wi_mburns_studio_93
Mary Burns, weaver.
Ancestral Women Woven Portraits: handwoven jacquard portraits. Partial Exhibition at the Madeline Island Historical Museum on Madeline Island, Wisconsin (Lake Superior, WI).
Alice Ackley (Randall), Wa We Ya gesuck go qwa "Around the Sky Lady".
Sokaogon Chippewa Community of Mole Lake, Wiscnsin - 31″ x 42″
From CVA's booklet (Wausau, WI) : Ancestral Women Exhibit - Wisconsin's 12 Tribes - Center For the Visual Arts - Wausau, WI
Alice Ackley was born to Chief Dewitt Ackley and Phyllis (Johnson) Ackley in 1900 on the shores of Lake Metonga, Forest County, in a wigwam near Crandon, WI. She was born a member of the Sokaogon Chippewa Community Band of Lake Superior Anishinabe Indians.
As a young girl, Alice lived and roamed the home land of her people, The Post Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Townships 34 and 35, R.L. 11 & 12, East. She lived with her grandparents until the BIA government school at Thoma, WI, came to pick up all Indian children and educate them.Upon finishing her education at Thoma, she returned to Antigo, WI, to stay with her aunt and uncle. There, she married George S. Randall and had 4 children. They lived and farmed near the city of Antigo, and in 1938, the family moved to Mole Lake, WI.
The Federal Government passed a bill to establish Indian Reservations for landless Indian People. She helped her brother, Willard Ackley, who was Chief of the Mole Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, to write the Constitution and By-Laws for the Sokaogon Chippewa Tribal Government. She served as enrollment clerk for the Tribal Government and also served as tribal secretary for 27 years. Alice was also a healer and spiritual leader. In gratitude for the time she spent serving her people, she was elected as Indian Mother of the Year in 1967. She was proud to receive this honor. She spent the rest of her days wild ricing, weaving rugs, and as tribal historian. She finally walked on into the Spirit World surrounded by her children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren near her home at Mole Lake in the year of 1978. The Ackley family has always been very involved with wild ricing. Wild rice is seen as a gift from the creator and a main staple in their traditional diet.
This weaving portrays Alice beneath a “sun circle” to acknowledge her name and her spiritual path, as she is parching wild rice
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