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Julie Patnaude (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa) is standing on the cusp of a new career.

Patnaude, who is a residential advisor at Job Corps in Minot, North Dakota, recently opened her first art show at the Heart of the Turtle Native American Art Gallery in Minot.

"The first time you're putting your art out into the world is nerve-wracking," she said.

Patnaude said she has worked at several jobs in her life, but art has always been a constant. She majored in art in college and has been painting and drawing all her life. It was while she was going through hundreds of pieces of her own artwork that she had stored during the years that a friend asked a life-changing question.

"They said, 'Why don't you sell this?'" Patnaude recalled. "It was an 'aha' moment for me. I thought, 'Why am I not doing this?'"

She hopes to transition to full-time work as an artist, and said a 2015 Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship from First Peoples Fund has been a big help in getting there. Over the next year, Patnaude hopes to set up a website to showcase and sell her artwork, sell her pieces in art galleries in North Dakota and neighboring states, and complete enough pieces to sell at art and craft shows.

In preparation for showing her artwork in stores and galleries, Patnaude plans to use some of the grant money to frame and mat the artwork. She hopes someday to produce prints of her work to reach a broader audience.

The ideas for her artwork, which is contemporary and focuses on surrealism, is inspired by the kids she works with, her heritage as a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa tribe, and memories of places she's been. Patnaude said she learned valuable lessons during the Heart of the Turtle Mountain show, including the importance of staying connected with potential buyers through business cards, and focusing more on fewer pieces.

"I sold four pieces, which is pretty good for my first show," she said. "But if I could go back and do it differently, I wouldn't have done so many pieces. I had 22. I worked really hard on each of them, but I would focus and spend more time on each piece."

The direction and support of First Peoples Fund has given is valuable, Patnaude said.

"They've been really supportive through their professional development training and career coaching. "They've helped me branch out and try different types of art."

More than anything, she said, First Peoples Fund has given her confidence. "I felt like I was stumbling around in the dark," she said.

A recent professional development training in New Mexico helped her connect with other artists and get a glimpse of what her future might look like. "I'm not there yet, but it was nice to see what they are doing," she said, of well-established artists.

Even after she makes the transition to full-time art, Patnaude said she plans to continue to volunteer. Before her work ends at the Job Corps, she hopes to collaborate with students on artwork.

"I'd like to do projects with them in the future, maybe a mural," she said.

It is other people that inspire her, she said, and she wants to continue to give back no matter where she is.

"I think it's important to contribute to other peoples' lives," she said.

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Keone Nunes (Native Hawaiian) prefers not to be in the spotlight, so the traditional tattoo artist said it was a little unnerving to be the center of attention at the recent MAMo Wearable Art Fashion Show in Honolulu where he was honored with the 2015 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award from First Peoples Fund.

"But I was also very honored and humbled," said Nunes, who is one of four artists receiving the prestigious award that celebrates Native artists making significant contributions to their communities as culture bearers.

The honoring was held last month at the Hawaii Theater, hosted by Vicky Takamine, a 2013 Community Spirit Award honoree.

More than a dozen people modeled tattoos that had been done by Nunes, many of them representative of the traditional Polynesian work he has been doing for the last two decades. Traditional tattooing is done by tapping one stick to another instead of using a machine, and is a process that includes a ceremony.

During the MAMo show, Nunes said he was overwhelmed as he was presented with the award by First Peoples Fund staff and given a star quilt. As he was presented with the award, more than a dozen Native Hawaiians who proudly display his work on their bodies joined him onstage.

It was also special to be part of the annual MAMo art show, which showcases six to nine artists and designers each year. Nunes said he made several connections during the evening that could turn in to opportunities for more work down the road.

"Quite a few people asked me to get in contact with them," he said.

Nunes said he does his work not only to help revitalize traditional tattooing, but also to help people of all backgrounds rediscover their ancestral traditions and cultures. He works in the Nanakuli Valley near his home and has connected with tribes in Northern California and New Zealand to help them learn traditional tattooing.

