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

Four Bands Community Fund’s mission is to create economic opportunity by helping people build strong and sustainable small businesses and increase their financial capability to create assets and wealth. They create opportunities for individuals, businesses, and communities that are committed to financial independence and entrepreneurship.

They use a model called Icahya Woecun (The Place to Grow) to deliver programs. Icahya Woecun combines Lakota values and tradition with the wisdom of best practices to support Native American entrepreneurs in starting or growing a business by offering four dimensions of services: education, financing, incubation, and advocacy.

They are located in north-central South Dakota on the Cheyenne River Reservation.

He learned rawhide tanning and art-making through his grandparents, but Rodrick Troy Brings Plenty (Cheyenne River) had an untested market and no collateral when he approached Four Bands for a loan to launch his art venture. Four Bands Community Fund had the right product for Rodrick: an Individual Development Account (IDA). They enrolled him with support from their First Peoples Fund Indigenous Arts Ecology (IAE) grant program.

9 Native artists are in Four Band’s IDA savings program where their $500 will be matched 2:1. This helps elevate artists to the next level in their business.

Over the years, Four Bands has evaluated the local economy to understand how to overcome barriers. In surveys conducted, they found that 55% of their people participate in micro-enterprise and 78% of those individuals practice some form of art.

Their Cheyenne River Artist Market Survey in 2015 revealed a great need for these artists to improve their business financial skills. It also identified rich cultural traditions and a thriving informal arts economy amid high unemployment rates and poverty on the reservation.

“Artists are a different type of entrepreneur than most entrepreneurs we work with,” says Lakota Vogel (Cheyenne River Sioux). She is the Executive Director at Four Bands. “We have 150 active loans, and the arts is a subset of that.”

One of the ways Four Bands strives to market Native artists is through partnering with the city of Eagle Butte to host a market during the annual HomeTown Days celebration. Four Bands launched Art in the Park six years ago, allowing 90 vendors to set up under one tent for a day during the celebration.

“In our 18-year history, Four Bands has done well in creating artist markets for our community to showcase their art so they can sell their products locally,” Lakota says. “But we kept hearing that they need access to different markets. The local market is inundated with beadwork and quilting, so the price point the artists need to ask for their product is lower than what it should be. We’ve encouraged them to use Facebook, which is a common platform for most.”

Four Bands has staff certified to teach the FPF Native Artist Professional Development Training curriculum and are amazed at the positive results that come out of the two-day trainings. When artists are together in one room, it becomes an incubator for creative ideas. A community art group emerged from one of the trainings hosted by Four Bands, and they undertook creating a new art market.

Hundreds of thousands of motorcyclist bike through the area in the summertime during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, and the community art group is seizing the opportunity to attract tourist to their authentic Native art. Four Bands assisted with paperwork, paid for advertising, and provided technical assistance. With shade, tables, and business cards, the Native artists created their own art market.

“The success of that is artists coming together and wanting to do those things for themselves without many resources,” Lakota says. “Art entrepreneurs’ passion and motivation for work are different than everybody else. It helps my staff to learn and understand that perspective when they can attend events hosted by First Peoples Fund and learn how to better support the art entrepreneurs in our portfolio.”

Along with staff members, Four Bands took a local artist to the 2018 IAE convening in Phoenix, Arizona. They had identified Kelsie Kay Haskell (Cheyenne River) as an artist leader in the community and invited her to join the experience.

“She’s a strong artist within our portfolio,” Lakota says. “We wanted her to have the experience of seeing a new market, to show her what’s possible out there.”

Though passionate about beading, Kelsie never defined herself as an artist. Most of her beadwork went to family or was sold on social media.

Kelsie had rarely been out of the state and never on a plane before, but the trip was well worth it. She was excited to meet artists at the  2018 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, and observe their businesses. As soon as she returned from Phoenix, Kelsie began implementing changes to her approach to art and with creating new products. Four Bands is working with her on her vision to launch an art supply store on the reservation.

