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By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015

Traditional woodcarver, painter and jeweler, David R. Boxley (Ts'msyen) is a past Community Spirit Award honoree. He often partners with his father to travel around the world with their dance group, Git-Hoan Dancers, and for raising totem poles. A well respected artist and prominent leader of his generation, David is a 2017 Cultural Capital fellow. He resides in Metlakatla, Alaska.

Drawing lessons at age four. Carving at six. David R. Boxley was the first of his generation to hold a traditional potlatch in his village. He doesn’t take the privileges given to him lightly. His life and his art are dedicated to bringing back his People’s culture, to saving their language for this generation and the next. His work lives and breathes a connection into their past, present and future.

David has big shoes to fill. His father, David A. Boxley, is a well-respected artist and culture bearer in their community. He’s passing his strength and wisdom on to his son so David R. can live and grow and think his culture.

It’s been a rewarding journey. Along the way, David was commissioned to carve and raise his grandmother’s memorial totem pole, and create the Tsimshian house front for Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Center. He and his dad collaborated on a totem pole for the National Museum of the American Indian. But as he’s worked to help revive his people’s traditions, David has found it difficult to educate his own tribe on the sheer amount of masterpieces their ancestors created that are now scattered around the world. It’s time to bring them home.

He’s preparing to go out and find the great art of his People. With his Cultural Capital fellowship, David is working with his business partner, award-winning artist, weaver and beader Kandi McGilton (Tsimshian), to seek out collections at museums in Ottawa, Toronto, Victoria, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. Kandi and he will measure, touch, and know the hidden details in the pieces, then choose objects and replicate them for their community to see at home. This is their way to bring these pieces back. To restore them.

The exhibit in their longhouse will help David’s community develop a deep sense of pride, ownership and understanding — where they come from, who they are. That the Tsimshian people were, and are, capable of great things.

INVESTING IN OUR OWN COLLECTIVE SPIRIT

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow  

Making connections, deepening relationships, the balance of head and heart. Changing from the inside out, one artist at a time to strengthen and grow families and communities across Indian Country with Native art. This theory is at the core of First Peoples Fund’s Strategic Plan for the next three years. As we invest in our own Collective Spirit® to move forward, First Peoples Fund will provide the support communities need to build and realize their own Indigenous arts ecologies — systems of thriving culture and economy based in relationships, values and creative traditions.

How does change happen? It begins on the individual level, with the artist at the forefront of community efforts. The artists are guided by culture bearers, those recognized leaders who are the keepers of ancestral knowledge and traditions, dedicated to the preservation and expansion of Native art. Community Spirit Award recipients are at the center of First Peoples Fund’s philosophy. Their work and lives embody the core values of generosity, integrity and wisdom, that fine balance between “the head and the heart.”

First Peoples Fund president Lori Pourier (Oglala Lakota) explained it this way: “It’s not your usual strategic plan. We’ve built upon 17 years of how we do our work and this has laid the foundation for the trajectory of the work going forward. We know that First Peoples Fund must remain rooted in the values and vision of our culture bearers, even as we work to build artists’ skills and knowledge through an economic lens.”

“We know that First Peoples Fund must remain rooted in the values and vision of our culture bearers, even as we work to build artists’ skills and knowledge through an economic lens.”

— Lori Pourier, First Peoples Fund President

In the 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Program (ABL), I (Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) was strengthened as a literary artist. I embraced my work without fear. I published three books with support of the fellowship. I could sell those books with confidence and with heart, knowing the work I did went beyond myself. It reached into my community, into the lives of storytellers, preservationists, and tribal leadership. The books have become a force of change now rippling out nationally, and even internationally. My fellowship embraced the values of ABL — independence, generosity, satisfaction and credibility. Two are heart-based; two are business. The cumulative results changed my career.

Through First Peoples Fund’s fellowships since 2004, hundreds of individual artists and their families have experienced this change in their art creations and their businesses. They’ve seen their worth as artists, moving from shoe-box accounting to QuickBooks through the business coaching with Native community development institutions and First Peoples Fund’s Native Artists Professional Development trainings. Native artists who feel seen and valued as whole persons are ultimately more successful and realize their importance of sustaining cultural practices at the community level.

NOW FIRST PEOPLES FUND IS TIGHTENING THE WEAVE IN OUR WORK.