It's one of the very reasons he was chosen for the award, said First Peoples Fund President Lori Pourier.

"Keone's work is remarkable not only for the fact that he has tirelessly worked to reintroduce an important art form, but also because he has a heart and a passion to inspire people of other cultures to do the same and rediscover their traditional art forms," she said.

While Nunes said he takes great care in doing the tattoos, he doesn't feel ownership of the work like a typical artist might.

"Once I do the work, I don't think of it as my piece," he said. "It's theirs."

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It's a big year for Michael Two Bulls (Oglala Lakota). He's combining two of his loves—music and art—in hopes of securing a future for not only himself in the Native art world, but others as well.

He's well on his way, thanks to a boost from First Peoples Fund, which awarded him an Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship to fund a combined album release and art show planned for later this year.

Two Bulls has been an artist for more than a decade, honing his contemporary artwork skills at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico before opening Bad Art Press in Rapid City, South Dakota with Douglas Two Bulls. The studio currently includes a silkscreen business and a recording studio.

With funding from the fellowship, Two Bulls has been working alongside other artists to develop a music album completely packaged by the art studio, including the music, lyrics, recording, and album sleeve printing and design. The studio will host an album release party and art show in October at Crazy Horse Memorial, and they are currently marketing the event by printing t-shirts, posters, stickers and patches.

"It's a huge undertaking. It's been kind of crazy. It's a lot of work."

But it's also been a great boon for business. "We've been wanting to do this for quite some time, and this gives us the opportunity to set goals and deadlines," he said.

Two Bulls has also enjoyed the opportunity to work on music. "I've been recording for years, doing local gigs, but no full-length album," he said, describing his music as indie rock.

Two Bulls said it's been gratifying to work with First Peoples Fund through the process. "For Native artists on the reservation, there is no other income," he said. "You kind of have to create your own jobs. Art is how my relatives make a living, and to have an organization promoting that livelihood is important for those communities and their culture."

Two Bulls said he hopes for the Bad Art Press studio to someday become a place for artists to come together to collaborate or simply have a place they can create.

"We want to invite artists and assist them," he said.

His motivation, he said, is that art sparks ideas and dialogue among people. His vision years ago to have a small shop to house a group of artists and talents is an example of that.

"A small-shared dream or vision among peers could lead to lifelong friendships," he said. "I know this to be true because I am a living example of this philosophy. Today, we are close to the original vision and now we have the space and equipment where we can begin our work."

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Bethany Yellowtail (Northern Cheyenne/Crow) has a problem on her hands, and it's a good one.

After working in corporate fashion design in California for several years, the 26-year-old from the Crow Nation in Montana took a leap of faith. She quit her well-paying job and started her own fashion line called "B.Yellowtail."

It was the right decision.

"It's so busy—we are just filling orders all the time," said Yellowtail. "I just don't want it to slow down."

Yellowtail, who is a 2015 recipient of a First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship, now has her sights set on growing her business to include staff, a variety of merchandise and possible franchises.

"I see the vision for what we're able to do," she said. "I can't wait until I have a full team. But we're just a start-up right now."

Yellowtail moved to Los Angeles, California, in 2007 after she graduated from high school to attend college at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise. After graduating in 2009, she stayed in the area, working in the corporate fashion world and working on her own designs on the side.

"I was building my brand and clientele," she said.

Yellowtail said she learned valuable skills by working in the industry, but was discouraged by the cultural inaccuracies perpetuated about Natives through "ethnic-inspired" clothing lines in mainstream fashion. It spurred her desire to start her own line, and become an advocate for Indigenous fashion and storytelling.
When she decided to branch out on her own in January, she was prepared but nervous.

"Fortunately, I had paid my dues and built my way up," she said. "But it was hard to leave the corporate structure. I was making good money and it was security."

But since then, there's been no looking back.

Her online sales skyrocketed her first week and the buzz about her line has spread far and wide. The fellowship from First peoples Fund was a part of that as she was able to fund a marketing campaign that included a fashion campaign that employed Native models, photographers, assistants, and editorial writers.

