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Marjorie Kunaq Tahbone (Inupiaq, Kiowa) teaches business workshops for Native artists through First Peoples Fund’s Native Artist Professional Development (NAPD) program. Tahbone covers time management tips, art pricing strategies, and other entrepreneurial skills that artists need to build their businesses. As important as the skills are, the learning really begins when workshop attendees discover that growing an arts business is a personal journey. “[Students] realize where they come from is really important,” says Tahbone.

Artmaking often starts at home, especially with traditional Native arts, since customs are passed down from one generation to the next. But for the last year, artists have struggled with marketing and selling their work during a global pandemic. Artists must adapt to the new landscape, continuing with their journey despite the obstacles. “The need [for business development workshops] is high,” says Tahbone.

In response, First Peoples Fund collaborated with Tahbone and others at Kawerak, a nonprofit organization based in Nome, Alaska, to offer virtual workshops for Alaska Native artists. Formed in 1967, Kawerak empowers artists and culture bearers in one of the most remote areas in the world: the Bering Strait Region.

Kawerak is a longtime grantee of the First Peoples Fund’s Native Arts Ecology Building grant program. The program helps Native nonprofit organizations, including Native Community Development Financial Institutions, better support Native artists in their communities through coaching, training and funding.

Responding to the Need

But what do Alaska Native artists need?

With the financial support from a Native Arts Ecology Building Grant, Kawerak led a 2018 comprehensive survey for creative individuals residing in the Bering Strait Region (a study that was modeled after the 2013 Establishing a Creative Economy analysis published by First Peoples Fund). For Kawerak’s study, over 170 people completed a detailed survey, in which 68% reported that they rely on selling their artwork  — such as beadwork, sewing/fashion, doll making, wood carving, visual arts, and so on — to supplement their monthly income. Furthermore, the survey identified the need for three business training areas:

1. Pricing artwork
2. Marketing artwork in galleries, and
3. Teaching others about their artmaking practice

In response, Kawerak and First Peoples Fund curated 30 hours of business workshops for Alaskan artists, through, again, the NAPD program.  

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Kawerak Leads the Way

The survey also brought to light broader policy issues that directly affect artists. Around 44% of the respondents identified ivory and bone as a primary material for scrimshaw and figurine-making. This same percentage also noticed a decline in sales of their art pieces, likely due to bans that forbid possessing or selling ivory.

As a way to help educate the public about the difference between the use of marine ivory versus ivory from elephant poaching, Kawerak collaborated with the Alaskan Walrus Commission, the U.S. Department of Interior, and other organizations to publish a brochure about Alaska Native Ivory. Marine species ivory is regulated by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and takes into account the traditional Alaska Native practice of a no waste approach where all parts of a walrus are used for food, clothing, heat, and art materials.

Alice Bioff, Business Planning Strategist at Kawerak, advocates, “Alaska Native artists who carve Pacific walrus ivory harvested during subsistence hunting are key to our communities’ economic development, keep our traditions alive and strong, and pass down our rich heritage from one generation to the next.

“I see firsthand the economic impact of selling ivory has in our communities. But most importantly how the arts and crafts keep our traditional practices alive and strong, beautiful work being passed down from one generation to the next.”

- Alice Bioff, Public Testimony, March 28. 2017

Marjorie Kunaq Tahbone has a wide range of talents and skills centering on her Iñupiaq and Kiowa heritage.

Raised at her family fish camp outside of Nome Alaska, Marjorie uses resources from the land to create her art. It is important for her to learn the skills of hide tanning, skin sewing, and the knowledge that has been passed down for generations because it is essential to having a strong cultural identity. She also works to teach these valuable skills to those interested in learning. Using traditional art forms and designs inspires Marjorie to create modern art that allows for a deeper connection to her ancestors. She is working on a master’s degree in Indigenous Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Marjorie is a 2021 Artist in Business Leadership Fellow.

Marjorie Kunaq Tahbone (Inupiaq, Kiowa) is a traditional seamstress and fashion designer.

And she makes mistakes.

From a young age, her mother encouraged missteps and errors. Tahbone was raised in a fish camp outside Nome, Alaska, and her mother let her fail, especially while learning traditional seal tanning techniques. “My mom gave me liberty to make mistakes [while tanning] seal,” Tahbone says.

Because, and as her mother put it, you have to start somewhere.

But through failing and learning, Tahbone strengthened her skills to sew kammak, or traditional mukluks boots. “My process is to learn how it was done traditionally,” Tahbone says. “So I do research. I look at books and pictures. I try to do it the way that my ancestors have done it. Then I start using my own artistic mind [by] using different materials and different designs.”

“[First Peoples Fund] helped me not just financially, but they developed my foundation,” Tahbone says. Several years ago, she participated in First Peoples Fund’s Native Artist Professional Development (NAPD) program, where she learned how to write an artist statement and an artist resume. NAPD hosts virtual webinars on business topics like social media marketing, artist calendaring, contract negotiations, and more (watch archived webinars on First People Fund’s Youtube Channel). Eventually, Tahbone went from attending these workshops as a student to teaching them as a certified NAPD trainer. And recently, she co-instructructed an entrepreneurship workshop titled Pricing + Marketing + Artists Calendaring.

Eventually, Tahbone was selected as a 2021 ABL fellow and has taught virtual classes on Naniq carving (seal oil lamp).

“I'm just really honored to be in this position where First Peoples Fund supports me [and] I can do projects.”

- Marjorie Kunaq Tahbone

Traditional Motherhood

In May 2021, Tahbone began a 5-year project (which her ABL fellowship will help support) that will teach Indigenous mothers and women how to process ugruk — an arctic seal — for seal oil, food, and hides. “These women learn to get out of their comfort zone and make mistakes,” Tahbone says. “But [they] feel good about doing something that their ancestors have done since time immemorial.”

When asked why this project is necessary, Tahbone continues, “I want to empower women [who] feel like they can’t speak up. I'm still learning how to speak up because I was raised in a colonial mentality that women must be polite and be kind and smile and not cause a ruckus. So I'm using my art to [cause a ruckus].”