Beginning with assessment and engagement processes with nearly 200 partners, advisors, trainers, artists, staff and the board of directors, First Peoples Fund moved through a deepened understanding of the Collective Spirit®. Together we witnessed it first-hand from the field and analyzed how change happens, starting with the individual artists who are the foundation of all First Peoples Fund does. A deep value is placed on the power of artists and culture bearers. This moves to the community level of working with Native community development financial institutions and other nonprofits who support artists, a transformation that flows both ways — into the artists and into the communities. First Peoples Fund helps these organizations leverage their resources, and then artists increase their revenues by providing direct services to their communities. Strong communities of artists create momentum nationally to strengthen Indigenous arts ecologies that once thrived within tradition-based economies.

Culture bearers (Community Spirit Award honorees) focus on restoration. They are often deeply committed to bringing back so much that was taken or literally extracted from their communities — ceremonial items, languages, dances — and restoring them. Restoration is at the heart and center of First Peoples Fund.

Tribal leader, president of the Northwest Native American Basketweavers Association, and full-time artist Bud Lane III (Siletz) recognized the power of the Strategic Plan and its focus on Indigenous arts ecologies. When he first read it, he said “Here I am,” and offered himself as an artist, a community member, part of a nonprofit organization.

Bud is a member of First Peoples Fund’s board of directors and a Community Spirit Award honoree who alongside tribal members dedicated himself to restoring Siltez tribal songs, dances, regalia, and repatriating baskets and other cultural items. As a young man, he mentored alongside leaders who fought hard to regain federal recognition and land recovery in the early 1970s. As vice chair of the Siletz Nation and chair of the basketweavers association, he saw first-hand the value of cultural recovery in rebuilding of his family, community and his tribal Nation. He learned the importance of balancing the “head and the heart,” rebuilding a traditional dance house while also providing business support to emerging artists through the weavers association.

“Native business models include culture bearers. They are the nucleus of culture that all of our art, modern and traditional, flows from. All of our models exist because of these. All of this art, modern and traditional, all flow from those things. None of these models exist without the traditional ways and belief systems. They all emanate from those things. Identity, knowledge, teachings, traditions, that stream that exists without the individual people.”

— Bud Lane III (Siletz)

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Wesley May (Redlake Band of Chippewa) is a culture bearer in his community whose experience exemplifies First Peoples Fund’s philosophy or Theory of Change. While receiving a loan for his Tribe, Wesley saw how important it was to engage his community through healing for the youth and by providing business support to families of beadworkers. An artist for over 20 years, he transcended through mediums until he became content with acrylic paint. Trials, tribulations, and experiences led him to where he is today — honestly sharing his story through art.

He is the founder and owner of Wesley May Arts, a clothing line based on his artwork. He believes an artist’s role in the community is to bring awareness of voices rarely heard — not to lead the charge of any cause but to unleash the potential of others through art. With his Cultural Capital and Artists in Business Leadership fellowships, First Peoples Fund helped him not only identify his values and goals but put them into action.

Wesley knows that by strengthening culture in the community, the business will happen. With support from First Peoples Fund, along with help from his tribe, he’s producing art through his space with his community and the youth.

Lani Hotch’s (Tlingit) community has experienced the transformation First Peoples Fund can bring. In 2016 — through funding from the Surdna Foundation, assistance from First Peoples Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services — the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center opened the Chilkat Cultural Landscape Map exhibit for Lani’s community and visitors. She’s brought healing to her community through art.

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Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center Grand Opening Video by PlainDEPTH Consulting, May 2016.

Former Community Spirit Awards and Cultural Capital recipients help First Peoples Fund be clear about our path and vision, and stay on a trajectory grounded in the heart. Change takes time and requires strong relationships. Going forward with a sharp strategic focus, First Peoples Fund will build stronger systems to move individuals and partners through their values-based Theory of Change, create transformative processes within, foster strategic opportunities to connect, and invest in change-makers to move the field collectively.

This begins with the six needs of artists: access to capital, networks, business knowledge, markets, creative space and supplies. With these needs in mind, First Peoples Fund thinks in terms of the greater Indigenous arts ecology and all aspects of support required for the work.

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By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow

Delbert Miller (Skokomish) is a traditional carver, drummer, and storyteller. He received a First Peoples Fund (FPF) Community Spirit Award in 2014, and the Cultural Capital (CC) fellowship in 2016. Delbert and his wife, Tina, live on traditional Skokomish land.

