Keeping His Hands and Heart Busy
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow
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.
Rolling into the New Year
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.
When the Time Comes
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.
Becoming a Strong Voice
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.
Creating New Patterns of Healing
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.
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).
No Limits
Images courtesy of Danny Frost. Danny Frost is a 2016 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow.
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow
Follow your dream, even when your journey may be difficult. This is what Danny Frost (Cheyenne River Sioux) hopes to inspire in other artists now that he has lived his dream for over 20 years — creating tattoo art full time and supporting his family. Coming from Eagle Butte, S.D., his Native culture gives his dreams direction.
Danny’s journey has taken a new path through his First Peoples Fund’s Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship. The program allowed him to attend an airbrush getaway, Murals on Steel. He learned airbrush fundamentals he had lacked, and it gave him an understanding of what is possible. A different approach from the conventional, it took on the form of fine art or oil painting, resulting in a look of brushes, layers. Danny plays around with color palettes, ideas. There are no limits.
He’s expanded his abilities in the field he has aspired to for a long time. He’s no longer limited to having flesh to create his art with his tattoo work. He can create anything with an airbrush, making art anytime. And use it to bring awareness of his culture and community.
Danny converted his garage into an art studio. It puts him close to the love and support of his wife and three little girls. He wants his girls to be proud of their Native roots, and to know they can succeed at anything.
Danny has a vision to pay it forward, to mentor youth in his tribe. He was once where they are. With hard work and dedication, he built a business from the ground up. He wants to show them dreams can come true and how art can have a profound, positive impact.
Though his journey has not always been easy, he’s never given up on his dream.
Follow your dream, even when your journey may be difficult. This is what Danny Frost (Cheyenne River Sioux) hopes to inspire in other artists now that he has lived his dream for over 20 years — creating tattoo art full time and supporting his family. Coming from Eagle Butte, S.D., his Native culture gives his dreams direction. Danny’s journey has taken a new path through his First Peoples Fund’s Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship. The program allowed him to attend an airbrush getaway, Murals on Steel. He learned airbrush fundamentals he had lacked, and it gave him an understanding of what is possible. A different approach from the conventional, it took on the form of fine art or oil painting, resulting in a look of brushes, layers. Danny plays around with color palettes, ideas. There are no limits. He’s expanded his abilities in the field he has aspired to for a long time. He’s no longer limited to having flesh to create his art with his tattoo work. He can create anything with an airbrush, making art anytime. And use it to bring awareness of his culture and community.
Danny converted his garage into an art studio. It puts him close to the love and support of his wife and three little girls. He wants his girls to be proud of their Native roots, and to know they can succeed at anything. Danny has a vision to pay it forward, to mentor youth in his tribe. He was once where they are. With hard work and dedication, he built a business from the ground up. He wants to show them dreams can come true and how art can have a profound, positive impact. Though his journey has not always been easy, he’s never given up on his dream. Danny Frost is a 2016 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow. Images courtesy of Danny Frost.
Weavers Across the Water
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow
WE NEVER CREATE ALONE.
Three a.m. — Clarissa Rizal (Tlingit) finished the last weaving kit with her helpers for the class coming at 9 a.m. These kits made for an easier start on a historic project.
In ancient days, Chilkat-Ravenstail robes were cut apart, the pieces given to tribal leaders. Now, woven pieces come together in a healing ceremonial robe. New beginnings pieced together.
This robe, called Weavers Across the Water, was deservedly displayed at the 2016 award show for the National Endowment of the Arts, where Clarissa received a National Heritage Fellowship.
On the world stage, well-practiced fingers spun and wove as Clarissa demonstrated this art. The robe was brought out, swaying gently on the rack. Its beauty, purity, graciousness, love and peace connected all who viewed this creation.
But Clarissa didn’t create it alone. Over fifty Northwest Coast (NWC) Chilkat and Ravenstail weavers donated their carefully woven squares to become a part of the Weavers Across the Water robe. It’s a Chilkat-Ravenstail ceremonial robe for a dignitary to wear while hosting a community NWC Canoe Gathering. And to be worn during maiden launches of traditional dugout canoes in Washington state, British Columbia, southeast Alaska, and Yukon Territory.