Most recently, Yellowtail dressed Inez Jasper for the MTV "Rebel Music" special, something she has done for the Native artist multiple times. But the best thing about her new endeavor, she said, is being able to weave a story through fashion.

"The imagery is what inspires me and what story I want to tell."

Some fashion designers design fashion lines based on the current trend of colors or themes. "They might decide 'summer romance' is the theme," she said. "But I take a more in-depth look. I want to tell the story of where I'm from."

That oftentimes takes her right back to Montana and the reservation. At the beginning of the design process, she creates a design board with images of her ancestors, family, people she grew up with and traditional regalia.

"I start connecting the dots for the textiles, the color pallet, and the beadwork," she said. "I'm trying to be careful and meticulous."

Yellowtail was able to share her work with fellow Native artists at a recent First Peoples Fund training in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "I felt so much more confident to know that there's a place for what I do," she said. "It's hard when I'm in L.A. and brands fit in a certain mold. It's cut from the same cloth and I'm not. It's hard not having someone you can relate to."

The trip with First Peoples Fund changed that. She was inspired by the artists she met, and instantly felt a connection with their work and lives. "It's a different medium, but we all have the same vision," she said. "It's about moving our culture forward. To know that I have those resources, I can't even put a value on that."

For more information on Yellowtail, visit www.byellowtail.com.

To see her fashion short film, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGRiAWzqIPc&feature=youtu.be.

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Wayne Valliere's (Ojibwe) father used to cut paper grocery bags open and draw on them, making a cheap canvas out of recycled material—and planting a seed in his son's mind that art could take you anywhere.

"He would start drawing scenes of trapping, hunting and fishing," said Valliere. "He would say, 'Where do you want to go tonight, son?'"

With those memories still fresh in his mind, Valliere's interest in the cultural and historical traditions of the Ojibwe people grew. Living in north-central Wisconsin on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation, Valliere spent time with Elders learning a variety of art forms and to this day is able to create dozens of traditional items, including birch bark, canoes, drums, paintings, carvings, cradle boards, Ojibwe language materials, flutes, antler horn carvings, and spears and arrows.

"My fascination with the culture started (early). I've spent my life doing these things. The greatest blessings I have as a Native artist is having the opportunity to be in the forest harvesting materials. It keeps me in balance as well as remembering the teachings of my Elders."

Valliere, who is a teacher in the Wisconsin public school system and founder of the Ojibwe Winter Games, has been named a 2015 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award honoree from First Peoples Fund. The honors are given every year to recognize the exceptional passion, wisdom and purpose the recipients bring to their art and the communities they serve. This year's honoring ceremonies are taking place around the country, right in the communities where the artists live and work.

Valliere said he is honored to be included in this year's group of recipients. "It makes me feel good and lets other Native people realize what art can do," he said.

Valliere is currently working on a project called "Carrying the Culture Forward." He will help students construct a 14-foot birch bark canoe in the school, similar to a canoe he recently helped students and the community build at the University of Madison-Wisconsin. Tom Loeser, professor and chair of the art department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said working with Valliere in building the canoe was the most exciting and rewarding project he had worked on in his 23 years at the university.

He described Valliere as a "passionate, intense and caring teacher," and said he was a "fabulous educator and ambassador for the Native community."

The canoe, which was built with the hands of dozens of students and brought together hundreds of people in the community, is now housed in a lakefront dormitory on the shores of Lake Mendota.

Valliere's expertise extends well beyond canoes. He also recently led students in an endeavor to finish an Ojibwe winter lodge, a nine-month project that taught the students hands-on experience of how Elders used to construct the structures.

"It's amazing," Valliere said. "We brought history back to life."

They stayed in the lodge overnight when the temperatures dipped below freezing and discovered they were successful in the construction process. "It was beautiful," Valliere said. "It was a journey, an adventure and identity for our young people."

It all adds up to his mission—to breathe life back in to the traditions his ancestors lived by.

"I work a lot with young people to not add or take anything away from our traditions, so everything stays pure."