“Being in a rural area, beads are really expensive,” Lakota says. “Her passion is to provide art material at a lower cost for the local market.”

Four Bands recognizes that artists hold one of their greatest assets — cultural knowledge, and its importance to sustaining status as a Nation. When Four Bands started in 2000, their first loans were to artists.

“As a small community development financial institution, the heart of our work was for the art community,” Lakota says. “We heard from the art community that they needed access to small loans to support their businesses. They were the first ones in our portfolio.”

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

Pauline Klementson (Yup’ik) is a master seagrass weaver. She harvests grass from Nome and Stebbins area, located in Northwest Alaska, and dyes the grass to add color and images to her baskets.

Pauline has periodically been a guest basketweaving instructor at the local high school and demonstrates at the Nome Visitor Center.

Fragile yet tough, delicate yet durable.

Pauline felt the coarseness of the seagrass in her 9-year-old fingers. Her mother and father told Pauline to sit and hold the material, to feel and understand what the seagrass was, then her parents began teaching her how to weave it.

Pauline’s first effort was a small oval-shaped basket in 1969. She sold it for $2.50 — enough for two weeks worth of candy! Excited about the possibilities, she kept weaving.

But creating with seagrass — whether dolls, baskets, ropes, or other unique pieces — isn’t just about the income it provides Pauline today. She wakes up every morning thinking of what she can make, envisioning what the project will look like when she finishes.

“It’s in my blood, I have to do it,” she says. “There are times when I have a down feeling. I don’t want to do it when I’m not making much progress. But it’s mostly upside. You can never make too many things with grass.”

When Pauline received her 2018 First Peoples Fund (FPF) Artist in Business Leadership fellowship, she discovered what it meant to treat her art as a business. Attending the 2018 FPF Fellowship Convening opened her mind to what other artists were doing with their work and businesses.

“It was wonderful getting to know First Peoples Fund,” she says.

With making and selling art, Pauline is also passionate about teaching others the craft. She finds her best students are the young ones. Their eyes light up when they learn something new, something they never knew could be made from grass.

Pauline has a few adults wanting to master the art, including how to harvest the seagrass, something she can only do once a year during the right season and weather. She tells them, “If you follow me, I’ll show you everything you need to learn so you can do it on your own.”

Pauline is currently conducting projects with a local girls and boys club, starting them young as her parents did with her. Her baskets now sell for up to $1,500.

“I am so fortunate to have learned at a young age,” Pauline says. “This keeps me going and active. I am busy from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep.”

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

Wesley May (Red Lake Band of Chippewa) is from the Red Lake Indian Reservation. An artist for 20 years, Wesley conducts healing through art workshops, community murals, and live exhibition paintings with youth groups, schools, and communities across the United States. He is the founder and owner of Wesley May Arts, is a former First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership fellow, and 2017-18 Intercultural Leadership Institute fellow.

Wesley had the youth at his workshop think of what love meant to them. Then, with those thoughts present in their minds, each student dipped their hand in paint and put their handprint on a large board emblazoned with a large heart painted in the colors of the four directions - red, black, yellow and white. The end result was dozens of handprints in brilliant colors blanketing the board, with the four directions heart shining through.

“We spread the same message with that four colored heart, with the medicine wheel and feather,” Wesley says. He tries to lead by example, showing his values in action.

For Wesley’s 2018 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellowship, he is conducting “healing through art” positive message mural workshops. These workshops help empower youth and unleash their potential. The workshops are based on the seven teachings of the Ojibwe: love, trust, honesty, truth, respect, courage, and wisdom.

“As an artist, I have grown through many trials and tribulations and thank the Creator for helping me become a stronger American Indian individual,” Wesley says.

With his fellowship funds, Wesley bought supplies for five mural workshops, ultimately completing fifteen message murals with communities and youth across the country in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and New Mexico. At his workshop in Minneapolis, 380 youth worked together to finish their message board in half an hour.

As Wesley continues his journey as a full-time artist, his work in communities is raising awareness for his business, Wesley May Arts. It has solidified Wesley’s place within the communities around him. He is constantly working on projects with youth.