What also empowers Tahbone is motherhood. “I teach my [3-year-old] daughter [that] she's allowed to make mistakes. She’s growing and learning. And I feel like a lot of adults need that support,” she says. “We are raised to not make mistakes. And if we do, we're not good. We  need to get rid of that mentality and start bringing back our traditional ways of raising people with love.”

This includes traditional motherhood. Tahbone elaborates, “Our traditional parenting is showing love [while children] try and practice on their own. It's so valuable.” For instance, Tahbone describes her daughter as an independent dresser: “My daughter [will] say, ‘I need to do this by myself,’ and so she will. She’ll put on her clothes all by herself. They'd be backwards or inside out. I don't correct her. It still functions as a shirt, and she feels proud that she did it on her own. And I just love it.”

First Peoples Fund recognizes that Tribal Sovereignty and Black Liberation go hand-in-hand. 

As we observe and celebrate Juneteenth, also known as Jubilee Day or Black Independence Day, we stand in solidarity with Black lives, our extended kin. And we add our voices to the demands to end the violence inflicted upon Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, to dismantle the systems that hurt us and our intercultural families. We acknowledge that this violence is compounded for Black and Afro-Indigenous people.

First Peoples Fund has long been involved in intercultural movement work, hand-in-hand with partners like Alternate ROOTS, NALAC, PA’I Foundation and others. We practice Collective Spirit®, that which manifests a self-awareness and sense of responsibility to sustain the cultural fabric of a community. Collective Spirit® moves each of us to stand up and make a difference, to pass on ancestral knowledge and simply extend a hand of generosity.

We find strength in challenging the dominant cultural norms, modes of learning and social approaches that don’t match our commitment to cultural equity and change-making in our own communities. And with this in mind, we co-founded the Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI) with our partners Alternate ROOTS, NALAC, PA’I Foundation and SIPP Culture.

ILI is a leadership experience for artists, culture bearers and arts practitioners. It emphasizes overlapping experiences and mutual accountability while honoring differences of histories, traditions, vocabulary, and more. ILI is our commitment to developing leaders that can share their journeys toward sovereignty and liberation. 

Every day we are reminded that when Black and Indigenous people join together in movement work, that’s when some of the most transformational change happens. We continue to be committed to this work. And we lift up the voices of our Black and Afro-Indigenous family and kin.

Gordon ‘Umialiloalahanauokalakaua Kai is devoted to nā mea Hawai‘i (things of Hawai‘i) including nā mea kaua (things of war.) He makes weapons, poi pounders and boards, kapa beaters and, his specialty, fish hooks.

In 2019 he was named a Living Treasure by the state’s Office of Hawaiian Affairs that recognizes individuals and groups who have contributed to the preservation and perpetuation of Hawaiian cultural and artistic traditions. With his wife Janice Leinaʻala Noweo Kai, a skilled weaver, ‘Umi, as he is known, dedicates much of his time to keeping alive the craft of making the items that were once essential to Native Hawaiian’s survival.

“I was taught in the traditional manner of my ancestors, learning through observation and by hands-on practice,” said ‘Umi, who places his trademark cluster of four isosceles triangles -- a symbol that’s also tattooed on his chest -- on each finished piece.

His dedication this year earned him a First Peoples Fund Community Spirit Award that recognizes a lifelong commitment to Indigenous culture and art. 

“‘Umi truly exhibits the qualities, principles and values that we look for in a Community Spirit Honoree,” said Vicky Holt Takamine, the executive director of PA’I Foundation in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. “For decades ‘Umi Kai has dedicated his life to the perpetuation of the art of lua (the art of war) and the  making of implements used by Native Hawaiians for every aspect of Hawaiian traditions.”

As an ‘olohe, a teacher of lua, ‘Umi is frequently asked to lead workshops throughout the Hawaiian islands. His students range from public elementary school children to college students to business executives in downtown Honolulu. ‘Umi’s work can often be found displayed in many settings including the Bishop Museum which bills itself as the premier natural and cultural history museum in Hawai‘i. He also participates in a number of cultural festivals each year including the Native Hawaiian Arts Market held at the Bishop Museum each May, where he teaches his craft to anyone willing to learn.

Educated in the American educational system, ‘Umi recognized as a high school student in the 1960s that much of Hawaiian cultural knowledge had passed away with colonization. He  became passionate about learning how to craft Hawaiian items in the traditional way. He sought out the kumu (the teachers) who helped open the windows into his heritage. 

“‘Umi’s intense curiosity of the ‘old ways’ propelled him to learn how to research the old practices that had been discouraged and/or destroyed,” said sculptor and installation artist Kaili Chun who also nominated ‘Umi for the First Peoples Fund honor. 

“I have been a life-long learner and cultural practitioner of Hawaiian society, benefitting as a student under the  tutelage of many noted experts in various fields of Hawaiian culture,” said Umi. “My kumu shared many aspects of the Hawaiian culture with me, which included the proper protocols associated with the creation of numerous  traditional implements that were used in our ancestral society.”

On that strong foundation, ‘Umi has layered half a century of practice giving him deep knowledge of Native Hawaiian implement making and their historical and cultural contexts allowing him a path to integrate ancestral practices into contemporary life.

And to help others.

‘Umi helped found ‘Aha Kāne, an organization working to uplift Hawaiian men and build self esteem through the practice of culture.  “It’s some of the most important work that ‘Umi is doing now,” said Vicky from the PA’I Foundation.

“‘Umi is the epitome of “haʻahaʻa” or humility. His manner is quiet, but forceful, as he generously shares the wealth of knowledge that he has diligently acquired over his life,” said Kaili.

Added ‘Umi: “I am humbled by the fact that I am now in the position of my kumu, as many  of them have passed, to continue their legacy and share our cultural knowledge with others who are committed to perpetuating the work and philosophy of our people.”

Moses Goods (Native Hawaiian) is one of Hawaiʻi’s most prominent theater artists.

He has written thirteen full length plays and traveled nationally and internationally performing his original works which are strongly rooted in Native Hawaiian culture.

