Jimalee Chitwood Burton (née Jimalee Chitwood, January 23, 1906 – 2000[1]), also known as Ho-Chee-Nee,[2][3] was an American writer, artist, and lecturer who claimed Creek-Cherokee ancestry.
Jimalee Chitwood Burton Ho-Chee-Nee | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 23, 1906 |
| Died | 2000 |
| Spouse |
Dan Burton
(m. 1933; died 1954) |
Early life
editJimalee Chitwood was born on January 23, 1906, in El Reno, Oklahoma Territory,[a] the first child of James Alexander Chitwood and Mary Caroline Burger Chitwood.[2] Her father, whom Burton identified as being of Cherokee descent, was as a rider for the Pony Express and had moved from Texas to Oklahoma Territory during the Land Rush of 1889. Burton identified her mother as being of Creek and Cherokee descent.[5]
Career
edit
In 1949, Burton's oil painting Buffalo Dance was showcased at the Philbrook Museum of Art's annual Native American painting competition. She became the first woman to exhibit at the event and also received the "Third Purchase Prize for the Woodland Region".[5] How the Boy Medicine Came to the Kiowas, an oil painting on canvas that was completed by Burton in the "mid-20th century", is now housed at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.[6]
Burton was also a prolific writer.[3] In 1979, Burton's anthology of poems, prose, and traditional stories, titled Indian Heritage, Indian Pride: Stories That Touched My Life, was released by the University of Oklahoma Press.[7] She pledged all of her royalties to the construction of a Cherokee chapel; the Cherokee Heritage Center Memorial Chapel in Park Hill, Oklahoma was erected in 1976.[8] Burton also edited The Native Voice for fifteen years.[3]
Personal life and death
editJimalee Chitwood married radio personality Dan "Smiling Dan" Burton (October 1, 1889 – May 10, 1954) in 1933 until his death.[9] The couple did not have any children together, although Dan Burton had a son from a previous marriage.[10]
References
editNotes
editCitations
edit- ^ "Jimalee Burton". National Portrait Gallery. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
- ^ a b c Irvine 1979, p. 277.
- ^ a b c d Bataille & Lisa 2003, p. 61.
- ^ "Jimalee Burton". National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
- ^ a b Broder 2013, p. 278.
- ^ "How the Boy Medicine Came to the Kiowas". Gilcrease Museum. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
- ^ Sanders 1975, p. 529.
- ^ Teuton 2012, p. 11.
- ^ Hurley, Maisie (May 1954). "Dan A. Burton". The Native Voice. Vol. 8, no. 5. p. 2.
- ^ Pope 1983, p. 111.
Bibliography
edit- Bataille, Gretchen; Lisa, Laurie (2003). Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 9781135955878.
- Broder, Patricia (2013). Earth Songs, Moon Dreams: Paintings by American Indian Women. Macmillan. ISBN 9781466859722.
- Irvine, Keith (1979). Encyclopedia of Indians of the Americas. Vol. 3. Scholarly Press. ISBN 9780403017959.
- Pope, Margaret Chitwood (1983). The Family of Squire and Mary Wray Chitwood. Towery Press.
- Sanders, Thomas. "Book Review". American Indian Law Review. 3 (2): 529–533. doi:10.2307/20067954. JSTOR 20067954.
- Teuton, Christopher (2012). Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars' Club. UNC Press Books. ISBN 9780807837498.