The idea for this monumental project came on a whim, a conversation between Clarissa and a fellow weaver that grew into the Weavers Across the Waters robe. The true honor for Clarissa came from holding each priceless square in her hand. The squares represent symbols of the canoe world — nature, animals, mankind. Mountains, ocean, rivers, lakes, canoes, paddles, faces, claws. The squares were made by people who treasure the ancient skill of weaving. They came together to create healing.
With this project, Clarissa continues to fulfill a promise to her mentor, the late Jennie Thlunaut, to help revive Chilkat weaving. The robe honors tradition and is a culmination of all that has been before. This generation is the legacy of those who came before them.
As Clarissa says, we never create alone.
Weavers who have contributed to the robe are Della Cheney, Suzi Williams, Lily Hope, Vicki Soboleff, Margaret Woods, Veronica Ryan, Catrina Mitchell, Chloe French, Annie Ross, Stephany Andersen, Karen Taug, Dolly Garza, Nila Rinehart, Teahonna James, Ursala Hudson, Edna Lamebull, Courtney Jensen, Sandy Gagnon, Kay Parker, Marilee Petersen, Alfreda Lang, Georgia Bennett, Willie White, Pearl Innes, Koosnei Rainy Kasko, John Beard, Joyce Makua, Michelle Gray, Gabrielle George, Sally Ishikawa, Darlene See, Douglas Gray, Peter McKay, Shgen George, Debra O’Gara, Marsha Hotch, Irene Lampe, Davina Barrill, Yarrow Vaara, Mary Ebona Miller, and Clarissa Rizal
Clarissa Rizal was a 2016 Cultural Capital Fellow and 2011 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow. In loving memory and honoring her spirit.
Distinct, Unmistakable Design
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow
A link in the chain for cultural preservation. Artwork that honors the memory of women —mentors — who have walked on. What they stood for, did and shared must be passed on. It can’t end with Leslie Deer (Muscogee [Creek] Nation).
That’s the inspiration behind Leslie’s textile art and apparel design. She adapts modernity to traditional designs, her own take on them. Photos and memories blended with her personal tastes create garments rooted in Native heritage, yet relevant to fashion today.
Her designs are influenced by the spirals and abstract floral of the Muscogee people. This shows in the dress Leslie created for Lori Pourier (President, First Peoples Fund) to wear during the 2016 Community Spirit Awards ceremony. The motifs for Lori’s dress came from the Moundbuilder culture. The curvilinear design represents the Creator’s breath. The circular design reflects the sun and the world. This dress expresses how the Creator made everything, including each of us.
Leslie’s garments are a combination of brightly colored satins and silks (for the traditional appliqué ribbon work), simple lines and silhouettes, abstract floral designs of the Muscogee people, Woodland floral designs and printing her own art designs on fabric.
Distinct, unmistakable. Leslie’s hallmark.
She is committed to excellence, to share her art with the public, to pass on the wisdom and skills she was given. In these things, she honors her mother, who first encouraged her enthusiasm for sewing; an 82-year-old relative who is still her mentor; and her Sac & Fox mentors. Leslie learned their traditional appliqué and patternmaking techniques she now teaches youth. A link in the chain, she preserves traditional techniques and tribal designs until the next generation of artists comes to keep it up.
Leslie knows she is right where she belongs, and at the right time. A link between the past and the future.
Leslie Deer is a 2016 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow.
Images courtesy of Leslie Deer.
Beauty to live for
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow
It was about the time of one suicide after another on the Cheyenne and Pine Ridge Reservations. Brendon Albers (Cheyenne River Sioux) sent out a letter with his story, a story of what he had lost in life, of what he had found in art. The healing that comes from shaping stone — alabaster from the Black Hills — with a story to tell.
When he was fourteen, Brendon was one of those youths who needed purpose. Art class gave him that. His heart, hands and mind worked in unison for the first time. He wanted to bring this art to the youth on the Reservation.
But getting stone was hard. Brendon sent his story to companies, hoping for a partner to provide tools and stone for the youth workshops he planned through his First Peoples Fund’s Cultural Capital Fellowship.
Prayer made it happen. Louise Starbird of Sculpture House was the answer to those prayers.
A semi-truck arrived at Eagle Butte High School on the day of the workshop. They unwrapped the valuable pallet — boxes of tools, barrels filled to the rim with stones in all shapes and sizes and colors.
