John and Louise Maney

John and Louise Maney

Artisans

Cherokee Indians

Potters

This undated photograph by an unknown photographer is of Cherokee potters John Henry and Louise Bigmeat Maney. Louise Bigmeat (1932-2001) was born a member of the Paint Clan, raised on Wrights Creek in Cherokee, North Carolina, and was taught how to make pottery as a child by her mother. Mrs. Maney traced her heritage as a potter through generations of Cherokee women: Louise's mother, Charlotte Welch Bigmeat, and her aunt, Maude Welch, were both prominent Cherokee potters who had been taught the craft by their grandmother, Iwi Catolster. After attending Soco Day School and Cherokee Central High School, Louise Bigmeet Maney worked for twenty years as an educator in the local community development program and in local schools. When she retired in 1987, she returned to making pottery, and she and her husband opened their own shop. Louise Maney's pottery has been collected by the Smithsonian Institution. Louise Bigmeat Maney was active in the North American Indian Women's Association (NAIWA) and in the Painttown Community Organization. For her work in preserving Cherokee tradition, she received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award in 1998. She passed away in 2001, and was designated a ""Beloved Woman"" posthumously by the Eastern Band, an honor accorded to only three other Cherokee women in the past two hundred years.

Unknown

Photograph Collection

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

jpg;

photographs

StillImage

11009

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/11009

2008-11-04

All rights reserved. For permissions and use, contact Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Cherokee, NC 28719;

Qualla Boundary

Appalachian Region, Southern

3.5" x 5"(dimension)

Cherokee Traditions