Downstream Casino Resort, Joplin, Mo.

The Downstream Casino Resort has a showcase filled with pottery by Betty Gaedtke. The effigy vessels represent the various Clans within the Quapaw Nation. The exception is the girl vessel that represents and honors Native children sent to the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. “My grandmother Nora Buffalo, some her siblings, and other tribal members were students there”. The students had their hair cut, dressed in western clothing, and were forbidden to speak their native language. The “Carlisle Girl” vessel is holding her cut hair in her hands.