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Mahota Textiles is the first textile company envisioned and owned by a Native American tribe. We create meaningful textiles that elevate beauty and treasured culture, inspired by our southeast heritage.
 

The Mahota Story

Weaving together generations of tradition

Mahota Textiles is the first textile company envisioned and owned by a North American tribe. We create meaningful textiles that elevate the beauty and treasured culture, inspired by our Southeast heritage. Our textiles tell our stories in expressive imagery and soft, warm woven material.

Legacy of Centuries

The making of Mahota Textiles is the making of a legacy. The threads of our history reveal a colorful weaving together of women and warriors, immigration and removal—centuries of heritage and tradition. Our logo, five irregular concentric circles, is a depiction similar to early hand-carved Native American glyphs discovered in caves and on rocks, and represents five generations of Indigenous women.

The Mahota story can be traced to the kidnapping of a young French girl living in the Southeast in 1736 during a tribal skirmish. For nearly three centuries, she has been known as French Nancy, the eventual bride of Chickasaw warrior Alikuhlo Hosh. They named their daughter Mahota, a word in Chickasaw and Choctaw languages meaning “to separate by hand.” Matrilineal societies of Southeastern tribes placed great value on works created by hand for loved ones and their community. Even their tools were created as beautiful objects in the belief that beauty and power were imparted to everything made from them.

The making of Mahota Textiles

The company’s founder, Chickasaw textile designer Margaret Roach Wheeler, honors the spirit of Mahota and the legacy of creative Chickasaw women: Mahota, Nancy Mahota, grandmother Juel and mother Rubey. Out of this lineage across three centuries of Native American history, Margaret developed as a painter, sculptor, educator, Native historian, and award-winning weaver.

From her earliest business in handwoven fashions to creative textiles in the field of fine arts, Margaret’s art and work continues today in a weaver mentoring studio selling original handwovens, and in the national brand of Mahota Textiles, both as collaborations with the Chickasaw Nation.

It is this legacy—centuries of tradition and craftsmanship handed down through generations of Indigenous makers—that inspires the designs of contemporary Chickasaw artisans of Mahota Textiles.

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Transitioning from Handlooms to Computerized looms

The legacy of Mahota Textiles today is innovation, creating artful, quality products of Southeast tribal designs that are first, and always, beautiful. By transitioning from handlooms that restrict circular pattern-making to computerized looms guided by modern design software, our artisans join trusted industry partners to bring our culture to the world. Every Mahota textile designed is created in Oklahoma by Chickasaw tribal artists and woven from natural materials in the USA.

“We’re makers of art, of story, the threads that connect the inspiration of our ancestors to all of us in a modern world. These tell our stories; these create our brand.”
— President & Founder Margaret Roach Wheeler
 
 

The Mahota Textile’s team

 
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Margaret Roach Wheeler

Our company's founder is an award-winning weaver, fiber expert and textile artist who has received a research fellowship to study at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York and exhibited works at prestigious institutions, including the Museum of Art and Design and the Museum of Contemporary Native Art (MoCNA).

She has earned numerous awards including Best of Class-Heard Museum Indian Market, First place in SWAIA (Santa Fe Indian Market), and Purchase Award at Eitel Jorg. She is the owner of Mahota Handwovens, a weaver mentoring studio, and was inducted into the Chickasaw Hall of Fame in 2010.

Mahota Textiles is the ultimate passion project for Margaret, for which she honors the legacy and heritage of her family. The Mahota name can be traced back to five generations of lineage within her family and it is her dream to honor the spirit and legacy of creative Chickasaw women. 

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Bethany McCord

Bethany McCord is our Business and Development Manager for Mahota Textiles. She is responsible for managing all aspects of the business and serves as a liaison between internal departments and outside organizations.

Before coming on board at Mahota Textiles, she was the first in her family to graduate college and pursue a master’s degree in business administration, later adding a master’s in Indigenous Peoples law to her resume. Her goal was to start a business but was torn between starting a business and leaving the Chickasaw Nation. When she was asked to join the Mahota team, it was a dream come true.

Bethany’s passion stems from her Chickasaw and Choctaw heritage, including a strong cultural identity and a childhood filled with memories of shared stories, language, and delicious traditional recipes.

She encourages her children and the next generation to be strong in who they are, have the heart to serve others and continue to build on the success before them. Bethany is a true gem, and we’re grateful to have her help lead the way at Mahota.

Joanna John

Joanna is the Sales and Operations Coordinator for Mahota Textiles. Her role is to educate prospective customers on product information while serving as the point of contact between Mahota, its current clients, and future customers. Her operation duties include quality control and inventory on all products received and shipped.

She has been involved with Mahota since the beginning, serving as a member of the Mahota Advisory Committee, while working at the Chickasaw Cultural Center. With a degree in Native Intergovernmental Relations and a master's in Indigenous Peoples Law, Joanna served as the Senior Collections Manager. Her constant contact with the Mahota team, and shared ambition to build a company that presents Southeastern designs on a larger scale, led her to take a position as a sales representative when the chance came.

Joanna is proud of her Chickasaw/Choctaw heritage and is passionate about doing something that has never been done before, by bringing southeastern design into commercial textiles. She believes that Mahota Textiles has allowed southeastern art and design to branch into sectors of opportunity, while also maintaining high standards in quality products. 

As a mom to two adventurous boys, she is a constant cheerleader to be resilient and overcome any challenge, while encouraging the underdog. Her upbeat spirit brightens each day at Mahota, and we are happy to have her on board.  

Tanner Hudson

Tanner is our Design and Operations Coordinator for Mahota Textiles. His primary role is to research and create designs, ensuring each collection is aesthetically and culturally fitting. His other duties pertain to the operations side of the business from shipping and receiving to quality control of each product.

Before coming to Mahota Textiles, Tanner was a first-generation graduate obtaining a bachelor’s degree in computer science. His computer knowledge and interest in his Chickasaw culture led him to the genealogy and collections department at the Chickasaw Cultural Center. It was there that Tanner learned more about Mahota Textiles and took a unique opportunity to join the team as their designer.

Tanner’s passion is to bring southeastern art and culture to a broader audience and believes that by generating mainstream interest, we help to preserve tribal traditions and ideas.

His Chickasaw heritage is a big part of his identity and values, heavily influenced by the strong matriarchs of his family who instilled in him a love for education and art. Tanner’s zeal and desire to bring pride to our founder and the Chickasaw people is contagious and we are glad to have him on Team Mahota.