Martha Berry (artist)

Martha Berry was born in 1948 and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma.{{Cite news|url = http://www.tylerpaper.com/TP-News+Local/184900/tylerite-honored-by-cherokee-nation-for-art-and-culture-contributions|title = Tylerite Honored by Cherokee Nation for Art and Culture Contributions|last = Pearson|first = Brian|date = 29 August 2013|work = Tyler Morning Telegraph|access-date = 23 March 2015}} She is a registered tribal citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Berry's grandmother and mother taught her how to sew and embroider at age five. She made her own clothes by age nine. When she was 20, she became a professional seamstress. She has expanded her skills by developing elaborate beadwork art. She taught herself the lost art of Cherokee beadwork by studying photographs of artifacts and examining Cherokee beaded artifacts at the Smithsonian Institution.[http://www.berrybeadwork.com/ About the Artist.] Martha Berry (retrieved 17 March 2009)Power, Susan C. Art of the Cherokee: Prehistory to Present. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2007: 209-211

Berry creates beaded bandolier bags, moccasins, belts, knee bands, purses and sashes. She often uses beadwork designs that evolved from pre-Contact Mississippian pottery into traditional 18th and 19th century Southeastern beadwork. Berry discovered a unique stitch only used on Southeastern sashes.Orchard, William C. Beads and Beadwork of the American Indians. Based on the 1975 Second Edition of the 1929 Manuscript: p. 122 She is credited with reviving the art of Cherokee beadwork, which had been in serious decline for many years. Her art, expressed through utilitarian items, demonstrates themes such as duality and change throughout life.{{Cite thesis|url = http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/10448|title = Power in Meaning: Changing Indigenous Museum Collection Narratives|last = Baudino|first = Patricia|date = 31 May 2012|journal = KU ScholarWorks|access-date = 23 March 2015|publisher = University of Kansas| type=Thesis }} Berry's beadwork also expresses "current day feelings of conflict, loss, distortion and confusion." After she was recognized as a Cherokee National Treasure, she discussed her work: "I want to make beautiful things. I want to teach more and more people to do the same, and I want to grow more and more teachers of traditional Cherokee beadwork."

Berry participated in the Native American Community Scholars Grant Program of the Smithsonian Institution. She has visited their collections to do further research into pre-Removal Southeastern beadwork, which has informed her own work.

Berry in 2008 curated Beadwork Storytellers: A Visual Language, a Cherokee beadwork exhibition at the Cherokee Heritage Center in Park Hill, Oklahoma.[http://www.cherokeeheritage.org/museum/special_exhibits/special_exhibits.html Special Exhibits.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311032702/http://www.cherokeeheritage.org/museum/special_exhibits/special_exhibits.html |date=2009-03-11 }} Cherokee National Museum. (retrieved 17 March 2009) The exhibition included beadwork from the collection of the University of Aberdeen Museums, Scotland which had not been seen in the United States in almost two centuries. Berry also wrote the text for the show catalog.

Berry lives in Rowlett, Texas with her husband, Dave, a retired journalist. Her daughter, Christina Berry, is a published author, photographer and manager of the "All Things Cherokee" website.

She served as a delegate to the 1999 Cherokee Nation Constitution Convention in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.{{Cite web|url = http://fngovernance.org/resources_docs/Cherokee_Nation_of_Oklahoma_Constitution_Case_Study.pdf|title = Overcoming Politics of Reform: The Story of the 1999 Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma Constitutional Convention|date = July 2001|access-date = 23 March 2015|website = Centre for First Nations Governance|publisher = Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development|last = Lemont|first = Eric}} Her role in the convention helped the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma heal itself and "reassert itself as a capable sovereign in Oklahoma."{{Cite book|title = Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development|last = Kalt|first = Joseph P.|publisher = University of Arizona Press|year = 2007|isbn = 978-0816524235|pages = 78|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qbKIx1CzdocC&q=%22martha%20berry%22%20cherokee&pg=PA79|editor-last = Jorgensen|editor-first = Miriam|chapter = The Role of Constitutions in Native Nation Building: Laying a Firm Foundation}} She is currently an active member of several Cherokee organizations.[http://www.gwyartists.info/Martha_Berry.html Martha Berry.] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20090830214146/http://www.gwyartists.info/Martha_Berry.html |date=2009-08-30 }} Cherokee Artists Association. (retrieved 4 Oct 2009){{Cite journal|url = http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=47480218&site=ehost-live|title = Co-op Thrives in Tough Times|last = Chief|first = Russ Tall|date = January 2010|journal = Native Peoples Magazine|access-date = 23 March 2015|volume = 23|issue = 1|issn = 0895-7606|pages = 74}}

• [http://www.berrybeadwork.com/ Martha Berry: Cherokee Beadwork Artist.]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20101205162526/http://www.allthingscherokee.com/art_berry_martha.html All Things Cherokee Art Gallery: Martha Berry.]
• [http://www.cherokeeartistsassociation.org/gallery/marthaberry/marthaberry.html Cherokee Artist's Association: Martha Berry.]
• [https://dc.library.okstate.edu/digital/collection/ona/id/311/rec/59 Oral History with Martha Berry]

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