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By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015

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First Peoples culture bearers continually keep us grounded in our work at First Peoples Fund. Created to recognize these individuals, the Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards (CSA) is one way FPF honors those whose generosity sustains the cultural fabric of their communities. This spring we traveled to Wisconsin and Alaska to honor two of our 2019 Community Spirit Awards (CSA) honorees and welcome them into the FPF family.

MOCCASINS FOR ALL OCCASIONS

Miscobinayshii (St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin) was a year old when her mother died, and her grandmother began raising her and her sister, Margaret. Their grandmother taught them what she did — make moccasins for all occasions. When someone passed, families called on her to make “going home shoes.”

Miscobinayshii didn’t fully dedicated herself to moccasin-making until she was grown. Her sister Margaret was her main motivator, urging her to carry on the tradition.

Before long, the sisters were sharing their work at the state capitol grounds and folk art festivals, and then, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 1998. Their work began to become so recognized that workers from the Smithsonian Institution approached them, asking of they would create a pair of moccasins to be displayed.

Miscobinayshii and Margaret got busy. She made one, her sister made the other — in one day.

“That was the quickest we ever did anything!” she laughed

Melissa Fowler (Lac Courte Oreilles, St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin), Miscobinayshii’s granddaughter-in-law, nominated her for the FPF Community Spirit Awards. Melissa feels as though Miscobinayshii’s life has been dedicated to not only practicing traditional art and speaking the language, but to continually sharing that knowledge by teaching both youth and adults.

“Without her, St. Croix Tribe wouldn’t know many of the stories, history, and language,” Melissa said. “As a first speaker, she is able to teach and pronounce the Ojibwe language with the correct dialect of the St. Croix Tribe. When she gifts her knowledge, she is gifting a person the ability to carry this knowledge throughout their lifetime.”

On a sunshine-filled day, FPF representatives, participants from culture camps, family, and friends gathered to celebrate and honor Miscobinayshii near her home in the Round Lake Community of the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin. Held at the St. Croix Danbury Conference Center, drumming, song, and stories filled the atmosphere.

FPF President Lori Pourier (Oglala Lakota) said the most incredible moment for her was when the question was asked of how many people in the room had learned the language from Miscobinaysii.

“Over two-thirds of the room raised their hand,” she said. “You could see right then the impact she has had in her community and just how much her warmth and generosity have helped people carry on their culture.”

Ojibwe culture keeper Lee Staples was one of the speakers. “Each of us has a purpose and a reason for existing on this earth,” he said. “Miscobinayshii is a prime example. May she make many more moccasins.”

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BLESSINGS OF THE BERING SEA

Dressed in regalia with an aqua crystal headdress and turquoise dress, Margaret Nakak (Yup’ik/Inupiaq) welcomed FPF representatives to her community in Anchorage this April. At the Alaska Native Heritage Center, with her family’s help, Margaret spread a banquet of traditional foods for the guests at her honoring.

A host of relatives and friends joined the event themed, “Blessings of the Bering Sea.” The Stebbins Yup’ik Dance Group, which Margaret is a member of, performed as well as the King Island Inupiaq Dancers.

“I enjoyed both as they are my relatives of our ancestral language, drumming, singing, and dancing,” she said.

High school girls from one of Margaret’s traditional sewing programs took the stage and shared how she taught them to sew kuspuq, an outer layer garment made from a variety of fabrics. It is essential wear in the challenging Alaskan climate.

Depending on the level of design and decoration of a particular kuspuq, Margaret’s garments and require a wide range of fabrics (cotton, polyester, silk, velvet, and corduroy), furs (ground squirrel, fox, wolf, polar bear, beaver, mink, otter, seal), ivory, beads, and seashells. She studies historical photos and replicates the pieces worn. She brings them from the past to present and, through workshops and classes, into the future. She also teaches skin sewing, beading, and doll making.

Alaskan artist Michael Livingston (Unangax/Chugach) nominated Margaret for a FPF Community Spirit Award.

“I first met Marge in 1999 when I began building an iqyax [Unangax skin on frame sea kayak] at the Alaska Native Heritage Center,” Michael said. He works with Margaret at the Heritage Center. “Marge has touched many lives for over half a century. I worked in Alaska for 27 years as a police officer and know how important it is to have community spirit leaders like Marge teach and guide others.”

Margaret began dedicating her life to sustaining cultural traditions in 1965 and continues strong today. But she doesn’t call what she does “work.”

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015  

Talon Ducheneaux-Shoots The Enemy (Cheyenne River Lakhota, Crow Creek Dakota) is a beatmaker, rapper, and producer. While his primary medium is hip-hop, traditional music plays an inspirational role in how he approaches art. Growing up several of South Dakota’s reservations, Talon bases much of his music on those experiences.  

He graduated with a Bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and now resides in Pierre, South Dakota. He is the founder of Wonahun Waste’ Studios/Records.

When he was a teen on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation, Talon would take walks and wish there was a music studio nearby, a place where artists could gather to create a sense of community. He was already making beats and keeping friendly rivals with other guys as they tried to find ways to make music and record it.

A few years after graduating with his bachelor’s and looking toward a master’s in Interdisciplinary Studies to make his dreams of a studio happen, Talon learned of First Peoples Fund’s (FPF) fellowships. He applied. Around that time, the Crow Creek Housing Authority approached him and asked what it would take to get a studio going.

“It’s all the things that I’ve been passionate about and wanted to do. With the fellowship, I can pass on the knowledge and tools needed for Native youth to express themselves, continue the art and culture, and remain here.”

