Walking with My Ancestors

Self-portraits printed on Canvas with glass beads created by Holli Margell, 2026.

A vintage red Hudson Bay Blanket was found during Holli’s first artist residency. It sparked the idea for representing the journey her ancestors took when they were forcibly removed from

the Ohio territory. Eleven treaties later, the Eastern Shawnee tribe is now located in Oklahoma.

Beads were added to the canvas prints to symbolize the lasting echos of removal. Several generations after Holli's ancestors were removed from the Ohio territory, citizens of the Eastern Shawnee tribe can be found living all over the USA and beyond.

close-up:

Lengths for the beads vary as each family's tree has been impacted in various ways, nearly 200 years after removal in 1832.