A Conversation with Betty Frogg and Barbara Adair

The McClung Museum proudly presents two Cherokee Nation National Treasures, Barbara Adiar and Betty Frogg. Please join us for a conversation with Betty and Barbara as they 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. Barbara Adair is also a renowned basket maker. Her other specialties include making corn husk dolls, clay bead necklaces, and turtle baskets.

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

About the speakers:

Barbara Adair was named Cherokee National Treasure in Basketry in 2022. She has been practicing her art for well over 20 years. Barbara first learned basketry from her sister, Betty Frogg, who is also a Cherokee National Treasure. She has traveled often to instruct students in rural schools, Cherokee Nation Health Centers, even to Cherokee Nation at-large community groups as far as Washington state. In addition to round and flat reed baskets, Barbara’s other specialties include making corn husk dolls, clay bead necklaces, clay medallions, twine bags and her most favorite item, turtle baskets. In 2017, Barbara was awarded the Emerging Artist Award at the Cherokee Homecoming Art Show. In her down time, Barbara loves to make homemade meals and spending time with her grandchildren.

Betty Christie Frogg was named a Cherokee National Treasure in 2010. She is a Cherokee basket weaver and traditional artisan that 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.