Having carved with only a framing hammer, screwdrivers and horseshoe files, Brendon had never seen real sculpting tools. He was just as excited as the youth. But it was only the beginning.
The youth attacked this art form fearlessly and started making things — things worth money — helping each other, smiling, laughing. They had a hidden vision, as though they’d done this always.
Brendon posted seven days of updates on Facebook. Partway through, Louise Starbird called. Sculpture House would continue their support with two shipments of rock and tools twice a year, whenever Brendon needed them. Tears came with the second part of her offer — to start a $1,000 scholarship for a graduating student to further their education and art career.
This project is reshaping the lives of Native youth — how they think about their proud heritage, who they are, what they are capable of.
The youth need people to show them there’s so much beauty to live for. Brendon is one of those people.
Brendon Albers is a 2015 Artists in Business Leadership and 2016 Cultural Capital Fellow.
Our Nations’ Spaces: Growing A Creative Economy For Native Artists
Image by Haris Kenjar. Louie Gong (Nooksack) at Eighth Generation by Inspired Natives in Pike Place Market.
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow
A Native artist, entrepreneur, and thought leader is creating a space for the next generation in one of the world’s top 50 most-visited tourist attractions. Louie Gong (Nooksack) is literally and figuratively opening new doors for his work and for other artists through his Eighth Generation brand, First Peoples Fund program Our Nations’ Spaces, and the Longhouse Education and Cultural Center at the Evergreen State College. Louie is establishing a creative economy for Native artists across the country to reach international visitors to Pike Place Market in Seattle. The iconic market now has its first Native-owned business — Eighth Generation by Inspired Natives.
But this is more than a storefront above the gum wall art installation in the market. Nearly one-third of the space is dedicated to a gathering place where tribal and other community groups can build on their own dreams. It’s also for the Longhouse to partner with Louie Gong and provide artist-in-residence opportunities, featuring four alumni from the Longhouse’s Native Creative Development program. This is an opportunity for Plateau and Coast Salish artists to create, exhibit and sell their work in a well-established marketplace in Seattle while being mentored by Louie.
Louie has achieved national recognition as a successful art entrepreneur, activist and educator. The founder of the Eighth Generation brand, his values as a Native artist are expressed in the way he helps other artists achieve their goals — whether through motivational workshops for Native youth, business management and marketing for artists, or leveraging strategic partnerships on behalf of his work and other artists. He lives his life and guides his business by Native values of generosity and reciprocity — as his star continues to rise, he brings other Native artists up with him.
In 2014, Louie’s Eighth Generation brand launched the Inspired Natives Project. With it, Native artists can manufacture and sell their work with the Eighth Generation label. Louie wants to create opportunities for community-based artists all around the country who are like him: There is a huge demand for their artwork, but they’re not able to meet demand with their one-off pieces. He wants to bring their art to market by including their designs on blankets, scarves, bags, and more. And he hopes to provide the customers a sense of who the artists are and where they are heading.
While many non-Native companies take from Native art, Louie seeks to give back. He views art like a natural resource — if you take from it without nurturing the environment that created it, you eventually kill it.
Inspired Native influences the way consumers experience products featuring Native art. Rather than fostering the idea that Native people are simply representations of ancient history, charity projects, or extensions of the natural environment, the project showcases how Native people are thriving. They are contemporary, skilled, hardworking professionals. This working artist and business space at Pike Place challenges stereotypes about Native communities.
The store, which opened its doors in early September after a traditional blessing, represents a rare opportunity to reach international audiences with a message about contemporary Native people. By highlighting successful artists, Eighth Generation can create lifelong patrons of Native-owned businesses.
This is why Louie took great care in selecting his staff. They not only represent Eighth Generation but are also ambassadors for the Native community to the 10 million annual visitors to Pike Place Market. In the staff meeting prior to the store’s opening, they covered how to make sales, treat customers with respect, run a sustainable business, and how to spark conversations to help control the narrative around Native people.
“Indian country nationally is watching to see what is happening here. It’s really an important symbol of this Native renaissance, where Native people are starting to take over a larger share of the market that has traditionally been dominated by non-Native companies for products featuring cultural art.”
— Louie Gong (Nooksack)
The project creates an engaging venue for education and training to energize participants and inspire facilitators with countless teachable moments.