Together, they worked out a space for a professional recording studio in the tribe’s telecom center. Talon received a 2019 FPF Cultural Capital Fellowship, which is helping sustain the work.

“It’s all the things that I’ve been passionate about and wanted to do,” Talon says. “With the fellowship, I can pass on the knowledge and tools needed for Native youth to express themselves, continue the art and culture, and remain here.”

He opened the studio for sessions, then watched in amazement as his dream took form.

“The studio has been exceeding my expectation on just the amount of voices, and the heart that’s been put into the songs,” Talon says.

Most of the people who visit are youth. He helps them record their messages as they look toward a compilation album, showing them their dreams are within reach.

Talon produced part of his latest album “Myosotis” through the studio and released it in March 2019, and watched the music community he wished for as a teen come to pass.

“When someone comes for their first time, they’re nervous,” Talon says. “But once they’ve been there 20 times, and someone new comes, they help them get through it, saying, ‘trust me, I know how you feel. Just breathe.’ They’re giving them those techniques, that mentorship. I’m really proud to see that because I didn’t need to encourage it. It was already there.”

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015

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Two years ago James Pakootas found himself starting the next chapter of his life. Less than a month out of treatment for addiction, James was considering focusing his energy on his lifelong passion: writing and performing hip hop. Encouraged by one of his closest friends, an uncertain James attended one of First Peoples Fund’s Native Artist Professional Development (NAPD) trainings. From there, the next chapter began to unfold.

Fast forward to today –– James is not only using everything he learned during his very first NAPD training, but he is now a certified NAPD trainer for First Peoples Fund. James has also helped pilot the recently developed performing arts component of the NAPD, teaching the curriculum to other artists in his community. He enjoys being able to encourage artists who, like he felt two years ago, might be uncertain about their capacity to pursue their dreams of being a full-time artist.

“We’re trying to grow that arts ecology,” James explains. “It goes from the individual to the community, to the world. It feels like it’s growing because First Peoples Fund validated me as an individual, and now I’m starting to bear fruit, without intentionally trying to live out their purpose or mission. It’s naturally aligned: My mission is their mission, my values are their values. It really is a family.”

Experiences such as James’s are at the core of why First Peoples Fund’s developed the NAPD training and curriculum –– to connect artists to skills and resources that would help them support themselves while affirming the value they bring to their communities. Rooted in traditional values, the curriculum allows participants to build a foundation for their business that resonates with their deepest sources of inspiration and motivation. Approaching business development through the lens of artists’ Indigenous values helps them to maintain the fortitude needed to take on the challenges of being an entrepreneur, full-time artist or community leader.

“We’re trying to grow that arts ecology. It goes from the individual to the community, to the world. It feels like it’s growing because First Peoples Fund validated me as an individual, and now I’m starting to bear fruit, without intentionally trying to live out their purpose or mission. It’s naturally aligned: My mission is their mission, my values are their values. It really is a family.”

— James Pakootas (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation)

“NAPD is the only professional development training that’s specifically for Native artists, and it is rooted in Indigenous perspectives,” says Tosa Two Heart (Oglala Lakota), FPF’s Program Manager of Community Development. “We’re dedicated to continuing to honor those perspective by incorporating artists’ feedback into the new components of the NAPD curriculum.”

Through site visits, online webinars, and getting in the room with Native artists, we listen as they express themselves, the challenges they face, and their ideas for creating greater impact. Working with artists like James is essential to making sure what we create will meet the needs of the artists we serve, and our trusted partners and certified trainers offer valuable input as well. They work with hundreds of artists across the mainland, and Alaska and Hawai’i, which prompted the recent performing arts revision to the curriculum and are informing the next component to be introduced to the NAPD: leadership.

Culture Bearers Leading a Movement

Though the NAPD recognizes the importance of artists need to support themselves in a cash economy, we also emphasize the importance of every community’s cultural capital, composed of the wisdom of our ancestors. This approach often resonates with artists and culture bearers since for many of them, their primary motivation for creating their work is not monetary, but rooted in much deeper connections to culture, land, tradition, and family. The NAPD wants to support the fact that measures of success for our artists and culture bearer are not solely connected to monetary wealth, but rather to sustaining themselves and their families culturally as well as financially.

Our Community Spirit Award (CSA) honorees embody these efforts and we look to them as guides as we develop the leadership component of the NAPD, written by Ben Sherman (Oglala Lakota). With the larger movements in Indian Country to reclaim and revitalize Indigenous economies, the leadership component is one way FPF can support and affirm the contributions of culture bearers and artists to these processes. The strength of culture bearers and artist-leaders in every Native community we serve shows us at that they are a driving force in the movement to reclaim lifeways, and are critical to ensuring the perpetuation of ancestral knowledge and traditions for future generations.

“When I think of leadership, I think of the idea of how leadership and culture-bearing and being an artist in the community all tie together,” Tosa says. “We are using examples of our CSAs as models for what leadership looks like in the community and how it benefits not just the artists, but perpetuates culture.”

CSA honoree and FPF trainer, Theresa Secord (Penobscot) hosted some of the live webinars FPF has offered this spring. One of her webinars served as a practical guide on how to diversify income as an Indigenous artist, recognizing that mainstream business models do not fulfill all their needs. Participants posed questions in the chat feature, creating opportunities for learning from Theresa’s extensive experience. Those questions and answers also help inform how we will create tangible guidance for artists through the leadership component of the NAPD.

