Ruthe Blalock Jones
Ruthe Blalock Jones (born June 8, 1939) is a Delaware-Shawnee-Peoria painter and printmaker from Oklahoma. She was born in Claremore, Oklahoma, to Joe Blalock (Shawnee/Peoria) and Lucy Parks Blalock (Delaware). She is enrolled with the Shawnee Tribe and belongs to the Horse Clan of the Lower Band of Shawnee. Her tribal name is Chulundit.
Jones started making art as a child, studying with Charles Banks Wilson. She earned an associate degree from Bacone College in 1970, a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Tulsa in 1972, and a master’s degree from Northeastern State University in 1989.
Her work includes oil, acrylic, watercolor, pen and ink, pencil, and printmaking (monotypes). She began entering juried shows as a teenager, receiving an honorable mention at the Philbrook Museum of Art when she was 13, and her first art award was an honorable mention at Philbrook in 1954 at age 15.
Jones has received several honors: Red Earth Festival Grand Award (1987); Oklahoma Governor’s Arts and Education Award (1993); induction into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame (1995); Bacone College’s Dick West Award (2000); Red Earth Festival’s Honored One (2011); and the American Indian Circle of Honor Award from the Tulsa City-County Library (2014). Art historian Dr. Mary Jo Watson notes that Ruthe’s work shows tribal pride and authentic detail of dress and ceremonial life, often drawing on childhood memories. She is also known as a skilled hoop dancer, war dancer, and cook.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 16:35 (CET).