Ohoyo Osh Chishba (Unknown Woman)

Pit fired ceramic. 14", 2026.

One of the Choctaw stories tells of a mysterious woman who appeared to two hunters one night. She was on a sacred mound. She asked for food, and the hunters gave her the hawk they had caught. To thank them, she told them to return next summer. When they did, there was corn growing.

This piece is intended to mimic the seed vessels created to store seeds for the next harvest. It is shaped like a corn kernel, and when I put her in the pit fire, I wrapped her in corn husks, and fillled the interior with corn husks.

Juliette Morris Williams (goes by Juliette Morris) is a registered Choctaw artist living in Nevada City, California.

In 2024, she was a Fellow with the First Peoples Fund, and created the series ‘Mujeres Divinas: Indigenous Women of the Americas’. Along with numerous sculptures honoring indigenous women who have done a great deal for their communities, there are a series of ancestor masks accompanying them.

Currently she is working on a series entitled ‘Toba’, which loosely translates ‘to become’.

‘My current work is about my Choctaw roots and family, and how they have taught me and continue to teach me how to question, look, and listen. This work is based on self exploration, learning through experimentation and the art of listening to the self.’ - Juliette