Our Arklahoma Heritage: Delaware County-based Cherokee potter brought back traditional techniques and designs

Anna Belle Sixkiller Mitchell (1926–2012) was a Cherokee potter who brought back traditional Southeastern Woodlands pottery techniques that had nearly disappeared after the Trail of Tears.

Born near Sycamore in Delaware County, she later lived and worked in Vinita in Craig County, where a cultural center now bears her name.

Mitchell was born on October 16, 1926, to full-blood Cherokee parents Iva Louise Owens and Houston Sixkiller. She grew up speaking Cherokee at home and attended the Seneca Indian School in Wyandotte, followed by Haskell Institute in Kansas.

In 1946 she married Robert Clay Mitchell, a descendant of Sequoyah, and the couple settled in Vinita, where they raised five children.

In 1967, while digging a pond on their property, the family found clay. Robert asked her to make a clay pipe like those shown in images of Sequoyah. With no formal training, Mitchell created her first piece and soon developed a deep interest in the craft. She wanted her work

to reflect the styles used by Cherokee potters before the forced removal from the Southeast

.Mitchell taught herself by studying museum pieces in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and North Carolina, reading books on ancient pottery, and talking with potters from other tribes. She learned that Southeastern designs often featured fluid arches, swirls, birds, and human forms rather than the sharp geometric patterns common in Southwestern pottery.She gathered clay from local ponds near Vinita, tempered it with ground shells and sandstone, and built pots by hand-coiling.

She used wooden paddles, some engraved or wrapped with rope, to create patterns based on ancient shell carvings. She made colored slips from local earth and fired the pots in open wood fires, then burnished them with stones for a smooth finish.

Her work gained recognition in the 1970s. She won first prizes at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee, the Oklahoma Arts and Crafts Show in Tulsa, the Smithsonian Festival of American Folk Life, and the Santa Fe Indian Market.

She had solo exhibitions at the Southern Plains Indian Museum, the Cherokee National Museum, and the University of Arkansas.

In 1982 she was named a Cherokee National Treasure during the Cherokee National Holiday.After her husband died in 1997, her daughter Victoria moved to Vinita to apprentice with her. Mitchell also taught students including Jane Osti and Crystal Hanna, who continue the tradition today.

Her influence extended to other Cherokee artists who incorporated her designs into beadwork and other media.Anna Belle Sixkiller Mitchell died on March 3, 2012, in Vinita at age 85. She is buried in Fairview Cemetery.

Her legacy lives on through the Anna Mitchell Cultural and Welcome Center in Vinita, opened by the Cherokee Nation, as well as exhibits, murals, a bronze bust, and a scholarship fund for emerging artists.

Her pottery helped restore a vital part of Cherokee cultural heritage.