The John Hair Cultural Center and Keetoowah Museum will begin the second section of the “Getting Back to Basics” series when it begins its Fall classes on Quilting for Beginners. This section will be offered monthly on three Saturdays on September 9, October 14, and November 11, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Tribal elder and culture bearer Betty Holcomb will teach the quilting classes. She will share resources for the class and part of the content came from a 1977 Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Services booklet.

The Extension home economist in charge of the Indian program wrote, “Indian families today are looking back to a time when life was much simpler. We are becoming increasingly more interested in restoring many of the cultural ways that helped to create this nation of strong people. We have seen an interest and return to the home arts, one of which is quilting.”

And that is also true today. Assistant Keetoowah Museum director Barbara Girty Foster said, “As a result of the Cultural Preservation Assessment collected from UKB communities last year, we are offering a quilting class as part of our “Getting Back to Basics” series. Tribal members had the most interest in learning more about Keetoowah Traditional Lifeways and quilting.

The cost is $75 for all three classes. For more info, contact Girty Foster at 918-871-2794.