Raven grew up in a small community near the Canadian border in Washington State, where her great grandparents homesteaded in the 1880s near the northern edge of the Colville Reservation. Her Choctaw grandmother arrived in 1930, traveling from South Dakota in a buckboard pulled by mules, on a journey that took four months.

Her family hunted and fished in the nearby mountains, making a subsistence living during the fall and winter months to supplement her father's job at the sawmill. She has always held a close connection to the rhythms of the land, and spent much of her youth outdoors. Her artwork is how she honors her connection to this place, working with natural materials discarded by, or found in nature.

While Raven holds a Batchelors Degree in Horticulture, she learned much of her extensive knowledge of indigenous medicinal and edible plants from her Choctaw and Nez Perce grandmothers.

Born to Choctaw/English/Nez Perce/German parents, she took her native american heritage largely for granted for many years. In her forties, with her children grown, she began to discover the richness and importance of her ancestors' experience, and turned her creative skills to the reproduction of native american artifact replicas. For ten years, she lived on the road following the Pow Wow circuit all over the United States, selling her native crafts and learning from elders wherever she could along the way.

When poor health forced her to give up her nomad way of life, she started this website, dedicated to all native american tribes of the US and Canada.

Raven has won many awards for her artwork at juried art shows, festivals, and pow wows, and her work is found in museums and private collections around the world.