Girty continues traditional art of stone carving

United Keetoowah Band citizen Matt Girty began creating art in his youth while discovering his Native identity. Nearly 26 years later, the United Keetoowah Band Tradition Keeper is well-known for his stone carvings, capturing his culture in art.
Born in Dallas to full-blood, Cherokee-speaking parents, Girty was unable to learn the language, and learned about his heritage from his environment.
“I used to draw all the time. Back in the (19)70s what really influenced me…there was like a big (American Indian) movement, what people were doing in the big cities,” Girty said. “What I figured out now as I got older, they were bringing Indian identity back. When you grow up in the city, you’re pretty much just one in a bucket of a lot of different people, so if you see another Indian, you automatically connect. So in artwork, I seen that it brought people together.”