“But the most rewarding experience of my career involves my mother,” he said. She was forbidden by her parents from speaking her Native ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) in the hopes it would help her excel in a Westernized world. She forgot many of the stories she was told as a child about her own family, history and culture.

“When I decided to make Hawaiian stories the focus of my artmaking something beautiful happened within my mother,” Moses said. “She began to remember the stories that she had forgotten. She thanked me. In that moment I realized that I was the conduit that reconnected my mother with what was thought to have been lost.”

Dedicated through his art to uplifting Native Hawaiian culture, Moses was chosen as a 2021 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership Fellow allowing him added freedom to “explore how different combinations of words, movement, visuals, sound and even silences can evoke imagery in the mind to bring our mo‘olelo (stories) to life,” he said.

And also adapt to pandemic realities.

Before the disruptions of Covid, Moses founded the ʻInamona Theatre, an organization dedicated to telling Native Hawaiian stories. (ʻInamona is a traditional

relish made from the kernel of the candlenut and is sprinkled sparingly over meaʻai -- nourishing food. No matter how skilled the storyteller, their work is merely a condiment to the greater sustenance -- the stories of the ancestors.)

But now he must adjust to the new paradigm.

“The success of theatrical endeavors has always been largely dependent on audiences gathering together in shared spaces,” Moses said. “But with social distancing now being the ‘new normal,’ virtual gatherings have proven to be the best option on a very short list of alternatives.”

So he plans to expand his online presence and increase his ability to develop his art

Virtually.

“Like most artists throughout the world, I find myself at a pivotal moment in my career,” he says, noting a need to place more emphasis on virtual performances. To do this well, Moses said, he needs to have suitable space to work and to upgrade his audio visual technology. He plans to dedicate some of his fellowship resources toward these goals.

“Since the pandemic started, platforms such as YouTube, Zoom and Facebook Live have become essential tools for performance-based artists,” he said. With the space obtained through his grant resources and upgraded audio-visual equipment, he plans to start a YouTube channel by developing a series of videos that will highlight his creative talents in an online setting.

He also plans another creative shift by putting more of his energy into the design and construction of theatrical tools, such as masks, puppetry, headpieces, and costuming.

“These tools have always existed as subsidiary facets of my creative work, but as I now move toward capturing my work virtually, I recognize the tremendous impact that visual storytelling can have upon virtual audiences.” he said.

While always keeping an eye on his core mission to share the stories of his ancestors.

“About a year ago I toured one of my shows throughout New England titled ‘My Name is ʻŌpūkahaʻia,’ a true story about one of the first Hawaiians to leave the islands having ended up in Connecticut,” he said. He gave one performance at an affluent boarding school in Massachusetts. After the show, the lone Native student in the audience approached him and, through tears, expressed how the show’s themes of healing and identity resonated with her.

“She shared stories of her family’s complicated history with Christianity and the trauma that her ancestors experienced having to attend boarding schools in the Navajo Nation,” Moses said. “Then she told me of her aspirations of someday becoming a Native filmmaker and how my performance inspired her to tell Native stories. That was my turn to shed tears. I don’t think that there’s anything that inspires me more than the thought of that single child in the audience receiving messages and inspiration from their ancestors. That’s what keeps me going.”

Great physical distances and vast oceans have proven scant barriers for the deep, productive and lasting collaboration that binds Hawai‘i’s PA’I Foundation and First Peoples Fund (FPF).

“Our principals and our values align in our support for our Native peoples” says PA’I Executive Director Vicky Holt Takamine and 2013 Community Spirit Award honoree. “And that is what’s been so great about the work we’ve been able to do with First Peoples Fund.”

Founded in 2001 with the mission to preserve and perpetuate Native Hawaiian arts and cultural traditions for future generations, the PA’I Foundation found inspiration in First Peoples Fund which, though only five years old when PA’I launched, was already a leader in the field of supporting Native artists and culture bearers.

“We’re pretty isolated,” said Vicky. “We don’t get in the conversation sometimes.” But that isolation diminished when Vicky met First Peoples Fund President Lori Pourier at a Ford Foundation gathering in 2005. That meeting kicked off an abiding working relationship, partnership and personal  friendship. FPF helped by opening doors to funders with a genuine spirit of generosity -- “it’s not something they just talk about, they do it,” said Vicky -- and offering programs and training, in particular the Native Artist Professional Development Trainings that introduce business and entrepreneurial skills to Native artists. 

“When I first heard about (NAPD training) I thought, ‘We have to have that here,” Vicky said. The trainer’s made the trip to Hawaii and the program became a cornerstone in the PA’I - FPF alliance.

“Our artists really enjoyed the experience,” said Vicky, who soon doubled down and asked FPF to come back and teach Native Hawaiians to lead the artist development trainings. Those trainers are active today: Ka'ohu Seto (2016 Community Spirit Award honoree), Kaloku Holt (2016 Artist in Business Leadership fellow) and Ka’iu Takamori (2017/18 Intercultural Leadership Institute fellow). 

“[Our] trainers from Hawai‘i are just excellent,” said Ben Sherman, a former chair of the First Peoples Fund board who conducted the first NAPD sessions in Hawai’i. “They are unique to Hawai’i.” But also fully in harmony with First Peoples Fund’s vision and approach.

The common thread is values. The PA’I Foundation is founded on values that branch off the word Aloha:

Akahai - meaning kindness, to be expressed with tenderness; 

Lokahi - meaning unity, to be expressed with harmony;                  

ʻOluʻolu - meaning agreeable, to be expressed with pleasantness;

Haʻahaʻa - meaning humility, to be expressed with modesty;

Ahonui - meaning patience, to be expressed with perseverance.

For First Peoples Fund, values occupy the core of the organization and also their artist development training.

“It’s the most important part of our training,” said Ben. “We don’t teach (the artists)  how to do their art. They have the talent to do that. We ask them about their values, their family values, their tribal values. Only then do we teach them how to be business people and talk about planning, pricing and marketing.”

And that fit right in with the PA’I Foundation, Vicky said. “We speak the same language,” she said. 

