Marlene Riding In Mameah (March 5, 1933 – July 10, 2018) was a Pawnee Native American silversmith and painter. Born Marlene Mary Riding In in Payne County, Oklahoma, Mameah was a member of the

Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma The Pawnee are a Central Plains Indian tribe that historically lived in Nebraska and northern Kansas but today are based in Oklahoma. Today they are the federally recognized Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, who are headquartered in Pawnee, Oklahoma. Th ...

Education

Mameah attended

Chilocco Indian School Chilocco Indian School was an agricultural school for Native Americans on reserved land in north-central Oklahoma from 1884 to 1980. It was approximately 20 miles north of Ponca City, Oklahoma and seven miles north of Newkirk, Oklahoma, near ...

. She then went to Bacone College, where she wished to study silver smithing. But the class was unavailable to women, and she was required to take painting classes instead; she later learned to work silver while working for a jeweler. Her instructor was

W. Richard West, Sr. Walter Richard West Sr. (1912–1996, Southern Cheyenne), was a painter, sculptor, and educator. He led the Art Department at Bacone College from 1947 to 1970. He later taught at Haskell Institute for several years. Jones, Ruthe BlalockWest, Walte ...

( Southern Cheyenne)

Art career

In 1950, her painting ''Morning Star Ceremony'', submitted under the name "M. Riding Inn", received a prize of $150 in the Indian Annual's Plains division. Mameah taught metalworking at Pawnee Nation College. She won numerous honors throughout her career, and in 2007 was named the Honored One of the

Red Earth Festival The Red Earth Festival is a Native American cultural festival that takes places every June in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. Red Earth, Inc. is the nonprofit organization that hosts the festival and maintained the Red Earth Art Center, ...

. ''Morning Star Ceremony'' is owned by the Philbrook Museum of Art.

References

External links

Marlene Riding In Mameah obituary
poteetfuneralhome.com; accessed July 21, 2018.
Oral History Interview with Marlene Riding In Mameah
1933 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists 20th-century indigenous painters of the Americas 21st-century American artists 21st-century American women artists American silversmiths American women painters Artists from Oklahoma Bacone College alumni Native American jewelers Pawnee people People from Payne County, Oklahoma Women silversmiths Women jewellers Native American women artists 20th-century Native American women 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native American women 21st-century Native Americans {{Oklahoma-stub