His community struggles with the same historical trauma many Natives experienced, Valliere said, and it lives on in the younger generations. "The detriment done to our tribe due to colonization left a lot of identity loss for our young people," he said. "For the last five decades, we've relied on help from the outside for our social problems. The answer lies within our culture."

He has seen positive changes in his community, including a higher high school graduation rate, more sobriety, and more students enrolling in college.

"We're teaching our next generation who they are," he said.

Valliere said it's an honor to be part of that work.

"I was born with a white streak in my hair and my grandmother told my mom I was a reincarnated Elder and I would carry the torch forward," he said. "I've done my best to do that. When I see young people get on the right path with culture, it's very gratifying. I feel like my life's work has meant something."

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Cheyenne artist remembered for generosity he extended to both Native and non-Native people

When the friends and family who knew Frank Sheridan, Sr. (Cheyenne/Arapaho) best reflect on his life, the word “generous” comes up time and time again. But they will say that it wasn’t just that he was generous with the artwork that he created.

It was the generosity that he extended to all peoples—sharing his time and talents and life experience with everyone he met.

“If you wanted to know how to do something, Frank would show you how to do it,” said Teri Greeves (Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma), who nominated Sheridan for a Community Spirit Award nearly one decade ago.

Greeves entered her first art show thanks to Sheridan. Today she is a world-renowned artist whose work can be found at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., and in galleries and museums around the world.

His teaching went beyond the “how-tos” of art, Greeves said.

“After teaching students how to create something, he would give them the patterns for it. In that way, no matter what, they would always have skills—and a base—from which to make money. They would always have a way to make a living,” she said. “He gave them not just pride in the ability to create something, but the ability to take care of one’s self. It is a very traditional idea that he was great at sharing.”

Sheridan—who passed away this month—was an artist for four decades, starting as a young child when he brought a series of mismatched beads to his mother Ruby Sheridan Bushyhead, and asked her to teach him how to bead. Those early lessons began a journey in which he bridged both the Native and non-Native worlds by sharing his art through education. It was a calling that made a difference in the lives of hundreds of young people, and thousands more who have seen his art.

He worked with a variety of different mediums, from rawhide to buckskin and nearly every other traditional material, and became widely known for his Cheyenne style ledger drawings and contemporary variation of ledger style drawing.

Sheridan was also a distinguished scholar. He earned an associate’s, bachelor’s, and two master’s degrees, and lectured for the Association of American Indian Physicians on “Spiritually Based Alternative Therapies.” He worked in the federal service for almost three decades, as well as with Indian Health Services as a community intervention specialist, using his artistic gifts in his professional work to help people heal.

In 2005, he received First Peoples Fund’s Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award for the commitment and passion he brought to passing cultural traditions on to tribal communities.

Jhon Goes in Center (Oglala Lakota), a former First Peoples Fund board member, said his friendship with Sheridan began when Sheridan came to Rapid City to accept the Community Spirit Award.

“Frank was the epitome of what a good relative and servant leader is. I first met Frank at the Community Spirit Awards, and since then have shared a close enough relationship to call each other brother,” Goes in Center said. “I learned much about Frank for the respect his relatives, community and friends accorded him in the setting of community and Cheyenne life-ways.”

“Frank embodied the Collective Spirit in every way,” added Lori Pourier, president of First Peoples Fund. “Our hearts were saddened at the news of his passing, yet our hearts are also full with gratitude for all he shared—with me, our staff, his fellow Community Spirit honorees, and the tribal communities in which he did his deep, important, life-changing cultural work. Through our mission, we will continue to honor him and all the First Peoples artists who we have been honored to meet.

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One of the most exciting projects Gilbert Kills Pretty Enemy III (Standing Rock Sioux) has going right now lives in his house.

"I'm teaching my boys art and my oldest son is getting in to it and following in my footsteps," said Kills Pretty Enemy, a Native artist from McLaughlin, South Dakota, and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Kills Pretty Enemy is one of this year's First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership Fellows, and has been creating art since he can remember. "When I was a little kid, my mom used to buy me art books and my dad was an architect and an artist," he said.

