Mabel B. Swimmer, Cherokee medicine bowl

Mabel Bigmeat Swimmer created pottery because it was an important aspect of life growing up in the Bigmeat family. Her mother, Charlotte Welch Bigmeat, taught her and her sisters how to make Cherokee pottery. Mabel recalled how making and selling pottery provided the family with an extra income source that was needed when she was growing up as well as when she was an adult. Mabel exhibited her skills and procedures to visitors when she worked at the Oconaluftee Indian Village. After working there, she left to meet up with her older sister in Flint, Michigan. When she was in Michigan she continued to produce pottery all within the context of a sustainable culture and environment. Mabel strived to continue to make pottery so that pottery-making would continue to be an integral part of the Cherokee culture in the future. In 1979, the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual exhibited the works of Elizabeth Bigmeat Jackson, Mabel Bigmeat Swimmer and Louise Bigmeat Maney—the three Bigmeat sisters. The exhibition highlighted that each sister developed their own unique methods of firing, coloring and in their application methods of various designs on the surface.

**Sources: https://books.google.com/books?id=SGQVBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=Mabel+Bigmeat+Swimmer&source=bl&ots=DqSO67-8De&sig=tu_NJyUMY58JRXGNQuetZj50yok&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQr6zw1pvNAhUY0GMKHdkSDukQ6AEIOzAG#v=onepage&q=Mabel%20Bigmeat%20Swimmer&f=false and http://www.wcu.edu/library/DigitalCollections/CherokeeTraditions/People/Potters_BigmeatFamily.html