By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
Margaret Littlejohn Wakefield, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, has been selected as an Official Red Earth Festival Artist for the 2026 event. She will display her paintings at the Festival set for Aug. 1-2 at the OKC Convention Center in Oklahoma City, Oka.
Wakefield, who signs her work ‘Tsani Usdi’ which is Littlejohn in the Cherokee language, said she was shocked and cried tears of joy when she found out the news. “I was absolutely flabbergasted when I realized I had been chosen as the Official Festival Artist. When I opened my email I just scanned the first line or two to see if I had been accepted. Once I saw that I had been juried in I didn’t pay attention to the attachment because I was so excited. I was too busy calling my sister and telling her we were going to Red Earth. It wasn’t until I went back over the email that I opened the attachment and saw that I had been chosen as the Official Artist!”
Margaret Littlejohn Wakefield, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, has been selected as an Official Red Earth Festival Artist for the 2026 event. (Image courtesy of Margaret Littlejohn Wakefield)
She is very excited for the event and has begun preparations. “My booth will have a prominent place at the Red Earth Festival. So, it’s really important that it looks professional and presents well because I’m representing the festival as well as our EBCI artists here. I will be demonstrating during both days of the festival and I do that regardless because I’m always painting, always working and it opens up lines of communication between myself and potential collectors. I also keep an extra seat in my booth in case someone just needs to sit for a minute and that usually ends up in a conversation also. I meet the most interesting people and get great feedback from it. I’ve submitted a proposal to speak at this year’s festival but I haven’t heard about that at this time.”
She was at Red Earth decades ago. “I was at Red Earth way back in 2000, the year after my father walked on. I was accepted on the first go round. Due to medical and mental health issues I wasn’t able to apply in later years and then I took a 6-year hiatus from my art altogether. It wasn’t until two years ago that I picked up a pencil, much less a paint brush.”
“He Dances of War” is a painting by EBCI artist Margaret Littlejohn Wakefield. It is part of her series entitled ‘Warriors of Kituwah’. (Image courtesy of Margaret Littlejohn Wakefield)
Wakefield added, “I had moved to Aiken, S.C. in the meantime because I wanted to be with horses. I started drawing again. But, it wasn’t until my wonderful friend, Jenean Hornbuckle, sent me a message telling me I couldn’t resist color for too much longer. All I had left were some tubes of Sennelier watercolors. I had never really worked in watercolors, I was scared of them. The day after she sent that message I picked up my one brush and painted a horse. What a revelation! It changed my life.”
At the Red Earth Festival, Wakefield noted that she’ll have 40 to 50 pieces of original art as well as Giclee prints for sale. All of the work will be matted and framed.
“Naturally, I’m really excited about the two chosen for the (Red Earth) poster, Ga-sha-le-ni Ge-ga-ge-i and A-sha-no-hi Da-lo-ni-ge-I. But, I’m most proud of my Warriors of Anikituhwah paintings. These paintings are what changed my whole artistic purview. These paintings are my first time incorporating acrylic inks into my watercolors as well as being my first attempt at painting the human figure.
We’re a woodland people and I think it’s terribly important that we portray that in our art. I also paint other things that are fun, like my hares, Tsi-Sdu, that are part of our stories or perhaps paintings that bring awareness to our missing and murdered Indigenous peoples. My red handprint series has horses searching the different landscapes with a red handprint delicately incorporated into the sunset, the forest, etc. I’m glad to donate an image to any organization helping in this.”
She does her paintings in watercolor or acrylic inks with most being a combination of the two styles. “I love the delicate washes and glazes they produce. I build up my paintings layer by layer, sometimes I may have eight or nine glazes to produce a certain look or effect, like the clothing on the two Smoke Dancers that were chosen for the poster.”
Wakefield is very appreciative of the support she has received for her art over the years. “I especially want to thank those who have helped me along the way, Jenean Hornbuckle for her encouragement and friendship, my aunt Carmelita Monteith, my late father, Mickey Littlejohn, and my mother, Mary Mason, both of whom instilled a love of art in me, and my community without whom none of this would be possible.”
The poster announcing Wakefield as an Official Festival Artist features two of her paintings including Ga-sha-le-ni Ge-ga-ge-i and A-sha-no-hi Da-lo-ni-ge-I.
