The Echoes of Yesteryear

The Echoes of Yesteryear was exhibited in the 1995 Native American Invitational and Master’s Exhibition at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A handwritten note with the painting, presumably by the artist, describes it as follows: “After removal from Mississippi to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) in the 1800’s, a few Choctaw families returned to their beloved homeland (1900’s), for a reunion with those left behind and to their old homesteads. The homesteads were deteriorated or no longer standing. The land, owned by settlers, was gone forever. The Choctaw people grieved and yearned for what was lost.” Valjean Hessing was designated a Master Artist by the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in 1976. Her artworks are in the permanent collections of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona and the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma, among others. .