In 2019, PA’I was named a recipient of a First Peoples Fund Indigenous Arts Ecology Building Grant (now the Native Arts Ecology Building Grant) designed to expand FPF’s work beyond individual artists and culture bearers by helping Native nonprofit organizations support Native artists in their communities. 

“With [support through that] program, we could focus on next-level development –– to work with those artists that had come to the first training session, and develop a second, higher level,” Vicky said. Part of that is working on the artist’s portfolios and applications for grants and gallery space. “Their artwork is already stellar, but sometimes we can help with the presentation,” said Vicky, offering an example:

Humility is a core value throughout Indian Country. “We Natives don’t like to brag about ourselves,” she said. “Sometimes we need someone to brag for us.” 

Vicky reads through artist presentations and applications and has, on occasion, suggested places where the artist could be more direct in describing his or her accomplishments. “They’ve gone through the (Native Artist Professional Development) trainings. Now let’s fine tune their applications,” said Vicky. With the Indigenous Arts Ecology Building grant PA’I could help the artists up the next rung, all the while continuing to develop the institutional support for a thriving Indigenous art ecology -- and economy.

Just as First Peoples Fund partnered with Minneapolis-based Artspace to build the state of the art Oglala Lakota Artspace on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, PA’I is collaborating with Artspace to create a center in downtown Honolulu -- the Ola Ka 'Illima Artspace. The Hawaiian iteration occupies the first floor of an already fully occupied 84-unit affordable housing building and when completed will include a dance studio, gallery space, as well as conference room and office facilities. Plans were that the space would be open by now but the pandemic had a hand in introducing delays. “We hope to begin our tenant improvements this summer and open in 2022,” said Vicky. “I’m looking forward to inviting Lori to the grand opening” to help cut the ribbon on a new venture, something Vicky and Lori have done before.

“We used to find ourselves at the same conferences for leaders of arts organizations,” said Vicky. “And we kept saying to each other, ‘these panelists aren’t speaking to us. Everything is designed for a Western audience. This doesn't apply to us.”

Some of it was nuts and bolts. A speaker might suggest that the arts leader direct his or her marketing department to undertake a project. “We’d look at each other and say, ‘Hey, I am the marketing department,’” said Vicky. Other issues were deeper. “To us, our connection to the land is sometimes more important than the work. The land comes before us. That’s in our organizations.”

They found others agreeing with them and decided to form a new arts leadership organization to address their values, interests and needs. Their conversations led to the launch of the Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI) with Alternate ROOTS, First Peoples Fund, National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC), and the PA'I Foundation. Today ILI takes fellows on a yearlong program that challenges dominant social norms while honoring differences of histories, traditions, and vocabulary. ILI develops leaders specifically within the arts and culture field to adeptly respond to significant changes that impact society, politics, environment and economy. The new organization provides a tangible way to practice intercultural work with partner organizations, build  solidarity, capacity and healthy social narratives for organizations of color across the nation. 

“We can’t separate our principals and values from the mission,” said Vicky. “They are embedded in our actions.”

Which can sometimes be, well, direct. “My hula (Native Hawaiian dance) is a form of resistance,” said Vicky explaining that western colonizers quashed most forms of Hawaiian culture but let hula continue, thinking it was merely a form of entertainment. Instead it was the lifeblood of the entire culture. Stories and language and values were embedded in the songs and passed down to new generations. “Our culture survived through hula,” said Vicky. It then experienced a renaissance in the 1970s with a revitalization of all aspects of the Native culture. Vicky was part of that as a student in the 70s and the work -- to preserve and perpetuate Native Hawaiian arts and cultural traditions for future generations -- continues to this day.

When Moses Goods (a 2021 FPF Artists in Business Leadership fellow), one of Hawai‘i’s most prominent theater artists, began his career 20 years ago there were few Native Hawaiian’s in his field. “ I had no footsteps to follow in,” he said. But today, things are different. “Even though there is still so much more that needs to be done, there have been huge advancements toward creating a space for Hawaiians in theater,” he said. 

And though credit for that is deserved in many quarters, it’s perhaps not unreasonable to think one might also tip one’s hat in the direction of the PA’I Foundation and her big sister, First Peoples Fund.

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Hāwane Rios is a Kānaka Maoli (true human being), singer, songwriter, poet, chanter, and dancer.

She is a kiaʻi (protector) working to shield Mauna Kea, Hawai‘i’s tallest mountain, from further development. 

She is an educator and award-winning musician who says her songs come from the deepest parts of her spirit, guided by her ancestors. Her mother, Kumu Hula Pua Case, raised her steeped in the traditional art forms of her Native Hawaiian people.  She is a dedicated cultural practitioner. 

She is now, also, a 2021 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership Fellow.

“The most challenging thing that I face as a musician is not being able to make a living off of my art and be supported solely by that,” she said. “Add in the effects due to the global pandemic, all of my scheduled performances, potential touring opportunities, and speaking events all canceled and or postponed -- it’s tough.”

She said she hopes the support from First Peoples Fund can help her on the way to become an independent artist with her own record label, producing her own music. “I also hope to be able to offer this recording space to other artists in Hawaiʻi,” she said.

Hāwane’s debut album, Kū Kiaʻi Mauna Together We Rise, was named 2020 Contemporary Album of the Year, by the The Hawaiʻi Academy of Recording Arts in their Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards. She is writing her second album including stories about contemporary life.

“As an Indigenous creative, I believe I have a responsibility to follow in the ways of my ancestors who recorded their lives, the changes of the land, and the shifts in society through the mediums of expression that I have been called to,” she said. “Our language, our genealogies, our legends, and stories were remembered and passed down to us for a sacred reason. I feel profoundly connected to writing about the times we are living in so that the next generations can hear a part of our story of healing, reclaiming, and reuniting.”

She didn’t grow up speaking her Native language but learned it later, in college. It was a revelation. “Learning ‘Ōlelo Hawaiʻi inspired me to start writing my own songs to remember stories that I was told in my language that I could finally understand,” she said. “I wanted to remember what the love of my ancestors sounded like to me. As I get older, I see how important it is to pass on these stories in mediums of expression that reflect the time we are living in now. I now weave both English and ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in my songwriting to help to create more bridges of connection and also to encourage our young ones to learn our language and cultural practices.”

