OKLAHOMA CITY – A Choctaw wedding dress created by Chickasaw artist Melissa Freeman captured top honors recently at the prestigious 39th annual Red Earth Festival, featuring elite First American artists from across the nation.
The full-sized satin, lace and organza veil and train along with a purse, necklace and pucker-toed moccasin accessories won first place in Red Earth’s Clothing/Textiles and Weaving Division in March.
Three completely diverse types of fabric were utilized to create it. It is not the first time Freeman’s work – titled “Chahta Ohoyo Wedding Dress” – has been judged best in the textile division of art shows.
It won first place at the 2023 Southeastern Art Show and Market, first place at the 2024 Artesian Arts Festival and Best of 3D category at the 2024 Hushtola Art Market.
It was created over a three-month period.
“I would put in 12-hour days making it,” Freeman said. “I might take a day off. However, I would get up in the morning, work 12 hours and then go back to bed,” Freeman explained. “It was intensive work. The diamonds have to be placed and sewn by hand. The most meticulous part of the dress must be finished by hand.
“Once I start on a dress, it becomes a part of me. I feel it and dedicate myself to finishing it by working long hours,” she noted. “You have a creation in your mind’s eye, and you want to see it to fruition.”
However, it is Freeman’s second place winning exhibit at Red Earth that is closest to her heart.
Titled “Onnahinli Okhlika,” the all-black floral brocade, Choctaw diamond dress is completed with teardrop shaped beads on the apron and has a fabric with crosses that are hand placed behind the diamonds.
Freeman designed and made the dress to honor her late father, Nathan Nelson, who passed in November 2024. Brocade is often referred to as “embossed cloth” and has a rich history dating back to elaborate Chinese garments.
“I wrote a description of the dresses and why I created them so patrons would know what they represented,” the Oklahoma City native said. “I am still quite emotional about it. Onnahinli Okhlika was made to honor him.”
Diamonds are present on both works of art in tribute to the Choctaw Nation. The diamondback rattlesnake is considered sacred by the tribe. The viper protected crops and harvested grains from rodents and small animals, according to Freeman.
The dressmaker explained Choctaw dresses have ruffles and a diamond pattern on them that are low on the garment, so the rattlesnake understands it is honored by tribal members.
Freeman is a Chickasaw citizen and enjoys Chickasaw and Choctaw heritage. She makes Chickasaw and Choctaw dresses for many citizens of both tribes. She also makes Chickasaw and Choctaw shirts for men of both tribes.
Freeman said her father was Choctaw, while her mother, Catherine Wade, is Chickasaw and Choctaw. It was her mother who inspired her to sew and create as a child. Her mother is also a fluent speaker of Choctaw.
“Mom was terribly busy with work, home and kids, but she found a little time for her hobbies of sewing and crocheting. In retirement, she made it a priority for the grandkids to learn their language. I benefited from that as well because there was no time for us to learn growing up,” Freeman said.
As a stay-at-home mom, Freeman did not throw herself into the textile craft full time until 2018.
“I crafted a dress for my daughter when she was 3 years old when I attended a Choctaw dressmaking class. It was mostly handsewn. I would make little outfits for action figures and Barbies as my husband is a toy collector. I decided to work on dresses and learned by asking dressmakers, observing, and trial and error. When my kids had graduated from high school and began college, I decided to start entering art shows.”
She and her husband, Guy, have two children. Daughter, Madeleine, 25, graduated from Yale University and now works for the Choctaw Nation as a language specialist. Her son, Aeneas, 24, is attending Oklahoma City University School of Law.
This year marked the first time Freeman competed at Red Earth.
“I wanted to enter before this year but always had doubts if my art was good enough.” Despite “Choctaw Ohoyo Wedding Dress” winning first place ribbons in two other art show and a Best of 3D Category, it came down to a decision to honor her father.
“I thought about my dad and decided I was going to enter this time,” Freeman said.
“Doing well at Red Earth was a personal accomplishment. Winning and placing was special because honoring him is what drove me to compete this year,” she added.