Creating Together: Art, Expression, and Caddo Tradition
Art offers more than something beautiful to display. It gives people a way to express themselves, explore new ideas, and connect with one another. Through opportunities such as Caddo Nation Childcare’s Art Night and a recent traditional pottery workshop led by Caddo artist Chase Kahwinhut Earles, creativity continues to bring the community together while making space for both individual expression and cultural preservation.
Held at Anadarko's N'DARKO CENTER, Caddo Nation Childcare’s Art Night offered opportunities to explore metal stamping, painting, mosaics, and linoleum printing. Each medium introduced a different way to turn an idea into something tangible, encouraging participants to experiment with colors, textures, patterns, and designs.
Metal stamping uses steel stamps and a hammer to press letters or decorative patterns into soft metal, creating lasting impressions that can personalize jewelry, keychains, and keepsakes. Painting allows ideas and emotions to take shape through color and brushwork, while mosaics bring small pieces of material together to form a larger design. Linoleum printing introduces another creative process: carving a design into a block, applying ink to its raised surfaces, and pressing that image onto paper or fabric.
Together, these activities highlight the many forms of expression can take. There is no single way to be creative, and opportunities to try something unfamiliar can help people discover interests, develop skills, and enjoy the process of making something their own.
That same spirit of discovery carried into Earles’ one-day Traditional Caddo Pottery class, held October 17, 2026, at Caddo Nation headquarters in Binger. Open to Caddo Nation members, the workshop connected hands-on creativity with knowledge rooted in Caddo tradition.
Participants made small traditional Caddo pots using clay Earles dug and processed by hand. Alongside shaping their pottery, they learned how and where to gather clay, how to process it, and how pottery is finished and fired in an open ground fire, also known as pit-firing.
For Earles, the workshop was an opportunity to share knowledge developed over 16 years of creating traditional Caddo pottery. “I am very grateful to be able to pass on my 16 years of knowledge of creating traditional Caddo pottery from the ground up and creating new spaces for our people in tribal preservation and the Native arts world,” Earles shared. Following the workshop, Earles reported that the pottery was successfully pit-fired, with no cracking or other firing damage. A small exhibition at Caddo Nation headquarters is planned to showcase the completed pieces.
The workshop received support from the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. Earles also shared that a separate OVAC THRIVE grant will support a future class focused on making ceramics and clay objects from locally gathered Oklahoma clay. Application information will be announced on his Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming months.
From experimenting with a new art technique to learning how to shape clay gathered from the earth, these experiences reflect the value of keeping art accessible across generations. By supporting opportunities to create, learn, and share, the Caddo Nation helps nurture personal expression, strengthen community connections, and carry cultural knowledge forward.
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