Skokomish oral tradition tells how the Creator made the world for the coming of humans. He blew the breath of life into the land, created the people and blew the breath of life into them to live in that place. When they are moved from that place, they lose the breath of life.

Through Delbert Miller’s CC fellowship, he’s instilling his breath in his tribe and community.

Delbert shared his vision with his community this past year to build a doctor house like ones that haven’t existed among their people since the 1860s. His CC fellowship inspired interest, support and engagement from elders and youth alike. People stepped forward and offered their gifts to help.

Delbert is involving the youth to carve elements for the doctor house, to be the ones who are asked, “Who made this?” The youth can identify their part in their own cultural legacy. Four generations are involved in the project. It’s a work that feeds Delbert’s soul and inspires him to do more.

As a traditional carver, drummer, and storyteller, he often creates ceremonial items not to be sold. “Bi?ulax ch3d” means to put away his treasures and his property in preparation to give. He is making these gifts and treasures to give away. Delbert finds support through grant programs like FPF to grow his work, to grow deep roots in his community. To teach young people how to carry these things into the future. They can look back in life and say, “I was there. I helped.”

The CC fellowship has made an impact on Delbert’s community that will last for generations to come. Once the Doctor House is completed, it will provide a place for teaching, for healing and for cultural exchanges, reaching within and beyond his tribe. They can take pride in achieving this as a community. They are sharing their breath.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow  

Slack key guitarist Cyril Lani Pahinui (Native Hawaiian) has performed at Carnegie Hall, contributed to three Grammy Award–winning albums, received several Hoku Hanohano Awards, and recorded on more than 35 Hawaiian musical releases. Through First Peoples Fund, Cyril received a Community Spirit Award and two Cultural Capital fellowships. Cyril lives with his wife, Chelle, in Honolulu and Hilo.

The aroma of beef stew and rice welcomed some of the greatest Hawaiian musicians to Cyril Lani Pahinui’s home as his father’s fame grew. The setting was perfect for the rejuvenation of Hawai’i musical traditions. But it wasn’t easy for Cyril to learn.

Since his dad — music legend Gabby Pahinui — slacked his guitar strings and hid it in the closet at night, the only way Cyril could learn was to get up at 4 a.m. to prepare breakfast for Gabby so he would spend one-on-one time with Cyril. Gabby only taught those who wanted to learn, who paid attention. Listened. Practiced. Dedicated themselves.

Cyril’s dedication paid off the day his dad asked him to join his band. That moment began a lifetime of mastering what Gabby and other slack key guitarist taught Cyril in the coming years. His dad said, “One day, my sons’ time will come.”

Cyril played with Gabby, his brothers, rock-’n’-roll bands, country music stars. He toured in Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, and across the U.S. with Ledward Kaapana and Dennis Kamakahi.

After Gabby passed, Cyril continued his father’s legacy. When he walked onto the stage at Carnegie Hall for a historic Hawaiian music concert, he said, “Dad, we made it.” He could feel his dad there with him, and he played as though Gabby was the only one listening, his perfect ear on every note.

Cyril found love in teaching at schools and communities throughout the Hawaiian Islands. Workshops, music videos, mentorships. He’s focused on archiving historical content while sharing it with the world. With support from previous First Peoples Fund programs, Cyril completed award-winning CDs with and for his students, expanded teaching programs, and produced a film, Let’s Play Music with Cyril Pahinui and Friends Part I, that won the Na Hoku Music Video of the Year and aired widely on PBS.

Failing health and hospitalization hasn’t stopped Cyril. He mentors advanced students from his hospital room and is creating an online monthly video series, working on an instructional book, videos and another film (Let’s Play Music Part II), organizing the 10th Annual Gabby Pahinui Waimanalo Kanikpila Festival (featuring 150 musicians and dancers), and producing a new album.

Cyril wants to ensure the next generation can carry this style of Hawaiian music forward.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow

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An avid painter and tattoo artist for over a decade, and a member of the Turtle Mountain Tribal Arts Association, Derek Poitra (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians) is a full-time artist. He was awarded an Artist in Business Leadership (ABL) fellowship in 2014 and 2016. Derek resides in St. John, North Dakota.

