Native American Handwoven Costumes & Textiles by
Chickasaw artist Margaret Roach Wheeler
About the Artist
Chickasaw textile designer Margaret Wheeler honors the spirit of her great-great-grandmother, Mahota, and a legacy of creative Chickasaw women. Margaret has become known internationally as a painter, sculptor, educator, Native historian, and award-winning weaver. From her earliest business in handwoven fashions to creative textiles to the field of fine arts, Margaret’s art and work continue today in selling original handwovens and in the national brand of Mahota Textiles, both collaborations with the Chickasaw Nation. It is this legacy of Mahota, Nancy Mahota, grandmother Juel and mother Rubey - centuries of tradition and craftsmanship handed down through generations of Indigenous makers. Through her detailed historical research and creative innovation, Margaret connects the inspiration of our ancestors to all of us in a modern world.
Margaret has also received a research fellowship to study at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York. Her intricate textiles have exhibited works at prestigious institutions, including the Museum of Art and Design and the Museum of Contemporary Native Art (MoCNA), Oklahoma, New Mexico, New York, Colorado, Indiana, and Arizona museums. Alongside her museum exhibitions, her “Street Clothes" weavings have been seen in fashion shows as well.
She has earned numerous awards including Best of Class-Heard Museum Indian Market, First place in SWAIA (Santa Fe Indian Market), and Purchase Award at Eitel Jorg. In 2010, Margaret Roach Wheeler was inducted into the Chickasaw Nation Hall of Fame and was honored by the State of Oklahoma with the Governor's Arts Award in 2018 for her unique contributions to art.
“The loom and the act of weaving brought me an awareness of my ethnic heritage. Today, fibers have become the paint and metal wherein I work. I feel my training, my heritage and my artistic talent have found completion in the act of weaving.”
The Mahota Project
Margaret is the founder of Mahota Textiles, a national textile brand based in Sulphur Oklahoma. Mahota Textiles is the first tribally owned textile company in the United States. Drawing inspiration from Southeastern Native American heritage to create elevated and meaningful textiles designed in Oklahoma by Native American Artisans, Mahota Textiles beautifully crafts sustainable blankets, pillows, home goods, and wearables woven celebrating Chickasaw heritage and symbology.
The Mahota name can be traced back to five generations of lineage within Margaret’s family and it is her dream to honor the spirit and legacy of creative Chickasaw women: Mahota, Nancy Mahota, grandmother Juel and mother Rubey.
“We’re makers of art, of story, the threads that connect the inspiration of our ancestors to all of us in a modern world. These tell our stories; these create our brand.”
Artist Statement
I have worked as an artist and sculptor for fifty years in the media for which I was trained. My direction dramatically changed when my job required me to teach textiles. I had grown up in a household where fibers were a part of daily life, my mother and grandmother knitted, sewed, quilted and crocheted, but I had never considered this part of my life as integral to my artistic work. The loom and the act of weaving however brought memories not only of childhood, but also an awareness of my ethnic heritage. Today fibers have become the paint and metal wherein I work. I feel my training , my heritage and my artistic talent have found completion in the act of weaving.
Biography
Margaret Roach (1943) South Dakota
1975, Bachelor of Science in Education
Missouri Southern State College, Joplin, Missouri1978, Masters of Arts
Pittsburg State University; Pittsburg, Kansas
Awards
2022, Oklahoma Creative Ambassador
2020, Chickasaw Nation Dynamic Woman of the Year award
2018, Oklahoma Governor's Arts Award
2010, inducted into the Chickasaw Nation Hall of Fame
2009, Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market, Best of Class
2000, Fellowship with the National Museum of American Indian, Washington DC
Museum Collections
Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IN
Museum of Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, NM
Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
Research Fellowships
Artist on Residence with Chickasaw Nation 2007-2020
Artist-in-residence program, sponsored by Atlatl and The National Museum of American Indian - Smithsonian Institution
Under the Artist-in-residence program, Margaret had the chance to research at the following museums: Peabody Museums, Harvard, Peabody Museum, Andover, MA, The New York State Museum, Albany, NY
Research fellowship granted to study textiles of the ancient Mississippian culture at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Museum of Natural History, National Museum of the American Indian, NYC, NY
The Smithsonian Museum, Washington DC and the Smithsonian Support Center, Suitland, MD, May 2000
Organizations
1998-2000, MISSOURI ARTS COUNCIL
Visual Arts panelist
1996-2010, Weavers Guild of St. Louis
1987-1996, SP1VA ART CENTER
Executive Board Member 1987-1996
1981-2020, Missouri Fiber Artist: An organization dedicated to nurturing creativity and promoting an interest in the Fiber arts, Executive
Board Member, 1982-1983 and 1986-1987
1981-Present, Handweavers Guild of America
1980-2010, Midwest Weavers Asociation: An organization promoting weaving in the Midwest United States
Teaching
1989, Southwest Missouri State, Springfield, Missouri | Adjunct Professor
Missouri Southern State College, Joplin, Missouri | Interim Professor of Art Education
Joplin R-8 School District, Joplin, Missouri
1981-1985, Memorial High School
1975-1981, Parkwood High School
Instructor: Fiber and Metal (Weaving, Batik, Papermaking, and Jewelry)
Selected CV
“Clans” a performance from “Lowak Shoppala” classical music by Jerod Tate, handwoven regalia
Carnegie Hall 2024
Mahota Weaving Studios at the Artesian Gallery. 2013-2020
Taught weaving, had 14 weavers at time of closing.