His love of drawing eventually blossomed into a desire to attend school to study art. He graduated in 2001 from the United Tribes Technical College with an associate's degree in art marketing. He returned in 2005 to earn a second associate's degree in small business management.

His work, now under the name "Chameleon Horse Art and Design," includes drawing, graphic art, silk screening, tattooing, tribal art, wood burning and painting. His fellowship from First Peoples Fund is helping him do several things, he said.

The first is purchasing silk screening screens and a pressure washer. The second will be to purchase a matte cutter, matte board and shrink-wrap machine for sales of prints, cards and postcards. "It will help make it easier for customers to get the work home," he said.

The third area includes airbrush art. Currently, Kills Pretty Enemy works with a small amount of airbrush supplies, making it a challenge to expand that part of his business. The final piece will be ordering Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator programs, tattoo materials and blending markers for a comic book he is working on.

Comic books have been a bridge among generations for Kills Pretty Enemy and his sons, ages 14 and 17. It continues to be an inspiration for his artwork.

"I was raised in the 1980s and comics and video games were the styles—the media was clean and perfect," he said. "It's like my dad being an architect, everything was measured right on."

Kills Pretty Enemy's comic books, "Akicita" and "Iktomi," will be the culmination of his graphics work. "Iktomi" will be a Lakota language tool for the Lakota people. Kills Pretty Enemy said he plans to use the books as a marketing tool.

"These two books will show the world what I can do as well as helping other Lakota artists reach for their dreams of working in the comic book industry," he said.

While the comic style of his youth came easily, incorporating his Native culture in his art took some studying, Kills Pretty Enemy said. "I didn't start out doing strictly Native art," he added. "But as I got older, for horse paintings and beaded design, I'd go to the library and read a lot."

His sons, who are also currently working on a comic book, are also on the hunt for information. His oldest plans on studying art at the same tribal college he graduated from several years ago. Kills Pretty Enemy's long-term goal is to be able to focus more time on his art.

Connecting with First Peoples Fund, and receiving their support is a major step toward that, he said. "It's really a great feeling to be part of these people," he said.

He recently traveled to a First Peoples Fund artist training in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

"I got to see everybody in action," he said, "and I thought, 'I'm in the right place.' When I got back, I got a second wind and got energized."

Follow Kills Pretty Enemy's business, Chameleon Horse Art and Design, on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/ChameleonHORSE

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It was at a living room table in his childhood home that Mel Losh (Ojibwe) first learned the tedious and painstaking methods of traditional Ojibwe beadwork and quillwork.

At the age of 16, Losh began what was to become a lifelong passion that has turned in to a journey of artistic discovery, hard work and accolades, including a 2015 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award from First Peoples Fund. Losh, now 68, lives in Bena, Minnesota, located on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation.

When Losh first started out, he studied with Ojibwe artist Josephine Ryan, who told Losh's parents that he had a special way of working with the beads. Losh spent the first 10 years making medallions, outfits and belt buckles, before taking a five-year break. But it was during a Michigan powwow that he met accomplished quillworker Catherine Baldwin. She taught him new skills, including how to insert quills into birch bark using an awl and tweezers. His passion was renewed and he started working at it again.

His hard work has paid off. The Minnesota Historical Society's Mille Lacs Museum has since purchased his bandolier bags, and the Plains Art Museum and Smithsonian own his quill boxes. He recently won "Best of Show" at the Bemidji State University annual Art Expo.

Losh said when he was a teen, he didn't realize the importance of carrying on the traditional art form. He thought he was simply doing something he loved.

"It wasn't until I was in my 20's that I realized the importance of this work to our people," said Losh.

The process to do the quillwork is Losh's greatest passion. It begins with collecting porcupine quills—often from "road kill"—and cleaning, drying and sorting them. He draws a pattern onto the birch bark, sorts the quills and insets the quill into one of two holes. The quill is then bent and the free end is inserted into the other end. It is repeated until the design is complete. While working, there are times when Losh has hundreds of quills in his mouth, preparing to insert them in to the bark.

