Clara Archilta

Her husband died in 1956, and Archilta began to paint the following year as a means to support her family. Despite a severely injured arm, she soon began to sell her work and make a name for herself.^[2][5] She was the first woman to exhibit a collection of paintings at the American Indian Exposition (Anadarko, Oklahoma).^[5] She also exhibited work at the Philbrook Museum of Art. Her work has been in the collection of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Anadarko.^[2]

Archilta was also the head woman dancer for the Apache Blackfeet Society.^[1] In the late 1950s, she painted a rare version of the Kiowa-Apache Blackfeet Dance. In the painting, the Manatidie dancers are depicted in an earlier version of the dance which was no longer performed after the early 20th century.^[6]

She died in 1994 at the age of 82 in Apache, Oklahoma. Her funeral was held at the Apache Tribal Complex in Anadarko. She was buried at Memory Lane Cemetery.^[1]