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Sewing a legacy: the journey of an award-winning Cherokee seamstress

Tonia Weavel stands beside her award-winning tear dress for the 51st Trail of Tears Art Show
Courtesy
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Tonia Weavel
Tonia Weavel stands beside her award-winning tear dress for the 51st Trail of Tears Art Show

Tonia Hogner-Weavel stands behind the glass doors of the Cherokee Nation’s Durbin Feeling Language Center, bidding the schoolchildren goodbye.

“ᏙᎾᏓᎪᎲᎢ (Donadagohvi),” she tells them as they file out the door. “See you tomorrow.”

Neatly folded in her arms is the reason I’m here. A light purple dress with blue, white and green accents awaiting its new owner.

“She (the customer) will be here soon,” she says, smoothing out the fabric. “It’s for her daughter. She has a special cultural event to attend tonight.”

Weavel is known for her unique ability with a needle. She’s worked in textiles for nearly four decades and was designated a Cherokee National Treasure in 2012. This is a significant honor awarded to those who preserve and honor Cherokee culture.

Currently, she works as a Curriculum Specialist at the language center. But she's always finding time to hone the artistic talent she developed all those years ago.

The beginning of her journey

Weavel grew up in the panhandle community of Hardesty, almost 400 miles from the Cherokee Nation reservation. She learned how to sew during home economics there.

“I actually hated it. I didn't care for my teacher. She was a crabby old lady… I thought she was demanding and exacting. Of course now I look back and say, ‘that's how I learned to do things correctly’,” she says. “I realized I enjoyed it when I was able to make myself an outfit that I wasn't embarrassed to wear in public. You know, something hip and cool.”

Her passion for sewing grew from her love of the arts, which Weavel attributes to her mother.

“My mother really promoted the arts. She was an Avon representative and traded and sold products for my piano, vocal, baton and dance lessons,” Weavel said. “She really supported me. My dad was along for the ride, but she really embraced it. They both passed away when I was thirty… They never really got to see my best sewing.”

But the “best” thing to happen to her textile career was after moving to Tahlequah for a job with her tribe. She began sewing and embroidering in the Cherokee tradition – all because of one little girl.

“She's really the staple,” Weavel says. “She's my benchmark of starting to make Cherokee clothing.”

Callie Crow, then Callie Vann, was only 4 years old when she walked into Weavel’s home.

“I barely remember going to Tonia's house and her putting me on a table and measuring me,” she said. “And of course, since I was a kid I didn’t want to do it so I was running around her house. My mom had to get me to sit still.”

Crow’s mother had approached Weavel with a request—a traditional dress she could wear for the Little Miss Cherokee pageant. Twenty years later, Weavel would make Crow another to compete in the adult Miss Cherokee competition.

“In those 20 years I knew I’d come full circle,” Weavel says.

Just two years after that, Crow would make another very special request.

"She’s the first person I thought of to alter my wedding dress. I called her, and she said, ‘Of course, come by,’" Crow said. "It was just so wonderful to have her do that because I know how valuable she is now… She’s just an amazing person inside and out."

Courtesy
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Callie Crow
Crow wearing her adult tear dress made by Tonia Weavel.
Crow wearing her wedding dress altered by Tonia Weavel.
Courtesy
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Callie Crow
Crow wearing her wedding dress altered by Tonia Weavel.

The Cherokee tear dress

The Cherokee tear dress, named after the unique way of ‘tearing’ the fabric into its shape, is relatively modern to the tribe. It was adopted as the official garment for Cherokee women after the Trail of Tears.

Tear dress with unique pattern made by Tonia Weavel
Courtesy
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Tonia Weavel
Tear dress with unique pattern made by Tonia Weavel

“The tear dress today is a modification of a working woman's utilitarian dress from the 1880s,” Weavel says. “You can scratch your back and you can lift your arms over your head. When you put the dress on, if you wanted, you could do gymnastics like Simone Biles because there's no restriction in the dress at all. It is a fully functional garment.”

The first ‘prototype’ was worn by famed Cherokee and Muscogee artist Virginia Stroud as a competitor for Miss Indian USA. It was created and sewn by her sister, Elizabeth Higgins, who based her design off a similar garment pulled from a trunk brought over on the Trail of Tears.

From there, another Cherokee National Treasure, Wendell Cochran, designed what is now known today as the modern Cherokee tear dress, complete with ribbons and embellishments.

“Wendell can do the measurements in his head almost. He can look at a woman and make that dress look good on her, regardless of her height or size,” Weavel says. “He is the master and the grandfather of the dress you see today.”

She largely credits him for her own mastery of the garment and other traditional clothing.

“He taught me every way to make an outfit fit. How to make it last. How to make it timeless,” she says. “He took me under his wing, and what a mighty wing that was. I wouldn’t be half the seamstress I am today without his loving guidance.”

Dancers at the Cherokee National Holiday with women wearing tear dresses amongst the crowd
Cherokee Nation
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Dancers at the Cherokee National Holiday with women wearing tear dresses amongst the crowd

More than just a garment

Weavel says every traditional piece she makes is unique and one-of-a-kind.

“I never make a size. I never do that. I make a dress that fits you, so I measure almost every measurement possible. And so the dress is made for you. It's not made for anyone else—it’s bespoken,” she says. “If you like hot pink, I'll make you hot pink. If you like drab olive green, I'll make you drab olive green. I like to make what you want to wear, because I am literally at your service.”

According to Crow, that’s what makes her so special.

“She remembers people,” Crow said. “It's not just a job to her. She really takes pride in what she does, and she’s amazing at what she does. If anybody asks for a seamstress, I'm always saying her name.”

Tonia Weavel's mink coat that won grand prize in the 2019 Cherokee Homecoming Art Show
Courtesy
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Tonia Weavel
Tonia Weavel's mink coat that won grand prize in the 2019 Cherokee Homecoming Art Show

Her work with traditional textiles is showcased in museums, art installations and advertisements throughout the Cherokee Nation.

In 2003 she won the grand prize at the Cherokee Homecoming Art Show for her deerskin coat, and again in 2019 for a hand-beaded mink coat. In 2022, she was awarded first place at the Trail of Tears Art Show for an embellished tear dress.

"The deerskin coat was one of my big projects, but at the time, I didn’t really feel like an artist. I told my friend, ‘You know, there are only four of these coats made by Cherokees,’ and she said to me, ‘Now there are five. You will always be associated with that coat because your DNA is all over it.’ That’s when I sat up a little straighter and started to consider myself an artist," she says.

Her pieces are more than just something to look at. They’re forever.

"Someone said to me, ‘Tonia, when you make those dresses, they never leave the family. You're making a legacy. So when that little girl grows out of it, the daughter wears it, then the granddaughter wears it and then the cousins wear it,’" she said. "When I realized that some of the things I made were legacies, it made me realize that maybe I was doing something that was long-standing."

But at the end of the day, she says her work is ultimately for her heritage.

“I feel like I'm a servant of the Cherokee people in the fact that I make clothes that enhance their cultural outlook on life,” she says. “When I sew I make your dream come true. When I do art, that’s my creativity… Those are the pieces that bring me joy.”


This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.

Katie Hallum covers Indigenous Affairs at KOSU.
Oklahoma Public Media Exchange
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