Hāwane has mapped out an innovative plan for her fellowship. She wants to record storytellers relating one ancestral story and one contemporary story of the Kohala and Waimea Districts on Hawaiʻi Island. She then plans to write an original song or chant for each story and record a studio version of them. In keeping with her connection to the land she plans to record the stories in the places that the stories are about. She plans a series of these collections and aims to complete one a quarter.

And she wants the work to be accessible. For that she is turning to technology. 

“One of the most effective ways of sharing and connecting online is through audio,” Hāwane said, adding she wants to create a podcast channel to upload the stories in episodic format. She also envisions video versions of the pieces and included the cost of a website domain, film producer, and editor in her budget proposal.

“I believe in creating innovative ways to get our stories to the next generation that is raised in the era of technology,” she said. “I feel that bringing our stories to online platforms that the youth resonate with will help to keep them connected to the land, to our values, and to one another.” 

Which is, to Hāwane, the deepest channel in the river.

“I was raised by the stories of my people. I have been shaped by the rain, wind, ocean, mountains, and valleys that my ancestors wrote songs about. Someone never stopped speaking our language, never stopped dancing, never stopped chanting, and never stopped believing in our traditions,” she said. “And that is why we are still strong and proud of who we are and where we come from today.”

We strive to represent our strong yet small community, which welcomes and urges humanity to listen with open minds to our stories.

Reed Two Bulls (Oglala Sioux) is a musician and is enrolled on Pine Ridge Reservation, SD. Reed is the lead singer of the band The Wake Singers. She attends blues jams in Minneapolis and sells hand painted jewelry when not working on music. Reed is a 2021 First Peoples Fund Artists in Business Leadership Fellow.

The Wake Singers are a recording group of multi-instrumentalists. Their musical journey started when they were teenagers living in Rapid City, SD, playing music in their basement. Art and music were always incorporated into their ideas. After playing in various bands in Rapid City they left to attend art school at the Institute of American Indian Arts, where they were able to experiment with the visual, writing, and musical aspects of their vision. After completing art school, they brought back what they learned to their own communities of Red Shirt Table and Rapid City, SD. The idea of having a recording studio was planted into their mission plan. The Wake Singers has always been a family band. It was in the Fall of 2018 that Reed Two Bulls joined the band. The Wake Singers have performed in many venues, among them the Kennedy Center and the Black Hills Drive-In Covid Relief Benefit.

They didn’t choose the name by accident.

When cousins Reed, Doug and Mike Two Bulls set out to build a recording studio they dubbed it “Pejuta Studios,” using the Lakota word for medicine.

“We want to make our studio accessible to Native musicians who can’t pay for studio time,” said Reed, who sings lead vocals in the trio’s band called The Wake Singers. “We believe there is a lot of Indigenous music that isn’t getting heard due to the lack of access to a recording studio.”

Reed was recently named a First People’s Fund Artist in Business Leadership Fellow and awarded funds to assemble recording equipment to build a professional studio in Rapid City, S.D. The first goal is to finish an album in the works. “We have a whole array of songs,” said Reed who calls herself the “baby cousin” of the band. “I’m really excited to get started” with the new equipment.

Reed bought a couple of microphones and a pedal tuner in Minneapolis and, with some other gear she ordered online, began setting up in the band’s “basement space” in Rapid City. They hope eventually to decamp into larger quarters where they plan to help other Lakota recording artists such as Welby June and Wahpe Louella put down some tracks. “I’m really looking forward to this opportunity from First People’s Fund.” said Reed. “It’s important for our communities to have a studio that is completely Indigenous owned and operated. ”

Reed grew up in Los Angeles and Minneapolis where she sat in with a number of other bands before joining the all Oglala Lakota Wake Singers in 2018. She bonded -- as cousins and musicians -- with her bandmates last year working in the Pine Ridge community of Red Shirt Table. “We held two recording sessions out on the reservation which brought us closer as a band and helped to refine our sound,” said Reed. “Camping out on the prairie while simultaneously recording some of our album was absolutely a once in a lifetime experience.”

Doug and Mike’s collaboration stretches back farther.  They grew up as close as brothers in Red Shirt Table and Rapid City and began their musical journey when they were teenagers. They each left to attend the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., where they explored both musical and visual expression. Something they continue to this day.

“We were profoundly affected by the protests over the death of George Floyd and decided we couldn't sit idly by,” said Mike. They made prints and billboards that supported Black Lives Matter protests and used music to propel the message as well. “We held several live streams that supported the BLM movement to bring awareness,” he said. All while remaining close to their Indigenous heritage.

“We are actively motivated by our Lakota people and families,” said Reed. “We strive to represent our strong yet small community, which welcomes and urges humanity to listen with open minds to our stories.”

We need creativity now more than ever.

Charlie N. Cuny (Oglala Lakota) comes from the Sunkawakan Mahpiya (Cloud Horse) and Zuya Niskala (Little Warrior) Bands in the Medicine Root district. Charlie is an alumna of the Institute of American Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, NM where she obtained a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts. She has been immersed with Lakota culture and language her entire life which contributes to her journey. This influences her to incorporate traditional Lakota teachings into her modern artwork and fashion. Charlie resides on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where she raises her twin boys and aspires to promote Lakota culture through an artistic lens. 

Háŋ Mitákuyepi, Čhaŋté waštéya napé čhiyúzapi. Čhetáŋ Lúta Wíŋ (Red Hawk Woman) emáčiyapi. Oglála Lakȟóta Wíŋyaŋ hemáčha kštó. Mičhíŋkši núŋpa na hená čhekpápi. Kenai Tokȟéčhuŋ é na Kodiak Wowanglake ewíčhakiyapi. Ináwaye kiŋ Zuyá Ohítika Wíŋ ečíyapi na wašíču čhažé kiŋ Toni Montileaux ečíyapi.

