Lisa Rutherford  (Cherokee Nation) balances her creative time between clay arts and textile arts, including pottery, sculpture, 18th century clothing, feather capes, southeast applique beadwork, and twined textiles. A graduate of Northeastern State University, she worked for the Cherokee Nation for several years, and is now a full time artist.  Her home and studio are located on the family cattle ranch near Tahlequah.

She has been making ancestral style pottery since 2005 and began making historic clothing to wear while she demonstrated pottery, leading to her career as a living history interpreter as well as an artist. She creates historic clothing for museum exhibits, specializing in feather capes.

In 2014, Rutherford participated in the Art Leadership Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, studying twined textiles, historic clothing and beadwork, and feather capes.

In 2018, she was named a Cherokee National Treasure by the Cherokee Nation for her work in preserving and promoting Cherokee pottery and culture. 

She became a full time artist in 2021 and also does living history interpretation and cultural arts presentations. 

Her work is in museum collections including the Smithsonian Museum’s National Museum of the American Indian, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art, the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum at OU, and the Cherokee National History Museum in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.