“Success looks different for every artist, and we’re just laying out all the avenues that they could potentially take if they want to pursue a certain path,” says Tosa. “We’re gathering more information from artists and fellows, trying to update resources and think of other professional needs. Say your medium is film, what does your artist portfolio look like? Or how does an author approach publishers? These are things I think about, making sure we eventually touch all these to a certain extent. It’s an incremental process.”

The trainings already scheduled for this year will also provide more opportunities to gather feedback and continue informing the trajectory of the curriculum. NAPD trainings are scheduled in North Dakota, Hawai’i, Montana, Minnesota, and Washington, just to name a few, with regular requests coming in from all across the United States. FPF hopes that with each NAPD training, we are helping an artist guide how the next chapter of their life will be written.

“First Peoples Fund continually validates the importance of me being an artist, and the path I’ve chosen and being a leader in my community,” James says. “They validate me as a human being. It’s powerful.”

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015  

James Pakootas (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation) is a motivational speaker and hip-hop artist. He coordinates events, mentors youth, and provides a fresh look into the world of addiction and substance abuse. A certified First Peoples Fund trainer and 2019 Artist in Business Leadership Fellow, James lives in Spokane, Washington.

“I make a living by telling my story,” James says. “I open up about the childhood abuse I suffered as a little boy, the neglect of my father being in federal prison, through to perpetuating that cycle of criminal activity and going to prison myself and falling into addiction.”

In the spring of 2017, James sat among prominent Native artists during a gathering in his community at Coulee Dam on the Colville Indian Reservation. He wondered if the others would even consider him an artist.

The Northwest Native Development Fund had invited First Peoples Fund (FPF) out to explore interest for local artists in a potential Native Artist Professional Development (NAPD) Training. A week out of treatment, James got a call from his best friend, who works at Northwest Native Development Fund, encouraging James to attend the preliminary meeting.

There he sat, uncertain, as accomplished artists began introducing themselves. His turn came and, for the first time in his life, James’ art — hip-hop music — was validated by other artists, and also by FPF. It was life-changing, marking a moment that put him on a road to healing.

““First Peoples Fund is foundational in me thinking of myself as an artist. To say I’m an artist, to feel good about the word as it leaves my mouth, is empowering.”

“When I started doing criminal activity, my music changed into emulating a street lifestyle,” James explains. “Before I went to prison, I put music and everything from the streets away. But I was still drinking and using when I came out and got into a car accident. I lost the use of my right arm below my elbow. I was broken. I started looking for a beat because I needed to write, I needed to let this pain out.”

That writing session eventually became the first verse on his latest music video, “Break These Chains.”

Over the past two years, James attended First Peoples Fund’s NAPD training on the Colville Indian Reservation, then helped pilot the performing arts version of the NAPD curriculum before becoming a certified FPF trainer in October 2018. With his 2019 Artist in Business Leadership fellowship, he partnered with an audio engineer to launch a studio in Spokane. He’s reaching out to troubled youth and to those well on the path to living their dreams.

Though he left that first NAPD training overwhelmed — questioning himself and struggling with doubts — the belief poured into him pulled James through rebranding his music business.

“First Peoples Fund is foundational in me thinking of myself as an artist,” he added. “To say I’m an artist, to feel good about the word as it leaves my mouth, is empowering.”

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015  

Founded by Northern Cheyenne sisters Madison and Jordan Craig in 2017, Shy Natives aims to empower women with customized lingerie. Through Instagram, Shy Natives accumulated a loyal support network in Indian Country and beyond, being featured in Bustle, Indigenous Goddess Gang, Coy Culture, 1904, and Tea & Bannock. Madison and Jordan produce meaningful content along with creating undergarments to fit women of all sizes.

Founded by Northern Cheyenne sisters Madison and Jordan Craig in 2017, Shy Natives aims to empower women with customized lingerie. Through Instagram, Shy Natives accumulated a loyal support network in Indian Country and beyond, being featured in Bustle, Indigenous Goddess Gang, Coy Culture, 1904, and Tea & Bannock. Madison and Jordan produce meaningful content along with creating undergarments to fit women of all sizes.

Though close in age, Madison and Jordan didn’t get along well as teenagers growing up in California. But their mom promised that someday, the sisters would be best friends.

With their mom’s sewing talents and dad’s knowledge as an engineer, Madison and Jordan come from a creative family.

Madison self-taught herself how to sew after her mom’s gift of a sewing machine during Madison’s college years. She modified her undergarments to fit her body, and before long, was hanging pieces on Jordan’s bedroom door and bugging her sister to test them. Jordan did and loved the custom fit.

The transition to best friends began.

When their parents moved, the sisters decided to get a place in Oakland. Madison soon had four sewing machines in the living room, and with Jordan’s film photography skills, they started an Instagram page to showcase the handmade pieces. Before long, demand for orders followed.

“The Native community has been a huge inspiration and motivation for my work,” Madison says.

She and Jordan are preparing to launch an online store this year. Knowing the demand is already too much to handle on their own, they are using their 2019 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership grant to work with a professional designer who will pattern grade the pieces Madison designs, preparing them for manufacturing. Jordan heads the branding, marketing, outreach, and social media for Shy Natives.

“This is a way we can express ourselves through fashion and through photography,” Jordan says. “We both add our strengths to the project.”

They’ve collaborated with numerous Indigenous artists, including FPF fellows Gunner Jules (Sicangu Lakota), who helped produce music tracks for promotional videos, and Bethany Yellowtail (Northern Cheyenne/Crow) of B.Yellowtail, who is mentoring them on the fashion design industry.

As for those two bickering teenage sisters whose mom promised they’d be best friends someday, well, they are.