Passing on the traditional work can be intense, he said, because of the detail that is required. And, pushing quills through birch bark can be painful, but it's one of the aspects Losh loves.

"The feeling is just amazing," he said.

It's something he enjoys sharing. When women in the community heard that Losh could do the traditional work, they asked to be taught. "They kept 'bothering' me to do a workshop," he said.

He applied for a grant and was able to host several quill work workshops, but struggled at first to keep people coming.

"People back out when they see how much is involved," he said. "One women almost cried when she learned how difficult this work can be."

But that attitude is changing now, Losh said. He led seven groups last summer with 18 people, ages ranging from five to 72.

Losh is dedicated to teaching others with patience, said fellow artists Douglas Limón (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin), and has been generous with his beadwork and quillwork talents.

"He creates burial moccasins for grieving families, not to benefit him monetarily, but to comfort the families and to help the loved ones on their journey," he wrote in his nomination letter. "He does this generously and many times, he will work a straight 40 hours without any sleep to get the burial moccasins made for the funeral. This is very comforting to families."

The support from First Peoples Fund has inspired Losh to live out a handful of his lifelong dreams, including a trip to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, to view Native artwork.

"And there's something I've always wanted to do," he said. "It's a full-beaded bandolier bag and a woman's complete traditional dance outfit."

Losh said financial challenges made it difficult to do large projects.

"My income isn't very big," he said. "I've worked 37 years and I never planned for retirement. Quill boxes and beadwork help. This honor from First Peoples Fund is going to free me up to do those things I want to do."

He's taken the first step toward those dreams, he said, by buying the canvas for the cap of the traditional dress.

"I can hardly wait to get started," he said.

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During his childhood, Warren "Guss" Yellow Hair (Oglala Lakota) was reprimanded in school for drawing. That same passion that used to get him in trouble has since developed in to a successful career as a Native Plains artist.

It was originally Yellow Hair's uncles—one a musician and the other a carver and painter—who inspired him to pursue art.

"It was great to have them as mentors and role models," he said.

Yellow Hair, who is an adjunct professor for Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota and teaches Lakota language and traditional Northern Plains art classes, is a recipient of a 2015 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellowship. The fellowship has made it possible for Yellow Hair to organize and lead art therapy courses for youth ages 12 to 17, including hands-on lessons on drum making. He learned the form from his cousin about 15 years ago.

"I love to learn, and be around learning. When we were working on a project together years ago, the little ones would surround us. I would talk to them, incorporating Lakota phrases and it turned in to an after-school program."

The courses provide students hands-on lessons in preparing raw materials to make hand drums, including scraping and de-hairing the hides using traditional Lakota methods. He also teaches the students the traditional meanings of the colors used, and the songs. The students get to keep their own drum at the end of the process.

Yellow Hair is also using the fellowship to host traditional camping workshops for drum making. Youth will camp outside for three to four days and be immersed in the traditional Native spirituality, healing and survival methods. Two more camps, one in June and one in August, will be held this year with the help of the Cultural Capital Fellowship.

"It strengthens the mind, heart and body," he said. "With the high rate of suicide, it helps to build a rapport with these students. Once they feel comfortable and safe, they're able to share of themselves. The kids just blossom. It's a chance to grow and be proud of our culture."

He has also used some of the funding from the fellowship to purchase a computer and market the camps. He has utilized First Peoples Fund Native Artist Professional Development Training to become more "savvy" about how social media and technology can advance his career and art.

Yellow Hair said working with First Peoples Fund has been exciting, and meaningful. His relationship with the organization led him to an engagement with The Gymnasium, an arts organization located in Minneapolis, for an event held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota a few years ago. He also performed for Queen Elizabeth II of England during her Diamond Jubilee in June 2012 and was the featured Indian artist at the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in July 2012.

"I'm overwhelmed and just really happy to receive the Cultural Capital Fellowship," he said. "You get one-on-one treatment with First Peoples Fund staff. They support me, and are just wonderful to be around."