When Charlie Cuny was growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation it seems she was always involved in one kind of art project or another. “Pottery, painting, sewing, beading, jewelry, performing arts,” she said ticking off just some of her pursuits. 

But she always felt a little held back. “We didn’t have enough support when I was a high school artist,” she said. But then a counselor helped steer her to a summer art program at Arizona State University -- which led her to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Sante Fe, N.M., where she earned her bachelor’s degree in fine arts -- and the clouds parted. 

“I was like a kid in a candy store,” she said about finally experiencing beautiful studio spaces with ample art supplies.

And now she gets to help bring that magical “aha!” moment to artists and art students back home on Pine Ridge as First People’s Fund’s Oglala Lakota Artspace (OLA) Program Manager.

“I’m excited to move into that building,” she said of the 8,500 square-foot facility near Kyle, S.D., that includes two large classrooms one of which also serves as a computer lab; four artists’ studios that can be divided into eight; flexible co-working and performance space; production studio; kitchenette; administrative offices; programmable outdoor space, as well as a garage for First People’s Fund’s Rolling Rez Arts. “It’s going to give local artists a safe space to call their own.”

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And more. “You can learn to become a business person, an entrepreneur,” she said, thanks to the  Lakota Federal Credit Union that will be housed in the building. “You can take your art and make a business of it.”  Which is something that Charlie does with her art. Currently she is focused on fashion. “My favorite thing now is hat making,” she said, of the original adornments she makes and markets online.

The official opening of the space has been delayed by the pandemic but the move-in date for the first artists-in-residence is just around the corner. And none too soon, said Charlie. “People have experienced loneliness and isolation during COVID,” she said. “We need creativity now more than ever.”

She’s happy to be back home in her Oglala Lakota Nation where she is raising her twin boys and, when not organizing programming at OLA, keeping up with her own creative pursuits while striving to incorporate traditional Lakota teachings into her work. “I like to promote Lakota culture through an artistic lens,” she said, adding: “I’d like to thank First People’s Fund and the Artspace folks for making this building a reality,” said Charlie. “And also Lakota Federal Credit Union. It’s amazing to be part of this project in my home Nation.”

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Oglala Lakota Artspace set to open new era for Pine Ridge artists -- and the arts-based economy

Some people look over the vast plains of the Pine Ridge Reservation and see an arid landscape where little grows and the economy idles. But they miss so much.

They overlook a rich ecosystem of resilient Native grasses with deep roots waiting for a little water to leap skyward. And they fail to notice the home-based arts economy, deeply rooted in Oglala Lakota culture, that hums below the surface.

First People’s Fund sees a fertile landscape and for 25 years has supported and amplified the voices in the thriving home-based economy of  artists and culture bearers -- on Pine Ridge and throughout Indian Country -- with working capital grants, training and networking opportunities. Now it’s poised to up the ante and give them something special: a modern creative space of their own.

The Oglala Lakota Artspace (OLA), a $3 million building with individual artist studios, shared workspace for group collaborations, a recording and sound studio, a classroom for art classes and business trainings, commercial space, exhibition space, a performing arts venue that’s perfect home for First People’s Fund’s Dances With Words program for young spoken word artists, Rolling Rez Arts and more, is slated to open this spring. 

Architect Tammy Eagle Bull (Oglala Lakota), of Encompass Architects P.C. and the first Native American woman to become a licensed architect in the United States, designed the building to reflect Lakota star knowledge. The structure announces its presence with clean, geometric lines; corrugated metal and cement board siding that speak to the rugged surroundings; and bold pops of colors. A central courtyard features a trellis clad with an artist-designed sculptural piece to prominently welcome visitors. 

Delayed but not deterred by the pandemic, the new center is a game changer for Pine Ridge artists. And a boon for the reservation economy.

“This is just what we need,” said James Cross who sits on the Oglala Lakota Tribal Council’s Economic Development Committee. “Now our artists will have a state-of-the-art place of their own and the exhibition space and performance space will attract visitors.”

The pandemic postponed the original 2020 target date for a grand opening, but the first safe steps toward opening are underway. Two First People’s Fund staffers, Oglala Lakota Artspace Program Manager Charlie Cuny (Oglala Lakota), and Youth Program Coordinator Augusta Terkildsen (Oglala Lakota), plan to move into their new offices in early May. Six artists -- representing a wide range of Lakota art -- will move into the new space as Oglala Lakota Artspace Studio Artists later during the month.  The artists all plan to host brown bag lunches to welcome community members to their studios but, due to the ongoing presence of Covid-19, those gatherings will likely be virtual to begin with.

The inaugural OLA Studio Artists are:

Warren “Guss” Yellow Hair (Oglala Lakota): traditional drum maker

Tiana Yellow Hair (Oglala Lakota): recording artist 

Cat Clifford (Oglala Lakota): songwriter, filmmaker, actor, bull rider, painter, leather and tattoo artist 

Helene Gaddie (Oglala Lakota): regalia artist 

Waylon Gaddie (Oglala Lakota): bow maker and regalia artist

Keith Brave Heart (Oglala Lakota): filmmaker, painter and storyteller

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The seeds for the Oglala Lakota Artspace were planted with First Peoples Fund’s work back in 1999 with the Lakota Funds and other partners on the reservation.  This included many conversations, planning and later a series of community meetings to get input from culture bearers, artists and the Pine Ridge Community. From there, the idea grew even more following the publication of a 2013 First People’s Fund survey of more than 100 Pine Ridge-based artists and culture bearers, called Building a Creative Economy: Art as an Economic Engine in Native Communities, that found that limited access to creative space was one of the six resources artists need to succeed.  The new facility also aims to provide access to the other needed resources: business knowledge and training, new markets, networks, supplies, as well as credit and capital.

Why is this so important for Pine Ridge economic development efforts?

The 2013 survey also identified a vibrant sector of economic activity on the reservation. Thirty percent of Oglala Lakota tribal citizens on the reservation identify as artists and forty percent of Pine Ridge households rely on some form of traditional arts for income. And given that nearly 100 percent of the artists surveyed reported they do not have access to space, equipment, supplies and materials to create their art, providing artists with the support and resources they need gives a direct economic boost to a large percentage of Oglala Lakota citizens. That is an economic development home run. 