Madison says, “There was a clear moment during the photoshoot [with film photographer Andrea Gutierrez] when the music was blasting, sounds of the film camera firing, and models smiling when Jordan and I looked at each other with pure joy and relief. I was proud of being an Indigenous woman and designer, and so happy to share the moment with my sister. We did not have to say anything; the look was all over our faces.”

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation) Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015

Sharing energy and ideas, making genuine connections, forming lifelong bonds –– these were just some of the ways attendees described their experiences during the combined convening where First Peoples Fund (FPF) Artist in Business Leadership and Cultural Capital Fellows and Indigenous Arts Ecology (IAE) Grant Program partners joined together this past month. The event marked the first time FPF brought together the Fellowship Programs and IAE Grant Program together for a gathering.

“A standout moment was just how many Native artists and those supporting Native artists were in the same room together,” Tosa Two Heart (Oglala Lakota) says. She is the FPF Program Manager for Community Development, which means she manages the IAE Grant Program. “We brought these communities, organizations, culture bearers, and artist together, and now they’re connected for life.”

Throughout the three day event, held in Phoenix, Arizona, attendees attended sessions on subjects ranging from legal information to performing arts, community engagement to photography. The variety of sessions meant that artists could learn helpful strategies and skills for their careers while IAE partners could better understand the needs and challenges of the artists they work with each day.

“The IAE partners, their artists, and the fellows are all pieces of their own local Indigenous Arts Ecosystems,” Tosa says. “Part of our goal in bringing our Native artists and Native artist-supporting organizations together is to strengthen the wider Indigenous Arts Ecology as a whole, allowing everyone meet each other, share ideas and learn about what they’re doing.”

James Pakootas (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation) posed a question at the convening while visiting with performing artists in similar genres to his — 2019 Fellows Gunner Jules (Sicangu Lakota) and Talon Ducheneaux (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe), as well as an IAE partner affiliated artist, Tony Louie (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation).

“When is the next time we’ll get an opportunity to all be in the same city?” James asked. “If we find a studio and each of us pays an hour, we could get a full track done.”

Once the four performing artists decided to do an original song together, James wrote all through the night and finished the song shortly before their recording session the next morning. The performing artists gathered at nearby Folded Arms Studio, did vocals for the track, and completed a rough mix, which will be featured on an upcoming album.

The other convening attendees were amazed by the project, which served as an example of what can be accomplished by providing Indigenous artists with the opportunity to get together.

“The convening was the first opportunity where he got to be in a space dedicated just to artists. It was life-changing for him.”

— James Pakootas (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation) in regard to another performing artist from his community, Tony Louie (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation)

“It was great for artists who came from the IAE sites to interact with the fellows,” says Amber Hoy, FPF’s Program Manager of Fellowships. “Combining the Fellows Convening and IAE Convening into one event helped cultivate that opportunity.”

James is also a certified trainer for FPF’s Native Artist Professional Development trainings and has taught multiple trainings at IAE partner site, Northwest Native Development Fund (NNDF). Upon learning that IAE partners would be attending the convening as well, James recommended Tony as one of the community artists NNDF would bring.

“Tony is up on stage a lot, he’s creating his art and continuing to craft his music, but I think the convening was the first opportunity where he got to be in a space dedicated just to artists,” James says. “It was life-changing for him.”

For Alice Bioff (Inupiaq), who works for IAE Grantee, Kawerak, Inc., a non-profit tribal corporation that provides services within the Bering Strait Region of northwestern Alaska, the convening offered insights into how her organization can better partner with artists in their service area.

“We listened to the individual artists and how First Peoples Fund is supporting their work, and some of the barriers that they’re working through so that we have an idea on how to work through those as grantees,” Alice says. “And then to actually walk through the Heard Market — that’s the first time I’ve been to an Indian market of that size.”

The 2019 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market was a chance for the artist fellows and IAE partners to experience a well established, large scale market. The event helped participants understand what is expected of artists who participate in markets of that scale, while giving others ideas about what they might like to see in their own communities, whether similar or different from the Heard Market.

With 24 Artist Fellowships awarded in the 2019 cohort and each of the 12 IAE Grant Program partners bringing staff members as well as community artists, the convening consisted of nearly 60 participants. The wide range of artist mediums and disciplines as well as the range of the IAE partners’ services and focus areas meant that there was a great deal of learning and sharing happening among everyone.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015

As an interdisciplinary artist, Peter Williams (Yup’ik) strives to express and celebrate the oneness of all things. Under his fashion label Shaman Furs, Peter produces high-end fur garments. He also demonstrates the technique of sewing seal and sea otter fur at museums and universities.

Peter is a 2019 First Peoples Fund (FPF) Cultural Captial Fellow and was previously an FPF Artist in Business Leadership Fellow in 2018. He also received a 2018 grant from Rasmuson Foundation. He is based in Sitka, Alaska.

Clacking across the country by train, a woman seated with Peter at dinner asked what he did. From past experiences, he knew the answer could turn into an emotionally draining conversation. He said, “I hunt seals and sea otters.”

She was confused, even appalled, until he added, “Alaska Natives are exempt from the Marine Mammals Protection Act. We’re allowed to hunt marine mammals for food, clothing, and to make arts and crafts for sale.”

She accepted this, but there is much more to the answer.

Peter’s 2018 Artist in Business Leadership grant program led to opportunities in the New York high-end fashion scene. It was there Peter realized how vastly different and misunderstood his work is, this art form integrated with who he is — a Yup’ik man, practicing his cultural traditions and lifeways in rural Alaska.