Lowak Shoppala’, a Performance. 2009
Created 86 costumes depicting 1,000 years of Chickasaw clothing.
Created the set design.
Chickasaw Arts Academy 2008-2017
Taught Textile Design
Chaperoned my Scholarship students to Fashion Institute of Technology for workshops, NYC. 2011-2016
Notable Exhibits
“Summer and Winter” Retrospective of Margaret Roach Wheeler
101 Archer Gallery, Tulsa, Oklahoma 2025
Zane Bennet Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico 2025
“Speak While You Can” curated by Tony Tiger
The Sam Noble Museum. 2024
“To Take Shape and Meaning” curated by Nancy Strickland Fields
North Carolina Museum of Art 2024
“In America”, A Lexicon of Fashion curated by Andrew Bolton and Amanda Garfinkel
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2022
“Chiefs Clans and Kin” Curated by Laura Clark, Living Arts Center,
Tulsa, Oklahoma 2022
“Recovering Ancient Spiro” Curated by Eric D. Singleton and F. Kent Reilly III
The Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum 2021-2023
“Visual Voices, Contemporary Chickasaw Art.” Curated by Manuela Well off Man
The Fred Jones Museum of Art Norman, Oklahoma. (a touring exhibit) 2018-2021
“Return From Exile,” Contemporary Southeastern Art curated by Bobby Martin and Tony Tiger
Lyndon house art center and foundation
Athens, Georgia (a touring exhibit) 2015-2017
“Native Art Now” curated by Karen Kramer
The Peabody Essex. Museum. Salem, MA
(a touring exhibit )2015-2017
“Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation”
New York City, New York; September 22, 2005-Jan 15, 2006
IAIA Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico, March 4-April 30, 2006
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art, Indianapolis, IN, May 20-August 20, 2006
Naples Museum of Art, Naples, FL: October 3, 2006-January 7, 2007
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK; January 28-April 22, 2007
Anchorage Museum of Art & History, Anchorage, AK; May 17-September 16. 2007
Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN; October-December 2007
“Stories from the Circle: Science and Native Wisdom”
Tsaile, Arizona May 2002
“2000-Eight”
Invitational Exhibit, Spiva Regional Focus Gallery, Joplin, Missouri, Nov. 2000
“Art to wear” Curated by Margaret Roach Wheeler
Davis Art Gallery, Stephens College, Columbia Missouri, October 2000
“From All Directions” Juried Exhibit
St Louis Artists Guild, St Louis, Missouri, August 2000
“Ancestral Images: Tribute to the Mandans”
Fontbonne University Gallery of Art, St Louis, MO, Sept-Oct 2005
Kavanagh Gallery, Fine Line Art Center, St Charles, IL, January-February 2002
Zahorec Hughes Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, July 2000
Architectural Library Gallery, Oxford, Ohio, June 2000 (In conjunction with Convergence 2000)
University Museum, Memorial Hall, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, March 2000
“Threads of the Imagination”, Missouri Wearable Art Fiber Exhibition Curated by Margaret Roach Wheeler
The St. Louis Artist Guild, St. Louis, Missouri June, 1999 FIBERWORKS ’99 Juror and exhibitor
Omniplex, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, April, 1999 MARGARET WHEELER
“Ancestral Spirits”
Boger Gallery, College of the Ozarks, Point Lookout, Missouri, March 1999
Textured Images: Woven, Written, Forged, Juried exhibit.
The St. Louis Artist Guild, St. Louis, Missouri, January, 1999
Ancestral Image: Contemporary Interpretations
George A. Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin, Missouri, January 1999
“The Works”
Norris Gallery, St. Charles, Illinois, January 1998
“Uncommon Thread” Juried fashion show
Fine Line Creative Arts Center, St Charles, Illinois, October 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,2000,2001,2002
Fine Line Creative Arts Center; St. Charles, Illinois, October 1994
Guest Designer The Fine Line Creative Arts Center, St- Charles, Illinois, October 20,1991