Elsie Meeks (Oglala Lakota), Board Chair of Lakota Funds, has said that throughout her many years of work in economic development on Pine Ridge and throughout Indian Country it has been evident that artists are a key component of local economies.

“We started out Lakota Funds to help people get into business, and most of the people that were even around the edges of getting into business were artists,” she said. “So the market study published in 2013 really confirmed what we already knew, which was that (many) households on Pine Ridge depend on a home-based enterprise of some kind to provide income. And (the bulk) of those home-based businesses are arts-based.”

All of which makes Lakota Funds a perfect partner in Oglala Lakota Artspace along with First People’s Fund and Artspace, a Minneapolis, Minn.,-based non-profit organization.  

Lakota Funds has been instrumental in bolstering the local economy of Pine Ridge including founding the Lakota Federal Credit Union, the  first banking institution on Pine Ridge. A branch office of the credit union will be housed in the Artspace.

“It means a lot to us at the credit union to be able to take those services out into the community where they’re needed,” said Tawney Brunch (Oglala Lakota) Executive Director of Lakota Funds. 

For Artspace, the leading nonprofit real estate developer for creative communities with over 50 mixed-use rural and urban facilities across the U.S., Oglala Lakota Artspace represents their first reservation-based project.

“Many years of enormous effort have gone into this,” said Kelley Lindquist, President and CEO of Artspace and a member of First Peoples Fund’s board of directors. “It’s a great privilege to be collaborating here on Pine Ridge and collaborating with such extraordinary people.”

The new building, located just across the road from Oglala Lakota College’s main campus near Kyle, S.D., also features a multi-purpose garage, primarily created for First Peoples Fund’s industrious and ground-breaking Rolling Rez Arts mobile arts lab to park when not traversing the 2.1 million acres of the Pine Ridge Reservation to deliver art classes, art supplies, retail, and banking opportunities. The garage, which has a stage at back, can pull double duty as a performance space.

“That’s the nicest garage I’ve ever seen,” said Bryan Parker (White Mountain Apache/Muscogee Creek/Mississippi Choctaw), the Rolling Rez Arts Program  Coordinator. He said he’s excited about what lies ahead. “The classes that are now programmed on the bus can get people gravitated to the new building,” he said. “I’ve been using the word ‘connection’ a lot. Traditional knowledge and contemporary knowledge coming together. People learning from one another. That’s what I’m excited about. Having that new space is a big move. It’s going to be huge.” 

Artists and past First People’s Fund fellows agreed. “It’s hard not to think about what a difference ... this new facility will make in our community,” said beadworker Molina Parker (Oglala Lakota.)  Added painter Wade Patton (Oglala Lakota):  “I just think about if there had been a place like this when I was young, I would have gotten going as an artist a lot quicker. Oglala Lakota Artspace is going to change a lot of lives for the better.”

At the ground-breaking ceremony for the building in 2018, First people’s Fund board chair Sherry Salway Black (Oglala Lakota), shared with the crowd that she wondered how different her father’s career path might have been if something like Oglala Lakota Artspace had existed to nurture his work as an artist when he was growing up on Pine Ridge and said she hopes that the space will provide encouragement to people who want to deepen their artistry.

“Artists, culture bearers, young people –– everyone in the community can come together to share resources, to learn from one another and really look at it as being the foundation of the economy here, the creative economy that’s on Pine Ridge,” she said.

I want to emphasize the belief that we are part of the Pte Oyate (Bufalo Nation.) I want to share an open pride in my heritage.

Gene Swallow (Oglala Sioux) is a fiber arts sculptor and doll maker. Gene’s dolls and fabric sculptures range from playthings to works of art meant for display. He uses fleece, soft faux camel-hair, or light denim. His dolls are made from patterns and are stuffed with poly-fill. He uses brand new quality fabrics and materials for the dolls that are meant to be held and played with by our younger relatives. For his higher end fabric sculptures, Gene has a preference for natural fibers like wool, linen, or cotton, and opts for reclaiming and up-cycling vintage fabrics . Other materials used in his works include leather, embroidery floss, beads, wool roving for hair, and glass beads for eyes. Gene is a 2021 First Peoples Fund Artists in Business Leadership Fellow.

Gene Swallow’s soft cloth dolls pass along traditions -- and help smooth life’s rough edges.

For as long as he can remember, Gene Swallow has been creative. “I was always really artsy, crafty,” he said. “I would see some art work and say to my friends, ‘I could do that.’ And then finally one of them called me out on it and challenged me” to prove it.

So three years ago he hauled out an old sewing machine and some fabric his mother Susanna Swallow had given him and made his first cloth doll. On a whim, he entered it into the prestigious annual art show at the Red Cloud School in his home Oglala Lakota Nation. 

The piece was so good the school’s Heritage Center bought it for its permanent collection. A whole new world opened up for the single parent of twin 17-year-old boys and Gene began producing a string of high-end art pieces that were meant to be collector’s items and displayed. “I made great sales and commissions,” he said. “But I heard from younger people or families on tighter budgets who would say they would have to save up to afford a piece. So I started doing affordable baby dolls and youth dolls that were not only accessible, but were durable enough to be held and played with.”

Gene made three types of dolls -- an infant, a child and a teen -- from quality materials that were readily available and inexpensive that allowed him to balance production cost and time with a reasonable price for customers.

Now he’s ready for another turn of the wheel. 

Gene was honored with a First People’s Fund Artist in Business Leadership Fellow grant this year and has a goal of bringing his dolls to a wider audience -- and using them to help pass along Lakota traditions, language and culture.

“I made the prototypes,” he said, of the appealing yet simple dolls that he now hopes one day are produced by a string of sewers he engages in the community. “I want a consistent brand,” he said, for the dolls he calls “visually beautiful but meant to be hugged.” He wants his soft cloth, culturally inspired dolls to “facilitate language growth, compassion and caregiving, and a sense of identity in Lakota children.” He plans to market them under the “Good Relative” brand.