Derek Poitra sees the world through the light of his culture, which gives to him and to his art. He gives back through his time and through drumming, and now through helping other artists in his community by giving them a chance to grow their revenue.

Derek’s work is deeply rooted in oral tradition, his strongest platform when creating his art. Elder Native artists influenced his work when he was a youth working for them, cleaning their studios. He knew then he had to be an artist. He wants to influence his generation and future generations, to tell the stories behind the imagery.

With Derek’s First Peoples Fund fellowship, he purchased a quality camera, lens, and printer to create prints of his original paintings. He offers this service to other artists for whom this was far beyond their reach. Some of the artists didn’t know the possibilities. Now they do. It’s strengthening the art in his community.

The expense of an original piece is outside the budgets for most buyers in his market, but with high-quality prints, they can take pieces of art into their homes. A piece of Derek and his culture.

Though Derek does his best, always pushing his boundaries and reaching for the next hardest thing, he never thought of himself as a good artist. But the blessing of the ABL fellowship has shown him the true worth of his labor. It’s made him appreciate his life and his gift from the Creator.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow

Just do it. This is what Gilbert Kills Pretty Enemy III (Standing Rock Sioux) tells emerging Native artists. But it was something he had to first do himself.

His 20s passed before he realized he should take the art inside him seriously. All he needed was to pick up a pen and release his emotions on paper. Or click a mouse and create the bold lines that inspired him as a kid. Through his business, Chameleon Horse Art & Design, Gilbert has branched off into more art mediums: painting, wood burning, mixed media, ledger art.

With education and support, his personal mission is to push himself. Test limits. Pour his heart and soul into all his work.

This tenacity spills out to the artists around him in the Bear Soldier District community in McLaughlin, South Dakota. Gilbert shows other artists how every piece created is simply practice. To not worry if others don’t like what they create. Make mistakes. Fall, get up, keep at it.

To Gilbert, everyone is a sculptor, chiseling and sculpting themselves throughout their lives. He tells soon-to-be artists not to waste their abilities. Life is too short to wait for someone else’s approval. Just do it.

There were times when Gilbert thought he should have gone down a different road. But at a First Peoples Fund training, he learned he wasn’t alone on this journey. There are other artists working, creating, bringing tears of healing to peoples’ eyes with their work. He’s glad he stuck with being a Native artist. He sees the happiness his art brings – the gratitude in a friend or a stranger – and that tells him he’s doing the right thing.

First Peoples Fund has helped undergird his day-to-day business as his “art changes like a chameleon, with the strength of a horse that drives him.” He just does it.

Main photo: Toddler Moccasins by Lani Hotch (Tlingit). Image courtesy of Juliana Brown Eyes Clifford (Oglala Lakota).

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First Peoples Fund is pleased to announce the 2017 artists chosen by a national selection committee to receive the 2017 Artists in Business Leadership and Cultural Capital Fellowships. First Peoples Fund offers $5,000 annual grants to Native artists dedicated to the wellbeing of Indigenous artistic expression and its relationship to the Collective Spirit® of First Peoples.

“We are proud to welcome artists from across Indian country into the First Peoples Fund family,” said First Peoples Fund President Lori Pourier. “Each one of these fellows works within their artform and their community to further the cultural values we hold strongly at First Peoples Fund – generosity, wisdom and integrity.”

The Artists in Business Leadership program provides support for artist entrepreneurs to achieve and sustain financial independence. These Fellows are mid-career artists who have demonstrated a commitment to pursue their art as a career and are leaders in their communities.

2017 Artists in Business Leadership Fellows:

• Razelle Benally – (Oglala Lakota/Diné), independent filmmaker, Chinle, Arizona
• Jason Garcia – (Santa Clara Pueblo Tewa), printmaker, Espanola, New Mexico
• Erin Genia – (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate), mixed media sculptor, Olympia, WA
• Annie Humphrey – (Anishinaabe / Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), singer/songwriter, Deer River, Minnesota
• Mic Jordan – (Ojibwe), hip-hop recording artist and performer, Fargo, North Dakota
• Gunner Krogman – (Rosebud Sioux Tribe), hip-hop recording artist and performer, St. Francis, South Dakota
• Cary Morin – (Crow/Assiniboine), singer/songwriter, Fort Collins, Colorado
• Marlena Myles – (Spirit Lake Dakota), graphic and drawing visual artist, Saint Paul, Minnesota
• Wade Patton – (Oglala Lakota), drawing and painting visual artist, Rapid City, South Dakota
• John Isaiah Pepion – (Piikani), ledger and graphic visual artist, Valier, Montana
• Paul Wenell, Jr. – (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), hip-hop recording artist and performer, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Tanaya Winder – (Duckwater Shoshone, Pyramid Lake Paiute, and Southern Ute), poet and spoken word artist, Boulder, Colorado
• Crystal Worl – (Tlingit Athabascan), graphic and painting artist, Juneau, Alaska