After his experiences in New York, Peter shifted his focus to artisan boutiques.

“In an artisan boutique setting, people want to have those conversations,” he says. “They go to those spaces to be challenged by art.”

Developing this as a business model, he is blazing a trail on how to share what he does to make a livable wage while advocating for cultural rights.

“At the same time, I also need to share my knowledge of this traditional art form with my people,” he says. “I think those things have to go together.”

Peter’s aim with his 2019 Cultural Capital fellowship is a video showing his practice step by step for other tribal members, educating them on the lifeways that have enabled their people to survive for thousands of years in one of the world’s harshest climates. In a second video, intended for mainstream presentations, Peter wants to succinctly tell the story of how he, and hopefully other Native Alaskans, treat all created things with respect.

“I need to be able to visually show me in my environment, in my home, on the water, practicing my culture and how it’s integrated into my lifestyle,” he says, “and how my art and spirituality all are connected into that. I can visually show them what I do within a couple of minutes.”

Someday, these videos can answer the question of what Peter does and who he is — and how there is no separation between the two.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation) Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015

For our 2019 Indigenous Arts Ecology Grantees, we are honored to introduce five Native art community organizations. These organizations work closely with their artists and culture bearers who are connected with the heartbeat of their local Indigenous arts ecosystems.

Indigenous arts ecosystems are led by the artists and culture bearers whose art and lives embody the values, traditions and aspirations of their communities. These ecosystems are made up of local or regional communities of individuals, formal and informal networks, resources, cultural infrastructure, and organizations and businesses that interact as a system and provide support to Indigenous artists and culture bearers.

The Indigenous Arts Ecology (IAE) a relationship-based, collective system of these arts ecosystems, grounded in ancestral knowledge and are inclusive of environments, spirit, people and lifeways. Strengthening the IAE is is a key strategy of the Indigenous Arts Ecology Grant Program, helping facilitate increased collaboration between organizations and their local artists and culture bearers.

Invited to apply for the program, the following grantees offer access to new markets, knowledge and training, informal networks, creative space, and supplies in order to support and grow the infrastructure needed to uplift their artists. We are proud to partner with these organizations in their goals during their two-year program.

Gizhiigin Art Incubator

Gizhiigin (“grow fast”) is a project of the White Earth Reservation Tribal Council’s Economic Development Division in Minnesota. They work with culture bearers in their community to foster growth, promote local artists, assist with skill development and marketplace goals, and provide artists with space and resources for entrepreneurial development. They hold open studio times, where attendees harvest black ash logs, then work together to prepare the materials for weaving baskets.

The IAE funds will allow Gizhiigin to achieve three outcomes: artistic and economic growth for their artists, the creation of an arts destination to promote the economic growth of White Earth, and revitalization of their traditional arts practices as they leverage regional partnerships.

Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center

In the remote Chilkat Valley, the village of Klukwan sits on the banks of the Chilkat River in southeast Alaska. With a population of less than 100, the village of Tlingit people offers cultural educational tours that draw 3,000 visitors annually.

Song, dance, and storytelling at the traditional knowledge camp clan house lets visitors experience the traditions of Tlingit people. A gift shop in the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center allows them to discover traditional art, where over 30 local artists sell their work.

However, there is a lack of access to supplies in the remote village. This has prevented people from doing their traditional arts regularly. Lani Hotch (Tlingit), a former First Peoples Fund Community Spirit Award recipient and executive director of the Heritage Center Board, plans to use a portion of their IAE grant as initial capital to purchase leather, furs, beads, buttons, felt, yarn, sinew/sewing thread, and beading and glovers needles that artists can then buy locally. The IAE grant will also help them make much-needed repairs to dance regalia, upholding the quality and authenticity of Tlingit culture.

The artists have helped create a sense of place within the community, and the Chilkat Valley as a visitor destination.

PAʻI Foundation

Located on the island of O’ahu, the PAʻI Foundation was established in 2001 as the nonprofit organization of Pua Aliʻi ʻIlima, a hālau hula (school of Hawaiian dance) founded in 1977 by kumu hula (master teacher of Hawaiian dance), Victoria Holt Takamine.

With a goal to establish a cultural center on O’ahu to better serve the broader Hawaiian community, a new 6,000 square foot PAʻI Arts Gallery & Performing Arts Center will open in 2019 as part of the ‘Ola Ka ʻIlima Artspace affordable artist development project. Partnered with Artspace and the IAE program, PAʻI is planning an arts market in the new space.

The IAE funds are also supporting PAʻI’s involvement with the creation of a new arts market at the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture taking place June 2020 in Honolulu, featuring 28 Pacific Island Nations from all over Oceania. They expect 3,000 artists to demonstrate and share their artwork, including hundreds of artists from Hawaiʻi.

PAʻI has partnered with First Peoples Fund to conduct Native Arts Professional Development (NAPD) training workshops, and have several artists and culture bearers who are certified trainers. PAʻI plans to offer advanced-level financial literacy, curatorial, exhibition, and marketing skills workshops, to prepare artists to exhibit, demonstrate and sell their work in galleries and markets, thereby helping to preserve and perpetuate Native Hawaiian cultural traditions for future generations.

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Sitting Bull College

Guided by Lakota/Dakota culture, values, and language, Sitting Bull College is committed to building intellectual capital through academic, career and technical education, and promoting economic and social development. The college is located on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation which spans 2.3 million acres across southern North Dakota and northern South Dakota.

