Julia Wiona Haythorn:
Artist, Muskogee Creek Elder, Entomologist, Mother
Wiona was born Julia Wiona Brooke in Osteen, FL. Her name is Sioux and means "First Born Daughter." Wiona and her sister were raised by her father's parents after their mother died at the age of 17 from complications during childbirth with Wiona's little sister, Betty. Her father worked odd jobs for the New Deal Works Progress program and was required to travel often. So, her grandparents, who were self-sufficient homesteaders with 2 large gardens and a sugar cane business, gladly took to raising Wiona.
When Wiona was 14, she went to live with her minister's family who lived closer to her school as well as her work for a photographer. When she was in high school and World War II began, she manned a watchtower on Merritt Island scanning the sea with binoculars for German submarines. She also organized dances and gatherings for military personnel that she advertised on sidewalks with chalk.
After high school, she attended Stetson University studying radio operations. There, she met Marty's father and they married in San Diego, CA before he shipped out with the Navy. He was a navigator for a navy airplane and flew numerous missions in the Pacific. After he was discharged he used his GI bill to go to college.
Wiona began to have kids while he was in graduate school earning his Doctorate in Social Psychology. They had four sons before he graduated and Marty was #2. When he did graduate, he got a job with the Airforce in Texas. They moved to Topanga Canyon, then San Fernando Valley where they had 2 more sons. Then, Marty's father got a congressional appointed position as the director of a research team for the Bethesda Naval Hospital.
At this time, Wiona began working in the Entomology Department of the Smithsonian Institute raising tarantulas and Madagascar Cockroaches and giving presentations to school children. Following her work at the Smithsonian, the family lived abroad in Germany and Korea where Wiona learned to speak both Korean and German. While in Korea, she became a Buddhist and was the 1st Westerner to ever graduate from the traditional Korean Tea Institute.
When Wiona returned to the States, she and her husband got involved with several Native American tribes.. They helped a tribe in Wigham, GA with their application for official recognition by the Federal Government. Shortly after, in Southern Florida, she became a Muskogee Creek Elder and received her new name, "Yamasee Hokte" which means "Walks Gently Woman." Wiona remained an Elder for the next 25 years of her life. She passed on April 6, 2020 due to Covid-19.