Cultural Capital Fellows are committed to keeping their tribal heritage and culture alive. First Peoples Fund’s Fellowship program provides selected artists the opportunity to further their important cultural work in their communities that is grounded in traditional values.  

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2017 Cultural Capital Fellows:

• Tasha Abourezk – (Mandan/Hidatsa), textiles and sewing artist, Omaha, Nebraska
• Lydia Apatiki – (Sivuqaghhmii – St. Lawrence Island), skin sewing artist, Gambell, Alaska
• David R. Boxley – (Ts'msyen), wood carving artist, Metlakatla, Alaska
• Deborah Magee – (Blackfeet), quillwork and beadwork artist, Cut Bank, Montana
• Mary Menadelook – (Native Village of Diomede), skin sewing artist, Little Diomede, Alaska
• Dana Tiger – (Mvskoke / Cherokee), painting artist, Muskogee, Oklahoma
• Matika Wilbur – (Swinomish/Tulalip), photographer and storyteller, La Conner, Washington

“We are humbled by the creativity, talent and community commitment this new cohort of Fellows embodies,” said Jessica Miller, First Peoples Fund program manager. “They bring a strong array of skills and cultural perspectives to our organization and the communities we partner with.”

First Peoples Fund is supported by The Ford Foundation, The Bush Foundation, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Northwest Area Foundation, HRK Foundation, The Howe Family Foundation, Surdna Foundation, U.S.D.A. Rural Business Opportunity Grant, and Johnson Scholarship Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Endowment for the Arts.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow

A member of the Chilkat Indian Village Tribe in Klukwan, Alaska, Lani Hotch (Tlingit) weaves contemporary woolens in the Pacific Northwest tradition. She is a 2011 First Peoples Fund Community Spirit Award honoree, a founding member and on the board of the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center nonprofit organization, and a member of the Ravenstail Weaver’s Guild.

The challenge is doing what she’s never done before — helping to revitalize an art form, a community, a people. To capture songs and stories in book form, establish a cultural center, lead a cultural renaissance, weave new patterns. All in her gentle way. Lani Hotch, 60, learned from elders, learned to encourage others how to show respect for traditional Tlingit ways.

Lani realized her people needed something tangible to heal from historical trauma when she took a seminar on the Holocaust in the early 1990s at the University of Alaska Southeast. Seeing the genocide of the Jewish people and how they healed set her on a journey after she returned to weaving in the 1990s. The inspiration of the Klukwan Healing Robe came to her at a time when her community was in transition, turmoil, and loss.

At a community gathering in 1992 to mark the beginning of the Healing Robeproject, highly esteemed elder Joe Hotch, Lani's uncle-in-law, told the story of ancestors who went on long, cold journeys — trading expeditions — traveling over the icy lake Dezadeash. The elder likened the years of cultural oppression to a long, cold journey, but the weaving of the Healing Robe signified the ending of that journey. His words were prophetic.

Years later the robe, a healing prayer, and a new song let the community collectively throw off oppression and hurt. The end of their long, cold journey.

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Haa Aan Kaa woo, Haa toot dax, kei aanwatee.

Haa toowoosigoo ka yei al’eix aan kaawooch haa, ee yaaw lidlaak

God took away the sadness, the heaviness we carried and presented unto us joy

     and dancing as a permanent gift.

Many good things have come to their village since then.

In 2016 — through funding from the Surdna Foundation, assistance through First Peoples Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services — the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center opened its new exhibit for the community and visitors. When visitors walk into the Chilkat Cultural Landscape Map exhibit, they are grounded by the huge 15-foot by 30-foot map. Next comes paintings by Haines, Alaska artist Rob Goldberg of Chilkoot and Chilkat villages that no longer exist; a carved wood panel depicting Three Guardsman Peak by master carver Jim Heaton; a glass-and-wood sculpture depicting Dikeenak Yeigi, or the Ever Present Spirit, as he is found within the glacier; and a mannequin with traditional clothing made by Jennie Wheeler (FPF 2016 Community Spirit Honoree).

