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Dehlia Franklin Castor -
Gentle Leader
All the refinement of good
taste was exhibited with Georgeann’s needle work. Rich colors in the Osage
ribbon work were so strong there could only be respect shown by the
comfortably large group of women who were in attendance at the Mansion on
Grand Avenue that day. The method looked so intricate but was made easy,
by her teaching the secrets of its design. Georgeann worked at every phase
of the dance regalia and maybe for the first time non-Indians were made
hungry for the beauty of that dress. Her sharing of those tiny mystical
ways of turning the fabric into a geometric pattern became a reality and a
possibility to sew.
Dehlia Franklin Castor was
a curator of the museum at the time. Her intelligence, coming from a long
line of educators, was already established. Who knows how far back this
quality was in her family culture. Her own father, Dr. W.W. Franklin, was
a retired superintendent of schools.
It was in and around this
time Maude Chessewalla was teaching the relatively lost art of finger
weaving at the Osage Museum. Dehlia quickly picked up the most difficult
art and taught it to anyone who would sit down long enough to learn. So
many of the belts that were up to that time, only museum pieces could
suddenly be created, again. Maude not only practiced the highly involved
and intricate craft, she made illustrations, drawing of the patterns along
with instructions so anyone with a desire to learn could do so.
It was from these diagrams
Dehlia took her instructions and taught herself. At one time the Ponca as
well as the Osage created strong belts not only for traditional ceremonies
but for binding their swaddled babies onto boards and for holding a load
to a horse. The chevron designs of different colors were certainly
beautiful enough to wear with dance regalia.
When the women of all races
saw the lovely work, without fail, they themselves wanted to reproduce it.
In Oklahoma most all people have Indian blood and if it is only a whisper
or a drop, still it is powerful and its influence upon the mind is
inevitable. There are often latent, hidden wishes for understanding and of
belonging to a deeper part of their being that maybe they only felt but
didn’t know existed.
Today, there is a place
remaining in the hearts of Osages who remember the work of Maude
Chessawalla. She and her husband were viciously murdered by an intruder
into their ranch home. Gossip and stories were told of how the men tore
the paneling off the walls, pulled up the carpet to generally destroy
their home while Maude and her husband were bound. She was in her night
clothes. It will never be known how great the loss of Maude Chessawalla
has been to this community. The beauty of her life was cut short but not
before she inspired so many people to return to the precious and rare
crafts of their ancestors.
Velma, too, restored these
aspirations of pride in women’s crafts, creating a new era of
understanding and appreciation that continues today. |