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A Cultural Capital Fellowship from First Peoples Fund will be used this year to promote a documentary on the life and work of a prominent Alaskan culture bearer—and 2003 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award honoree.

Delores Churchill (Haida), alongside filmmaker Ellen Frankenstein, has received a Cultural Capital fellowship to help promote "Tracing Roots," a 35-minute documentary portrait of Churchill's homeland, art and work to preserve her culture and traditions.

First Peoples Fund's Cultural Capital Fellowship Program provides tradition bearers of tribal communities the opportunity to further their work by providing additional resources, technical assistance and capacity building.

The documentary project began in 2009 when Frankenstein began documenting Churchill as she traveled the Northwest Coast, teaching basketry and weaving. The project led to the "Tracing Roots" documentary, specifically focused on Churchill's life and work.

"It was this journey we went on together. In the making of the film, I learned what a wonderful, amazing person Delores was."

The film was finished in September and began showing later that month.

Churchill learned Haida weaving from her mother and was schooled in the traditions by Tlingit and Tsimshian elders. "Once I took this path of teaching and sharing, I've stayed on it," Churchill wrote when applying for the Cultural Capital fellowship. "I'm passionate about learning new endings and techniques so those too can be passed on. This art is integral to who we are and how we live in this region."

Frankenstein said the fellowship could also be used to help promote a book Churchill is writing with her daughter, but the main focus will be on the film, including having it aired on the National Public Television.

"We will use the funding well," she said.

The film is so strong, Frankenstein said, because of Churchill's captivating presence. "There's something about her spirit in the film," Frankenstein said.

She embodies the idea that it's never too late to ask questions, search for answers and learn, Frankenstein added. "Nothing stops this elder when she wants to know something," she said. "Delores captivates everybody."

Frankenstein, who has been working with artists and creating documentaries for 25 years, said she loves her work, especially when it encourages people to continue their stories.

"Art is a part of life," she said. "Western civilization divides everything out. But it's about heritage as a living element of life and culture and beauty and legacy—it is about who we are."

First Peoples Fund is supporting the important idea that history and tradition matter, she added.

"If we don't connect the past with the present, where are we?" she said.

The organization also gives artists the boost they need to complete projects. "We all have ideas, but seeing them to the finish line is complex," she said.

For more information on "Tracing Roots" and to see a preview of the documentary, visit www.tracingrootsfilm.com.

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When Keone Nunes (Native Hawaiian) wanted to get a traditional Hawaiian/Polynesian tattoo, but couldn't find a tattoo artist in his native Hawaii that didn't use machines, he decided to take things in to his own hands.

Nunes, who has been named as a 2015 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award honoree, first learned about traditional tattooing from elders as they taught him about the Polynesian culture and tradition. It wasn't until later that Nunes realized his situation was unique.

"I thought it was common knowledge," he said. "Later on, I realized not everyone had that knowledge."

Nunes, who has tattoos on his wrists, shoulders and chest, was encouraged to become a tattooist while he was getting a tattoo. He started learning the art form by machine, but quickly realized he had a different calling.

"I tried to make and use traditional tools, with disastrous results," he said with a big laugh.

In 1996, a mentor and well-known traditional tattoo artist contacted Nunes and offered to teach him the traditional way. The two went on a trip and Nunes learned how to make a traditional tool—the right way.

"That really changed things. There wasn't a lot of traditional Polynesian work and for the first time, people were offered a true choice, machine or traditional."

Traditional tattooing is done by tapping one stick on to another, all of it without a machine. It's also set apart from machine by traditional ceremony. Nunes does his work in the Nanakuli Valley near his home, with interested students often sitting at his feet to learn.

"Machines are very seductive," Nunes said. "They're like an artist's pen. It gets you out of tight binds, but for me, it was a crutch."