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow

Brian Szabo is a Sicangu Lakota artist who creates contemporary jewelry with traditional motifs. He and his family of five live in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

A perpetual learner of his craft, culture and heritage, Brian Szabo puts that knowledge to use as he creates jewelry and knives made with traditional materials. He grew up watching and working alongside his father, an accomplished silversmith, who helped guide his work. Brian learned the art of using natural and traditional elements, and how to apply a contemporary twist while working with buffalo, elk, deer, antelope bone, horn and antler, turquoise, lapis, black onyx (beads), fossilized ivory, silver, wood, carnelian and red pipestone, which is an important material to the Lakota.

Brian learned to apply what he knows through his work while balancing the critical things in life — caring for and showing respect to family and friends; giving his time and knowledge to others; and taking pride in his culture and history. In Wisconsin, he welcomes questions from the many people interested in Lakota culture. He does his best to educate them and continues to learn more himself so he can become a strong voice for his people. To become a leader for Native arts.

Balancing full-time art with his full-time job of being a stay-at-home father brings tradition, creativity and raising a family together for a fulfilling experience. His wife, Angie, splits her time between teaching middle school art, being a mom and fitting her own pursuit of art into the mix. They’ve supported one another’s art since they met and fell in love on the Rosebud Reservation when Angie came to teach art at the middle school.

Though Brian’s work has put him on the Earth, Wood and Fire tour and garnered top awards and recognitions at the Eiteljorg Indian Market, Northern Plains Indian Art Market, and Native POP, he’s still learning. He’s developing stronger confidence in his ability as a businessperson through his First Peoples Fund program. He wants to carry on what his father taught him with the hope to share what he’s learned with future generations.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow

Molina Parker (Oglala Lakota) is a Lakota bead artist, one in a long line of artisans from her Two Bulls and Ten Fingers families. She lives in the community of Red Shirt Table on the Pine Ridge Reservation with her husband — also an artist — and their child.

To say 2016 moved fast for Molina Parker is an understatement. The rapid passing of time included a residency at the Crazy Horse Monument; joining the B.Yellowtail Collective; having jewelry represented in the upscale jewelry store Twila True by Mardo; a business trip to Newport Beach, which involved being part of the Lakota artists represented at the True Sioux Hope Foundation Gala; acceptance into the Heard Indian Art Market; and the move to Red Shirt Table with her husband and baby. In between these travels she created a new logo, business cards and banner; designed a new line of jewelry (Grandma's Garden); and had a necklace win its division at the Red Cloud Art Show, while a bracelet won at Native POP.

But time has also slowed. Molina examined what she needed to do to move her art business from cute to professional. Her opinion has changed — rather than small pieces that sell quickly, she wants to invest in large pieces that are meaningful to her in a personal way. She takes more time to create something beautiful and with a deeper sense of pride, which enables her to sell her work.

Every day, Molina challenges herself to do something she’s never done. And with a good heart to create memories in every piece she makes, sometimes using designs inspired by her Lakota ancestors. She works primarily with size 13 Czech glass beads, elk hide, and high-quality crystals and metals. Some of her designs are inspired by Lakota clothing and accessories from the 1800s. Hers are pieces to stand the test of time, as her people have.

A passing of one test came at the SWAIA Indian Market. While Molina was there to assist her husband with his booth, fashion designer Bethany Yellowtail (Northern Cheyenne and Crow), a former FPF fellow, approached Molina and said she’d been looking for her to purchase a piece of Molina’s work. Having been inspired by all Bethany has accomplished, Molina never dreamed the founder of B.Yellowtail Collective would seek to collect from her!

Perhaps for that moment, time stood still. And Molina knew the time had come to take her art seriously.

Molina Parker is a 2016 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow.

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Cover Image: Rolling Rez Arts by Bird Runningwater

By Lori Pourier, President of First Peoples Fund

2016 MARKS A NEW CHAPTER FOR FIRST PEOPLES FUND.

We welcomed more artists and culture bearers than ever before into our fellowship programs and partnered with dozens of organizations in their efforts to build local Indigenous Arts Economies across Indian Country.