They offer cultural classes and workshops in making star quilts, shawls, horse masks, ledger art, parfleche, painting, pottery, regalia, skirts, ribbon shirts, baby moccasins, beading, and quilling.

While the college provides opportunities for artists to market their work through the Sitting Bull Visitor Center Gift Shop and the Sitting Bull College Bookstore and holds art classes and training, they want to coordinate all the efforts through organizing an artist association. The association can then be used to market programs and services that help build capacity for Standing Rock culture bearers and artists.

The college believes artists give life to a creative art community by thinking outside the box and teaching traditions important to Lakota/Dakota lifeways.

Zuni Pueblo MainStreet

Zuni Pueblo MainStreet was created in 2012 to utilize new approaches and methods, encouraging revitalization of the local economy while continuing to preserve unique traditional and historical elements.

7,500 Zuni artisans help support the local economy with the creation and sale of various arts, including silversmithing, pottery making, fetish carving, painting, woodworking, and weaving. But while the arts and crafts industry is an essential asset to the Zuni community, those involved in arts production are not well woven into the economy or supported by training.

Zuni Pueblo MainStreet works with 150 artists, an imbalance with the 7,500 who rarely have access to assistance. The organization’s vision is to reach out to more artists and empower them as entrepreneurs by creating opportunities for them to display and sell their work locally, and enable them to refine their current skill set and gain knowledge and expertise on how to better market themselves.

The IAE Grant Program is supported through the Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Northwest Area Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015

Supporting families, uplifting communities, empowering emerging artists. When an individual receives a First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership (ABL) Fellowship or Cultural Capital (CC) Fellowship, they are given the opportunity to start a new project or bolster a current one. This impact on their artist career comes through in the data we gather and track throughout each fellow’s year.

In 2018, First Peoples Fund (FPF) supported 15 ABL fellows and 10 CC fellows. Becky Monnens, our Story Tracker/Data Analyst, sorted through the extensive data we collected to help us understand the impact of the fellowship on these 25 artists and culture bearers. Combined with our previously published research on the 6 Resources Artists Need to be Successful, Becky was able to identify not only encouraging data but also the beautiful stories of what our fellows accomplished and experienced throughout the year.

IMPACT ON 2018 ARTIST IN
BUSINESS LEADERSHIP FELLOWS

Creative Space

Fox Spears’ (Karuk) primary medium is monotype printmaking. Using hand-cut stencils and layers of ink on paper, he creates images inspired by Karuk basketry designs. Through his fellowship, Fox purchased a small print press he uses at home and in workshops, where he provides creative space and inspiration for himself and other artists to find their voice.

Having creative space –– both the physical space to work in and space within their daily schedules –– helped fellows elevate their ability practice their art through the course of their fellowship year. 80% of fellows spent 20+ hours per week on their art, up from 60% before the fellowship year.

Markets

Able to move beyond saturated local markets, 47% of ALB fellows increased their travel to sell their work or were able to book performances in new market areas.

Pauline Klementson (Yup’ik) is a master seagrass weaver from Nome, Alaska, is a wonderful example of how the fellowships can increase an artist’s access to markets. Throughout the year she developed relationships to strengthen and grow her art business, from working with grass harvesters to local and statewide retail outlets.

“I was able to meet new artists, share my art and express how important it is to share our stories and our culture,” she says.

Raye Zaragoza’s (O’odham, Mexican, Taiwanese and Japanese) was able to share her stories with new markets as well, with 2018 being her first year as a full-time musician. She launched the year with a tour in Germany and continued touring throughout the United States. “I was in higher demand,” she says

Supplies and Materials

Seven of the fellows had difficulty accessing supplies or materials at the beginning of the fellowship year. Five of these seven increased access to supplies and materials through their fellowship.

Heidi K Brandow (Native Hawaiian/Diné) is a painter and printmaker. The funding helped her upgrade her home art studio. “First Peoples Fund has been fundamental in allowing me to get the materials and tools I need to have a more streamlined process,” she says.

Income from Art

Traci Sorell (Cherokee Nation) writes fiction and nonfiction for children featuring contemporary characters and compelling biographies. She leveraged her fellowship to launch her debut book, “We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga,” released by Charlesbridge Publishing.

“I had the support of First Peoples Fund to assist with marketing, brand development, and travel to present at conferences and schools,” she says. “This benefitted my art tremendously.”

53% of ABL fellows increased the percent of income from their art, earning an average of 60% in art, compared to 49% prior to their fellowships.

Additionally, seven artists implemented a change in their financial systems and tools by budgeting, creating separate bank accounts for their art business, and using software for invoicing clients.

Networks

All 15 ABL fellows increased their networks and strengthened relationships within existing networks.

Jaida Grey Eagle’s (Oglala Lakota) primary mediums are photography and filmmaking, but she also practices beadwork. During her fellowship year she began her beadwork with B.Yellowtail, the company created by 2015 ABL Fellow, Bethany Yellowtail (Northern Cheyenne/Crow). The company focuses on “providing an empowering, entrepreneurial platform for Native peoples.”

“As Native artists, we tend to undersell ourselves. Bethany [Yellowtail] is trying to change that narrative we hold ourselves and others to,” she says. “I believe setting this precedent within the Native community — that we can ask for higher prices for our time and energy — will help remove that barrier of underselling our creations.”

IMPACT ON 2018 CULTURAL CAPITAL FELLOWS

While entrepreneurial growth is a key goal of our ABL fellowship, for the CC fellowship is focused on expanding cultural impact — how these artists share their wealth of knowledge more widely through the fellowship. That, in turn, elevates their visibility and respect as artists in their communities.