Nunes said his vision of the importance of tradition has been transformed through his work. "My whole attitude has changed," he said. "I've allowed the tools to teach me. There are very few things in this world that we can say we are doing exactly the same way they were done 100, 200, 500 years ago. When a person lays down on the mat to get a tattoo, they are feeling the same emotions and feelings as their ancestors. It's very powerful."

Nunes has had a powerful effect on the resurgence of traditional Hawaiian culture, said Kapulani Landgraf (Native Hawaiian), an Hawaiian art and photography professor at Kapi'olani Community College where Nunes has led demonstrations and lectures.

"As a Native Hawaiian artist, I have seen over the years the richness of Keone's artistic work that resonates with impeccable scholarship, meticulous craftsmanship and deep layers of meaning," Landgraf said when nominating Nunes for the Community Spirit Award. "Keone plays many roles in our Hawaiian community, but the major contribution to our Hawaiian people is providing a connection to our ancestors, our place and our responsibilities as a Hawaiian in these contemporary times."

Nunes said he hopes his work will inspire other Indigenous people to look to their own history as well.

"To me that is very, very important," he said. "Some people in the western world still don't get it, but that's okay. There's no judgment, but I'm very passionate about people looking at their own traditions and reclaiming them."

Nunes is looking ahead to a busy year. He is currently mentoring students in the traditional art form, but said there is still work to be done.

"It's important to start laying that foundation," he said.

He'd also like to connect with other people in other cultures and share the Polynesian culture.

"It's important to share this in other areas of the United States and the world so they can see the beauty of what we do, It gives it so much more depth. We're not just musicians or dancers, there's so much depth in our cultures."

Nunes has worked with tribes in Northern California and New Zealand, and an artist in the contiguous United States who is trying to learn traditional Pilipino tattooing. He has also been asked to represent Hawaii during the Festival of Pacific Arts to be held in Guam in 2016.

The Community Spirit Award is humbling, he said.

"I'm very honored," he said. "Traditional people don't look at tattoo artists as caretakers of the culture, so I take this very seriously. I'm honored to be chosen and I can't really express it in words."

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Robert Martinez (Northern Arapaho) has a vision for what a Cultural Capital Fellowship will do for his Native community on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, and it's about spreading the word.

"There are many people here who are artists, but it's not known that they're professional and you can make a living," said Martinez, who has been an artist for two decades.

It's what moved Martinez to found the Northern Arapaho Artist's Society (NAAS) in 2012, which helps combat the challenges Native artists face on his reservation. The goal of the society is to promote Arapaho artists and create opportunities for them to showcase their work.

That movement will be furthered by a 2015 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellowship awarded to Martinez this year.

Since 2012, the NAAS has secured and scheduled 10 professional art shows. Helping other artists, particularly young people, is at the heart of the society and what Martinez hopes to accomplish with the grant. The grant will be used to assist the society members to travel to local schools and communities to host workshops and information sessions to guide artists in how to expand or start their careers. The NAAS artists will also provide individual demonstrations on Arapaho art technique and talk to students about mentorship activities and the growing support for emerging artists in the area.

It's a different path than what Martinez, who was previously a First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership Fellow and is currently an artist success coach through First Peoples Fund's Native Artist Professional Development Training Program, experienced as he established his art career.

"I had to fight my way through and figure it out on my own," he said. "There's not a lot of help for professional artists, especially here."

Martinez has been teaching and mentoring youth on the reservation for more than 15 years. He has worked as a Title IV Indian education coordinator, working with high school students to help them focus on their education and graduate. He also served as the dean of students for the Fremont County School District, working with at-risk youth.

Martinez has started the presentations in the local community and plans to visit the local college and high school next month. His continuing connection with the schools is encouraging, he said.

"The schools are very willing to have us speak," he added.

Martinez hopes that the grant will jump start art as an economic engine on the Wind River Reservation and encourage the continuity of the Northern Arapaho culture.

"We have good Arapaho artists in the area and we want the opportunity to showcase their art," he said.

The support for First Peoples Fund has been invaluable. "It's very important," he said. "Without First Peoples Fund and this grant, I wouldn't be as far in my career as I am now."

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