He says to the students, “‘I can tell you to go paint this, or I can show you,’ and we’re walking together. That helps empower them to see it, do it, show me how they do it, rather than me just standing over them. They were actually showing me how they did it, instead of me showing them.”

Header Image: Photo by Roxanne Best (Colville)

By Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2017

The Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards honor and provide financial resources to Native culture bearers based on exceptional commitment to passing on cultural knowledge and sustaining community spirit. Marie Meade (Yup’ik) of Anchorage, Alaska, and Peter B. Jones (Onondaga) of Versailles, New York, embody this vision with their dedication, constant hard work, and generosity in their communities.

During recent First Peoples Fund-sponsored community honoring celebrations, Marie and Peter were honored for their work to preserve cultural traditions and practices and perpetuate traditional Native art at the community level.

Marie Meade - A Symbol of Strength and Resiliency

On stage, Marie listened to family and friends share about her life as a culture bearer during her Community Spirit Award (CSA) honoring in October 2018. Along with First Peoples Fund staff, they gathered at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage.

“It was this wonderful feeling of being alive, breathing, hearing their words, and listening to them,” Marie says. “It was an experience.”

Friends and family met Marie’s gaze, and they felt it, too, because she almost didn’t make it to her honoring. This past summer, Marie was in the hospital on life support after a harrowing bout of food poisoning. Family and friends were fearful that she might not recover, however after weeks of worry Marie was finally well enough to return home, and return to carrying on the traditions she loves sharing with others.

Practicing and Sharing the Art

From a young age, Yup’ik song and dance have been an integral part of Marie’s life. When she dances, her regalia includes qaspeq (woman's dress), nasqerrun (headdress), naqugun (belt), piluguuk (fur boots), and tegumiak (dance fans).

Marie has traveled the world sharing her culture with a larger global community through the Thirteen Grandmothers Council.

“Every country we went to, the people would ask me, ‘Do you have a CD?’ I would say no, that I’ll make one. I kept saying that in almost every country, so I’d better do it,” she laughs. “I promised all those people.”

Marie is recording the songs with help from her son and the musical group he is a member of, Pamyua. She is also finalizing a three-year project to document, translate (from Yup’ik to English), and transcribe knowledge of their subsistence lifeways for a book.

“When I do that work, so much is gathered about the culture,” Marie says. “That is something I’ve been doing for about 40 years. The elders I worked with when I first started are all gone now. But what we documented is recorded from the life histories of those many, many elders.”

Along with mentoring her sons, grandchildren, and relatives, Marie has taught Yup’ik dance at the University of Alaska Anchorage for several years. She is a professor there for Yup’ik Language, Yup’ik Orthography, and Alaska Native Dance.

Nominating Marie

Marie’s Community Spirit Award nominator, Joy Demmert (Haida) — who knows her through Marie’s son — articulated her work in the community.

“You can see that she is a symbol of strength and resiliency when you watch her sing and dance like her ancestors have done for thousands of years,” Joy wrote in her nomination of Marie for the Community Spirit Award.

Though this isn’t the first time Marie has been recognized for her work, she felt the Community Spirit Award honoring was unique.

“It’s the most special award that I’ve received,” Marie says. “Gathering as a huge family and friends to experience it, food being shared, friendship  –– all of it. Thank you to First Peoples Fund, and thank you to Jennifer Easton for her vision and her dream and her work.”

Peter B. Jones — Revitalizing an Ancient Artform

After studying at the Institute of American Indian Arts in the 1970s, Peter realized he knew more about Southwestern pottery than his own people’s pottery. That realization set him on a journey to research, document, and understand what pot making was in the 1500s. Peter’s commitment to learning continues today, along with teaching what he has found over decades of studying this ancient artform.

Practicing and Sharing the Art

Peter has strived for decades to bring Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) pottery back to life in his home communities where he works within the Six Nations Iroquois communities of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora people. His pots reflect what was originally made with clay gathered from stream beds and altered with the addition of crushed shell, crushed granitic rock and sand to create a clay body that was useful and durable after it was fired.