Which is consistent with major themes of his life that include helping disadvantaged youth and celebrating -- and renewing -- his Oglala Lakota culture.

Gene works as a paraprofessional in the Rapid City, S.D., school district and sometimes helps out kids who have ended up in in-school suspension. “I try to get to know them and encourage them to get back to class,” he said. Usually by tapping into that student’s culture. Many students at his school are Lakota and so he often leans on his heritage to reach out and try to help those kids. “I’m not a fluent Lakota speaker,” he said, “but I try to bring language into my day, every day.”

Gene wants his dolls to honor and bolster Lakota traditions as well. “The dolls will be, first of all, a comforting presence in our young relative’s lives but secondly, the dolls will be a physical representation of  Lakota kinship terms, parts of the body, and descriptive terms based off of whether they’re a boy or girl or if they’re a toddler or a teen,” he said. “My dolls are based on culture and stories and I hope they radiate some sort of educational and emotional identity. I want there to be a conversation on why they have braids or why I decided to incorporate bison horns on all of them. I want to emphasize the belief that we are part of the Pte Oyate (Bufalo Nation). I want to share an open pride in my heritage.”

He’s planning to develop a booklet or a companion web presence to go with the dolls that can pass on these language terms and traditions. And always with an eye toward helping the less fortunate.

Twelve years ago he adopted twin five-year-old boys out of foster care. He remembers that first day with them as if it were yesterday.

“When they first arrived they came with a plastic Wal-Mart bag with underwear and some plastic Happy Meal toys,” said Swallow. “It was so impersonal.” 

Gene envisioned a way to bring more humanity into the lives of children in child protective custody.

“I want to somehow see my dolls in the system,” he said. “I want the kids to have something that is more identity oriented.”

"Making star quilts enriches our emotional world and teaches compassion.  When a star quilt is wrapped around a person, they feel loved and cherished by the person who is giving them the star quilt."

Gladys Thunder Hawk-Gay (Oglala Lakota) has been making star quilts for over 80 years, since she was 6 years old. Growing up, she watched her mother Susanna Jealous of Him sew quilts. And her grandmother, Louisa Two Heart, taught her to bead. Gladys also prepares traditional foods such as papa (dried meat), tunpsila (wild turnip), canpa (chokecherries), and spiritual food for ceremonies, like wasna (dried shredded meat mix) and canpa hunpi (chokecherry juice). Gladys has led huge gatherings of her tiospaye (extended and distant family), and organized naming and honoring ceremonies. In this way, she has ensured that many Oglala Lakota people have received Lakota names, and understand the spirituality and the making of relatives process. Gladys is a 2021 First Peoples Fund Community Spirit Award Honoree.

In 1936 Life magazine debuted its all-photographic format, Stalin signed the Soviet Constitution and Gladys Thunder Hawk-Gay began sewing alongside her mother in their home along American Horse Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Life folded decades ago and the Soviet Union imploded in 1991. But Gladys is still at it, turning out her specialty star quilts for “honoring ceremonies, weddings, births, when people pass on, for graduations -- and anytime star quilts are needed,” she said. “Right now I have six orders.”

Gladys was honored recently with a First People’s Fund Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award that recognizes exceptional artists who have worked selflessly throughout their lives to weave their cultural knowledge and ancestral gifts into their communities. Honorees are selected for sustaining and growing understanding of the creative practices and cultural values of their People. 

Those words could have been written with Gladys specifically in mind.

“Gladys is a passionate quilt maker who reflects her Lakota values of generosity, humility, and virtue,” said Tawa Ducheneaux (Cherokee) who nominated Gladys for the award. “She is especially kind and generous to all who sit down to visit with her about quilting. She doesn't consider her work to be art, but a part of her life that has always been. Because star quilts are so important to contemporary Lakota life, and the community requests them, she carries on. Much like Calvin Jumping Bull stated years ago, it is ‘through art expressions that Lakota values and beliefs are retained and taught.’ Gladys would be considered to have nape waketa, fine hands that create art. She is truly deserving of this honor.”

Gladys has seen many things change in her 91 years but some things remain constant. Like her vision (“I still don’t need glasses,” she declares proudly) and her commitment to sharing her knowledge, traditions and heritage through her spirit, her generosity -- and her sewing.

She has several designs that she incorporates into her quilts, depending on the occasion: the horse, eagle, buffalo, and tipi are many of the images that reflect Lakota culture and lifeways that she uses. She began formally teaching quilting classes about twenty years ago and continues to work with youth groups. She always has an open door for anyone interested in learning the art. Her quilts are recognizable by their symmetry and handwork -- and their spirit. 

“Star quilts are given in honorings, naming ceremonies, graduations,” said Gladys, “and giveaways which were done when someone is cherished highly and material things were given away in that person’s honor. Horses and tipis were given away back then; today the star quilt [has] replaced the horse and tipi. When someone has a giveaway they are passing down an ancient tradition.”

She says she sews “love into every quilt” and knows there is a restorative force that is transmitted. “The quilt itself brings a sense of healing to the person receiving it as a gift during a troubled time,” she explains. “It brings happiness to the receiver. Star quilts decrease stress, promote healthy lifestyles, and have health benefits. Receiving a star quilt uplifts someone’s spirit, it changes their mood and makes them happy. Star quilts have a huge impact on emotions.”

And producing quilts can be restorative, also.

“Sewing a star quilt prevents dementia and promotes well-being,” she says. “Making star quilts enriches our emotional world and teaches compassion.  When a star quilt is wrapped around a person, they feel loved and cherished by the person who is giving them the star quilt.”

Does she plan to retire any time soon? The answer is, no -- in regards to both sewing and helping her People.

“I will continue to make quilts, cook for gatherings, and cook traditional foods when needed,” she said. “I will continue to do whatever is needed and what I've done as long as I am alive.” 

And her commitment to helping her People makes her a perfect recipient of the Community Spirit Award.

“Gladys quilts for (her People) and has taught many of us the understandings that go with this,” said Tawa. “She is a Lakota treasure."