Close to home, we launched the first of its kind Rolling Rez Arts on Pine Ridge, bringing art and banking services across the reservation through our partnership with Lakota Federal Credit Union and Artspace Projects. Dances with Words™, our youth development program on Pine Ridge, is going stronger than ever. The Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards returned home to Rapid City to the biggest audience yet through tremendous support and generosity from the local community and our family of artists.

With our national partners we prepared for the launch of Intercultural Leadership Institute early next year. ILI is committed to cultural equity and change making within and among diverse community arts leaders. We contributed the Native perspective to the national conversation about arts, economy and community, most recently through a contribution to the National Endowment for the Arts’ 50th anniversary celebration publication, How to do Creative Placemaking.

After nearly 20 years of programming and ten years of rapid growth, First Peoples Fund also made time for a pause. We developed a detailed plan for strengthening our organization in support of Native artists, their families and their tribal communities for years to come.

But so often this year our hearts were with our relatives of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Our thoughts were with the storytellers and the leaders of songs, dance and prayer — the culture bearers and water protectors who wove together a diverse and peaceful community of people connected by a simple truth. Mni wiconi. Water is life.

Through a collaboration with Google American Indian Network and First Peoples Fund’s artist fellow Louie Gong (Nooksack) and Eighth Generation, the first Native-owned company to produce wool blankets, we helped make possible delivery of 55 blankets to the Oceti Sakowin camp just before the season’s first big storm hit earlier this month.  

Artists and culture bearers have always been the carriers of truth, activating human integrity, connectedness and generosity. At First Peoples Fund, we know that together we enter a new chapter in which a fundamental commitment to truth and free expression is broadly in question, our work on behalf of Native artists and culture bearers is more important than ever.

Please join us. Subscribe to our newsletter, follow us on social media, volunteer, and if you are moved, please make a financial contribution.

In community spirit, lila wopila tanka.

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow

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Ronald J. Paquin (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa) is a self-taught traditional Native artist and birch bark canoe maker. In 2012, he received the Life time Achievement Award from the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe’s Ziibiwing Cultural Society, as well as a Native Arts and Culture Foundation National Fellowship. He has received 11 Michigan State University Master Artist Grants, multiple awards, fellowships and national recognition. Ron is an elder of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, and 2007 Community Spirit Award honoree. He and his wife Molly live in Brevort, Michigan.

While working at the Museum of Ojibwa Culture, Ron Paquin decided to make a canoe. He studied books, talked to experienced people, and by trial and error, he said he managed to build a pretty bad canoe.

A few years later he tried again, this time with his carpenter brother-in-law. Through the Michigan State University Traditional Arts Program Master Artist/Apprenticeship grant, they built a 10-foot canoe.

So far, Ron has made over 50 canoes, won multiple awards, served in artist-in-residence programs, and has apprentices. His artwork — baskets, antler carvings, walking sticks, jewelry and more — is his therapy. He never sought recognition, never dreamed it. For Ron, his credibility comes by showing up, teaching, having fun, and being honest, respectful, compassionate. This enables him and others to achieve the status of artists, not solely crafters. The awards are an honor that add to the credibility both for those who see Ron’s work and for himself to believe that he is indeed an artist. He keeps it simple with, “Whatever your little heart wants you to do, that’s what you do.”

Ron teaches workshops every year throughout Michigan — porcupine quill boxes, birch bark containers — for schools, art galleries and tribal educational programs. He’s passing on his skills and traditional art forms, teaching students how to be proud of their Native heritage. He learns things from the woods where he gathers material and from every student he teaches. Every person is unique. When people take their hands off keyboards and phones, and journey into nature, the art they create is beautiful. Ron says, “Keep your hands busy, and your mind will be straight.” Coming from a challenging background, as described in his book (Not First in Nobody’s Heart: The Life Story of a Contemporary Chippewa), Ron knows many may not be scholars, but they can still be scholarly, respected, and develop their talents.

Ron is recovering from an illness, and with support from First Peoples Fund, he’s creating art again and preparing to open his own studio. It’s his lifetime dream. What his heart wants to do.

Ronald J. Paquin is a 2016 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow, 2009 Cultural Capital Fellow, and 2007 Community Spirit Award Honoree.