=960881753}} She incorporates personal and family stories into her art pieces and uses her art as a means of story telling.

In 2016 Mitten collaborated with Native American artists Katy Strass and Angela Ellsworth to create a painting of the states on a fiberglass statue of a bison.{{cite web|url=http://www.huntingtoncountytab.com/feature/38175/three-locals-lending-talents-state’s-‘bison-tennial’|title=Three Local Lending Talents to State's 'Bison-Tennial'|last1=Sandlin|first1=Rebecca|website=The Huntington Country TAB}}

Two of her pieces, MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) and Ten Original Clans of the Myaamia, were acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of the Renwick Gallery's 50th Anniversary Campaign.{{cite book |last1=Savig |first1=Mary |last2=Atkinson |first2=Nora |last3=Montiel |first3=Anya |title=This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World |date=2022 |publisher=Smithsonian American Art Museum |location=Washington, DC |isbn=9781913875268 |pages=228–238}}{{cite web |title=MMIW |url=https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/mmiw-117560 |website=Smithsonian American Art Museum |access-date=16 December 2022}}{{cite web |title=Ten Original Clans of the Myaamia |url=https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/ten-original-clans-myaamia-117994 |website=Smithsonian American Art Museum |access-date=16 December 2022}}

Select artworks

Cradle Board{{Cite web |title=Katrina Mitten |url=https://education.eiteljorg.org/courses/katrina-mitten/ |access-date=2025-05-29 |website=Eiteljorg Education Hub |language=en-US}}{{cite web |title=Native American Cradleboards |url=http://www.native-languages.org/cradleboard.htm}}
1950's Handbag
MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women)
Ten Original Clans of the Myaamia

Exhibitions

Native Art Market at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C. (2014){{cite web |title=Native Art Market 2014: Katrina Mitten |url=https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/photos/native-art-market-2014-katrina-mitten |publisher=Smithsonian}}
Myaamia Heritage Museum & Archive (2018)
Santa Fe Indian Market{{cite web |last1=Edge |first1=Sami |title=A masterpiece 760 hours in the making |date=18 August 2017 |url=https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/a-masterpiece-hours-in-the-making/article_c5843b90-671c-52b8-a269-c0f5dbb0be74.html}}