2024 CDR John Herrington
2022 Archie Mason
2020 Walter Echo-Hawk
2018 Dr. Henrietta Mann
2016 Sam Proctor
2014 Ruthe Blalock Jones
2012 Kirke Kickingbird
2010 Billy Mills
2008 Neal McCaleb
2006 Wilma Mankiller
2004 Charles Chibitty
2014 Circle of Honor
Honoring Ruthe Blalock Jones
Ruthe Blalock Jones, of Shawnee-Delaware-Peoria descent, began her work as an artist at age 10 under the tutelage of Charles Banks Wilson. She attended Bacone College in Muskogee, Okla., and earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the University of Tulsa in 1972. In 2011, she was appointed commissioner of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board by the Department of the Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar. She is director emeritus and associate professor of art at Bacone College.
Her works focus on the traditional American Indian ceremonial and social events. They are recorded in paintings, drawings, limited-edition prints in linoleum block, woodcut and serigraphs. Select collections of her art are at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and Sam Noble Museum at the University of Oklahoma in Norman; the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Ariz.; the Museum of the American Indian in New York; Hampton University in Virginia; and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Award Presentation
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