Wesley May (Red Lake Band of Chippewa) is from the Red Lake Indian Reservation. As Wesley continues his journey as a full-time artist, his work in communities is raising awareness for his business, Wesley May Arts. With his fellowship funds, Wesley bought supplies for five mural workshops, ultimately completing fifteen message murals with communities and youth across the country in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and New Mexico.

Artistic Practice and Intergenerational Transfer of Knowledge

Matilda Wilson (Hat Creek Atsugewi Band of the Pit River Tribe) says she involved multiple generations “from five to 75 years old — grandmas, aunts, sisters, cousins, and nieces as well as grandchildren — in gathering the raw materials — chokecherry, gray/red willows — in making and creating our cultural and traditional cradleboards.”

At the beginning of the fellowship year, six CC fellows reported a total of 40 family members engaged in their art and cultural practices. By the end, the number increased to over 62 family members.

“From five to 75 years old — grandmas, aunts, sisters, cousins, and nieces as well as grandchildren — in gathering the raw materials — chokecherry, gray/red willows — in making and creating our cultural and traditional cradleboards.”

— Matilda "Tillie" Wilson (Hat Creek Atsugewi Band of the Pit River Tribe)

Putting Values into Practice, Giving Back and Mentoring Other Artists

While nine of ten fellows gave back to their communities by mentoring other artists previously, FPF’s support extended their reach through workshops and mentorships on a larger scale. Through the fellowship year, CC fellows conducted 87 community workshops in their art forms.

Kandi McGilton (Metlakatla Indian Community) is a modern Tsimshian artist in southeast Alaska.

“Through the FPF grant, I was able to bring awareness to my community about our unique weaving style,” she says. “That awareness has branched out to neighboring communities such as Ketchikan and Juneau.”

TRACKING THE STORIES

The data from fellows helps us know more about their successes, and their needs, for stronger programming going forward.

“I’m grateful to these artist fellows for sharing their outcomes,” Becky says. “It’s wonderful for them to share that time and knowledge with us.”

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015

The Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards recognize exceptional Native artists who have shown a lifetime commitment to perpetuating their art and sharing it within their communities. These practicing artists embody First Peoples Fund’s core principles: knowing our history and ourselves; honoring our ancestors and relations; sharing our stories and knowledge.

We are honored to announce the four recipients of the 2019 Community Spirit Awards.

GEORGE MARTIN    

TRIBE: Lac Courtes Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians

Hopkins, Michigan

Use only hardwood ashes when “ashing” the shucked corn kernels. Ashes from softwood, coal, leaves, trash are always taboo because the mandaamin (corn) will never separate from its shell.

These teachings in the ways of processing Indian corn to sustain his people were given to George by elders. In the 1960s, after 10 years in the United States Air Force, George moved his family to his wife’s homeland near Hopkins, Michigan. Her mother, Gladys Sands, who lived with them, was a black ash basket weaver and knew the old ways of preparing Indian corn to eat. George credits Gladys for teaching him the art. He also practices peyote stitch beadwork.

“My wife Sydney and I try to show others to live your culture, every day,” George says. “Being an active elder in my Anishinaabe community shows others to keep going. My kids, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren see me beading every day.”

Tribes throughout the Great Lakes region, as well as colleges and universities, invite George to teach Indian corn making. He was featured on The Cooking Channel’s “My Grandmother’s Ravioli.”

Lisa Linda Lee Tiger (Muscogee [Creek] Nation) nominated George for the Community Spirit Awards to recognize him for his 60+ years as a beadwork artist, culinary artist, storyteller, Men’s Traditional powwow dancer and Head Veteran Dancer, jewelry-maker, and mixed media artist.

“He is a cultural icon, and yet a humble man content to bead, make soup, and share knowledge and stories with his people,” Lisa says.

MISCOBINAYSHII    

TRIBE: St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin

Luck, Wisconsin

“Every person needs moccasins to wear for all occasions in life and death.” —Miscobinayshii

Melissa Fowler (Lac Courte Orielles, St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin) nominated her grandmother-in-law, Miscobinayshii, for the Community Spirit Awards.

“If you have come across the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, chances are ‘Grandma Misco’ has touched your life in one way or another,” Melissa says.

Miscobinayshii, or Misco as she is known to her friends and relatives, creates beaded moccasins and gifts them to whoever needs a pair.

“My grandmother taught me the art of making moccasins,” Miscobinayshii says. “I’ve been able to pass this on to my daughters and grandchildren.”

Miscobinayshii has taught tribal members and descendants of other Ojibwe bands and communities including ones residing in Canada. Her dream is to one day host a cultural immersion camp within her own tribe. The camp would be a vehicle to empower elders as the influential leaders they were meant to be.

Miscobinayshii’s influence reaches out nationally. Her book “Miskobineshi, a Book of Memoirs,” details the life of Susan Eileen Skinaway (Miscobinayshii’s English name). This book, along with a pair of her hand-made moccasins, is onsite at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. In 2018, Miscobinayshii was asked to create moccasins for the Madeline Island Jingle Dress Dancer Project, a 12-foot statue on that island.

Melissa says, “Without her, St. Croix Tribe wouldn’t know many of the stories, history, and language.”

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MARGARET NAKAK

TRIBE: Bering Straits

Anchorage, Alaska

They might start out not knowing how to thread a needle, use a sewing machine, or design a traditional garment, but Margaret walks high school students through the process, step by step. They come together after school at the Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC) to learn how to craft kuspuq, an outer layer garment sewn from a variety of fabrics.