Prior to the store opening, Colleen Echohawk (Chief Seattle Club) stood before the Pike Place Market Historical Commission to support Eighth Generation’s proposed artwork above the storefront. She shared how she saw the new store as “the gold standard for how Native art should be sold, how it should be celebrated.”
The approved art now welcomes visitors. The visually expressive presentation of the store and meeting space shows Louie’s attention to detail. He has created a space that compels people to enter the store and explore authentic Native art. The 1,300-square-foot space — with its white walls, sleek blue concrete floor, and custom tables — showcases Inspired Native wool blankets, iPhone cases, Salish Sea soap, and more. Visitors are invited to engage with Native people in a way they never have before.
Intricate Beauty
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow
Love. Respect. Family. The Lakota way of life. Beverly Bear King Moran’s (Standing Rock Sioux) journey began with visits to her grandmother in North Dakota, where Beverly experienced her first powwow. She wanted to dance. But she had no regalia.
Many years passed before Beverly could have a Northern Traditional dress made. But then a pair of beaded moccasins at a pawnshop started her on an inspirational journey. The designs were intricate, intriguing. She had to learn this art form.
When Beverly’s then 2-year-old daughter began dancing, she needed regalia. Beverly’s love for her daughter started her down the path she now travels as a culture preserver for her people. With respect to tradition, and love for her daughter, Beverly taught herself to bead regalia for them both. She found her art when she put needle to leather. And her daughter became a champion dancer.
The awards for beadwork Beverly has garnered are humbling for her. In 2015 alone, she received honors at the Santa Fe Indian Market, Gathering of People, Wind & Water, and the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market.
According to a discussion Beverly had with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s cultural adviser, there are few from her tribe still creating the traditional regalia. However, as long as one person is carrying on the tradition, it’s alive and well.
She has studied dresses made by Native women so many years ago. With the materials available today, she should be able to surpass them, but to her, their work is so, so beautiful. It's an exquisite, intricate process working with the traditional lazy stitch beading method on buckskin dress yokes, using applique for barrettes and hair ties, and for fan handles, the “peyote” beading technique.
For Beverly, her work is more of an inspirational journey than an art form. But anyone who sees her work knows the artistic prowess in her elaborate designs.
Now it’s time for Beverly to go deeper with her historical knowledge. First Peoples Fund is supporting her research of the rich collections of artifacts at the Denver Art Museum to find patterns and techniques to revive. This knowledge, these resources, she can bring back to her community and beyond to educate people about her heritage. She plans to become the mentor she didn't have.
Beverly carries on the beading traditions and beauty of her relations. The Lakota way of life.
Beverly Bear King Moran is a 2016 Cultural Capital Fellow and a 2008 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow.
An Ancient and Contemporary Path
By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, 2015 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow
At 8 years old, Jason Brown (Penobscot) learned from elders how to bead, to string necklaces. Then door-to-door he went in his community of Indian Island, Maine, selling his jewelry. His path was set. He walked it through his teen years, and jewelry making became his source of income.
The path led Jason to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe for a fine arts degree, and then he spent years in the fine gift and jewelry industries, perfecting his metalsmithing techniques. Nowit’s led to the jewelry studio Decontie and Brown, named for him and his wife, Donna Decontie Brown.
Jason works with raw materials including copper, brown ash, deer antler, quohog shell (wampum) and semiprecious gemstones to bring life to the designs in his imagination. Historically, his people hired metalsmiths and jewelers to create their adornments. He’s breaking new ground as a contemporary Wabanaki jeweler.
Jason’s people have used copper and brown ash since ancient times. Copper was mined in the Bay of Fundy and used for adornment. The Wabanaki creation story tells of the brown ash tree. Jason combines these elements for the “Creation” cuff, a reflection of his culture. He captures a layer of woven brown ash between two pieces of copper with a design he cuts on the top piece. The cuff depicts the story of Gluskap who shot an arrow into the brown ash tree and split the trunk, where the Wabanaki people came from.
One of these cuffs is in the permanent collection at the Historic New England Museum.
An established Wabanaki Native artist, Jason shines a light on his little-known community and culture, calls attention to other Native artists and is a cultural ambassador for his people.
As Jason continues his journey, he reaches back and helps others find their paths.
Jason Brown is a 2016 Artists in Business Leadership Fellow.
