A Conversation with Betty Frogg

The McClung Museum proudly presents Cherokee Nation National Treasure Betty Frogg. Please join us for a conversation with Frogg as she speaks about the importance of preserving Cherokee tradition, language, and culture. Betty Frogg is a renowned basket maker, accomplished twiner, and Cherokee first-language speaker. She was selected by the Cherokee Nation to contribute work to the McClung Museum’s Homelands exhibition.

The conversation will be preceded by a light reception starting at 4:30pm.

About the speaker: Cherokee basket weaver and traditional artisan Betty Christie Frogg lives in the small community of Wauhillau, Oklahoma, close to where she grew up. A Cherokee language speaker, she didn’t learn English until she was sent to Seneca Indian School in Wyandotte, Oklahoma, as a child. Cherokee was always the primary language in her family’s home. Betty remembers watching her grandparents make baskets. As an adult, she learned from Cherokee National Treasures Lena Blackbird and Shawna Cain, who taught Betty the art of round-reed and flat-reed baskets from rivercane and split white oak. She has since learned many other Cherokee traditional arts, including clay pottery, historical clothing, clay beads, cornhusk dolls, and the ancient skill of twining natural fibers into clothing and textiles. Sharing cultural knowledge is central to Betty’s life. She taught Cherokee basketry at Adair County schools for several years prior to teaching second-grade in the Cherokee language at the Durbin Feeling Language Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She frequently demonstrates her skills during special presentations, events, and festivals, including Cherokee Days at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., and the living history interpretation at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Betty was named a Cherokee National Treasure in 2010 for basketry. She serves on the Cherokee National Treasures Advisory Committee and was an editor of the 2017 book “Cherokee National Treasures: In Their Own Words.” Betty also voices the Cherokee language lessons featured in the TV series “Osiyo, Voices of the Cherokee People” and the character Iga Daya’ in the animated series “Inage’i.”

Support for Homelands: Connecting to Mounds Through Native Art is provided by The Henry Luce Foundation and The Terra Foundation for American Art. Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium. Additional support for this program has been provided by the Haines-Morris Grant.