Virginia Alice Stroud is a Cherokee

Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

-Muscogee Creek painter from Oklahoma. She is an enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians

United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians

The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma is a federally recognized tribe of Cherokee Indians headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The United Keetoowah are also referred to as the UKB...

.

Early life

Virginia Stroud was born on 13 March 1951 in Madera, California

Madera, California

Madera is a city in and the county seat of Madera County, California, United States. It is a principal city of the Madera–Chowchilla Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Madera County, and Metropolitan Fresno. It is located in California's San Joaquin Valley. As of the 2010...

. Her mother died when she was eleven, so Stroud moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma

Muskogee, Oklahoma

Muskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh-largest city in Oklahoma....

 to live with her sister. She sold her first painting at the age of 13.

Stroud graduated from Muskogee High School

Muskogee High School

Muskogee High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school in Muskogee, Oklahoma. MHS has a steady enrollment of 1,700 students. It is accredited by the Oklahoma State Department of Education and the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association...

 in 1968. From 1968 to 1970, she attended Bacone College

Bacone College

Bacone College is a private four-year liberal arts college in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Founded in 1880 as the Indian University by Almon C. Bacone, Bacone College is the oldest continuously operated institution of higher education in Oklahoma...

 and studied art under Cheyenne

Cheyenne

Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...

 painter Dick West, who made her his studio assistant. She then attended the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...

.

In her late 20s, Stroud was adopted, following Kiowa

Kiowa

The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...

 tradition, as a daughter of Evelyn Tahome and Jacob Ahtone, a Kiowa couple.

Pageants and the Tear Dress

In 1969, Stroud served as Miss Cherokee Tribal Princess. She went on to win the title Miss National Congress of American Indians

National Congress of American Indians

The National Congress of American Indians is a American Indian and Alaska Native indigenous rights organization. It was founded in 1944 in response to termination and assimilation policies that the U.S. government forced upon the tribal governments in contradiction of their treaty rights and...

 in 1970, and in 1971, she was crowned Miss Indian America XVII. When Stroud competed for the title of princess in 1969, Cherokee women wanted her to represent the tribe in a "traditional" Cherokee outfit, which was problematic since Cherokee women wore contemporary mainstream fashions for at least two centuries and wore very little clothing before that. A committee of Cherokee women, appointed by Chief W. W. Keeler

W. W. Keeler

William Wayne "Bill" Keeler was appointed principal chief of the Cherokee nation in 1949 by President Truman, and served as appointed chief until 1971, when the Cherokee regained their right to elect their own leaders in a congressional act passed by President Nixon...

 designed a dress based on a hundred-year-old Cherokee dress owned by a Cherokee lady, Wynona Day, and from surrounding Southeast tribes' formal regalia, and they created the "Tear Dress."

Art career

Stroud paints with tempera and gouache and is a fine art printmaker. She also has written and illustrated several children's books. She draws inspirations from ancient pictographs and historical ledger art

Ledger Art

Ledger Art is a term for Plains Indian narrative drawing or painting on paper or cloth. Ledger art was primarily from the 1860s to about 1900, although some of the old style drawing continues to the 1930s. There is also a contemporary group of accomplished Native American artists who work in the...

. Over her career, Stroud developed a narrative style with minimal facial details in her people and lavish floral backgrounds. She also paints kinetic wooden sculptures and fine art furniture.

Her work is in such public collections as the Gilcrease Museum

Gilcrease Museum

Gilcrease Museum is a museum located northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. The museum now houses the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West as well as a growing collection of art and artifacts from Central and South America...

, Millicent Rogers Museum

Millicent Rogers Museum

In 1956, the Millicent Rogers family founded the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, New Mexico. Initially the artworks were from the multi-cultural collections of Millicent Rogers and her mother, Mary B. Rogers, who donated many of the first pieces of Taos Pueblo art...

, Philbrook Museum of Art

Philbrook Museum of Art

The Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma is an art museum and former home of Oklahoma oil pioneer Waite Phillips and his wife Genevieve Phillips. , the museum has a staff of 60 and an operating budget of nearly $6 million....

, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is an art museum on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma.-Overview:The University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is one of the finest university art museums in the United States. Strengths of the nearly 16,000-object permanent collection...

, Cherokee Heritage Center

Cherokee Heritage Center

The Cherokee Heritage Center is a non-profit historical society and museum campus that seeks to preserve the historical and cultural artifacts, language, and traditional crafts of the Cherokee. The Heritage center also hosts the central genealogy database and genealogy research center for the...

, and Cherokee Nation Entertainment.

Of her work, Stroud says, "I paint for my people. Art is a way for our culture to survive... perhaps the only way."

Honors

In 1970, Stroud became the youngest Native artists to win first place in the Woodlands division of the Philbrook Museum's annual juried art show. In 1982, the Indian Arts and Crafts Association honored Stroud as Artist of the Year. The Five Civilized Tribes Museum declared Stroud a Master Artist in 1986. In 2000, she was given the Cherokee Medal of Honor.

Published works

• Doesn't Fall off His Horse: A Cherokee Tale. Dial, 1994. ISBN 978-0803716353.
• A Walk to the Great Mystery: A Cherokee Tale. Dial, 1995. ISBN 978-0803716360.
• The Path of the Quiet Elk: A Native American Alphabet Book. Dial, 1996. ISBN 978-0803717183.