“They show their kuspuqs to other students, their friends, and families, and post photographs on Facebook,” Margaret says. “They wear their garments with pride.”

An award-winning artist and elder, she passes on traditions and lifeways of her Yupik and Inupiaq people by demonstrating basic sewing survival skills for emergency situations in Alaska’s challenging environment. She hosts an open class on Friday nights at ANHC, a multicultural gathering that represents the rich diversity of Anchorage.

Michael Livingston (Unangax/Chugach) nominated Margaret for the Community Spirit Awards.

“I first met Marge in 1999 when I began building an iqyax [Unangax skin on frame sea kayak] at the Alaska Native Heritage Center,” Michael says. “Marge was very helpful in putting her expertise to quick use in getting the skin sewn onto the kayak, and enlisting involvement from high school students.”

Margaret began sustaining cultural traditions in 1965 and continues strong today. She started work at ANHC in 1999 as a Cultural Representative.

“Marge stands tall as a powerful role model for youth and elders,” Michael says. “I worked in Alaska for 27 years as a police officer and know how important it is to have community spirit leaders like Marge teach and guide others.”

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015

Photos by Jordan Storrer of Lifeleak Visuals  

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Elexa Dawson is a founding member of an all-female acoustic roots band, Weda Skirts (formerly The Skirts), who have released and self-distributed two albums of original music written primarily by Elexa.

She is a mother, musician, and activist living in Chase County, Kansas, the heart of the Flint Hills. She is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a descendant of the Cherokee Nation with familial ties to the Chickamauga Cherokee. The tallgrass prairie on ancestral Kaw and Osage territory inspires her music and advocacy.

“Warm honey mixed with prairie dirt” flows from Elexa’s music as she draws from Americana and Roots styles, growing her brand as an artist and in her identity as a Native woman. Her first solo album, a concept album, is taking her down a path to rediscover the lives and history of women who walked before her.

“The theme is getting narrowed down to more of a study of the women in my ancestry,” Elexa says. “It’s gotten a lot heavier even than I thought it would.”

Her Cherokee grandmother would never discuss who she was. Only recently, Elexa’s family learned her heritage. On the other side of the family, Elexa is digging deep into the lives of women she descends from — stories of Potawatomi women, names unknown, marrying French fur traders.

“Reading more about that dynamic, and how their lives might have been,” she says. “It has been increasingly important to me to reclaim the traditional knowledge that my ancestors lived by. It’s important that my two daughters and their children will know who they are.”

Elexa was amazed at how the application for her 2019 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership program helped her articulate her dreams and desires for her career as a musician, singer, and songwriter. The process guided Elexa in writing the vision of what was in her heart and mind.

“Before I learned about this fellowship, I was looking at my future and seeking guidance on how my solo musical career will continue,” she says.

While the band, Weda Skirts, still performs, the band members often can’t travel with their other life commitments.

“I’ve always thought of them as a protective nest that my music could incubate in,” Elexa says. “I could trust them to take whatever I have and make it sound really great. Pulling these tender little eggs out of that nest and thinking about them outside Weda Skirts is a super vulnerable place for me to be, the process of reintroducing myself as a solo musician to venues. It all feels unsettled, but it’s invigorating.”

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015  

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Kevin Locke is an internationally-recognized master traditional folk artist, visionary hoop dancer, indigenous Northern Plains flute player/recording artist, cultural ambassador, and an educator. A citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and coming from the ancestral line of Lakota and Anishinabe, he self identifies as a World Citizen.

Since 1978, Kevin has traveled to nearly 100 countries to educate, entertain, engage, and empower 1,000,000 people. He currently serves as president of the Patricia Locke Foundation.

The Arctic, tropics, deserts, rain forests, woodlands, prairies, megacities, and isolated villages. Of all the places and people he’s encountered, Kevin’s favorite remains youth in rural North America. He works with them in his effort to revitalize the North American Indigenous Flute.

“For hundreds of years, we’ve had flutes in North America,” Kevin says. “It has a unique, versatile tuning system. [In recent history] someone made flutes with a minor pentatonic scale. Pretty soon, everybody was making these flutes, doing workshops and recordings, and forgot there was even a traditional flute. It is my vision to honor the authentic history, tradition, and teachings of the Indigenous North American Flute.”

Kevin partnered with renowned music educator, Richard Dubé — owner of Northern Spirit Flutes — to create a kit to reintroduce the original flute. The design is based on a flute in Kevin’s own collection, his grandfather Powasheik’s flute which is over 100 years old.

Supported in part by his 2019 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital fellowship, Kevin has scheduled workshops at 10 schools where he expects up to 25 students at each one.

They begin with assembling flutes from the kits that include pre-drilled, food grade plastic tubes. In 20 minutes, a youth can place her fingers over the holes and breathe her first song.

After the first workshop day, Kevin leads a general assembly, the “Hoop of Life” program, at the school. It’s common to have 500 people in the audience filled with parents, teachers, and staff. The students perform, and Kevin does a presentation with flute songs, prayers, and sign language. He ends the program with a participatory hoop dance incorporating 28 hoops.

“I found that interactive participation is the only way to make ancestral wisdom and teachings come alive and take root in the hearts of the students,” he says.

Kevin is preparing for events this spring — U.S. Embassy tour to a festival and indigenous communities in Panama; Phoenix for the FPF Fellows Convening; and schools in Bismarck, South Dakota. Wherever in the world he goes, youth remain his focus.

Kevin says, “My primary inspiration comes from the sense and expression of wonderment and awe from the children.”