Peter produces art in his studio regularly and is preparing to teach another round of classes before the year ends.

“I don’t think we would have gotten the budget for the pottery if it hadn’t been for the Community Spirit Award,” Peter says. “It shows how necessary this is. We lost pottery once before in the 1500s. We’re just now bringing it back.”

“We lost pottery once before in the 1500s. We’re just now bringing it back.”

Peter is known in his community as a clay artist; his willingness to teach others has made him a sought-after mentor for those learning the practice. But it wasn’t until the Community Spirit Award that many people realized the scope of his work.

“You don’t have to move off the reservation to achieve the level of art that is recognized around the world,” he says. “I’ve been doing this for a living all my life, so I know it can be done.”

Culture Bearer Honored

Carol Ann Lorenz nominated Peter for the Community Spirit Award. She serves as a faculty member and museum curator at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.

“I believe it is safe to say that Peter nearly single-handedly revived the making of clay pots in Iroquois country,” she wrote in her nomination. “Largely through his efforts, there are dozens of Haudenosaunee artists working in clay today.”

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

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Maintaining entrepreneurial tenacity on the front lines of art creation, markets, and staying afloat with their business, artists need a big vision to stay dedicated to their occupation. Citizen Potawatomi Community Development Corporation (CPCDC), based in Shawnee, Okla., is helping Native artists in their local community stay dedicated through their Individual Development Account (IDA) program, which will match an artist’s savings 1:1. When artists have barely enough money to create art and get to market, it takes a leap of faith to begin setting aside money for investing in their business –– but knowing their investment will be doubled makes that leap much less intimidating.

Funded by First Peoples Fund’s Indigenous Arts Ecology grant, CPCDC’s IDA program encourages artists to save by providing a $500 match when the artists reach their goal of saving $500. Of the eight artists currently enrolled in the IDA program, each artist is saving for items specific to their mediums, including things like a commercial sewing machine, recording equipment, computer software, and displays for art markets. Once they have these tools in place, they can move to the next phase of their business.

“So many times we don’t plan for the future,” says Felecia Freeman (Citizen Potawatomi, Sac and Fox, Kickapoo), the commercial loan officer at CPCDC. “We just put out today’s fires. But we know successful businesses do stop and plan, and these artists are getting that.”

Before enrolling in the IDA program, artists take the initial steps in learning how to plan their business by attending one of First Peoples Fund (FPF) Native Artist Professional Development (NAPD) trainings. Charles Clark (Potawatomi) and 2016 FPF Artist in Business Leadership Fellow Leslie Deer (Muscogee), led three NAPD trainings in 2018.

“So many times we don’t plan for the future, we just put out today’s fires. But we know successful businesses do stop and plan, and these artists are getting that.”

— Felecia Freeman, CPCDC commercial loan officer

The trainings, hosted in Shawnee, Lawton and Tulsa, averaged 10-15 artists in attendance who received formal instruction through the values-based curriculum, complete with a workbook they could take home for future reference. As with any NAPD, not every artist who attends is at a point where they can implement all the elements referenced in the training, but it boosts their confidence in believing they can take their business to the next level.

“It gives them a vision,” says Felecia. “Through taking the training they could actually see where they wanted to go and where the gaps were; what they needed to fill so that they could move forward.”

““It gives them a vision. Through taking the training they could actually see where they wanted to go and where the gaps were; what they needed to fill so that they could move forward.”

— Felecia Freeman, CPCDC commercial loan officer

Once artists complete the training, they are offered the opportunity to enroll in an IDA program. This is a challenge for most of the artists — committing to invest funds they scarcely have. But the NAPD curriculum gives them confidence in their plan to earn back their investment.

“The IDA program is a huge commitment on their part,” Felecia says. “But their willingness to participate tells you about the impact of the First Peoples Fund training. They feel confident that, ‘I’ve done all these things, now if I invest in my art business, my projections show me that I’m going to grow here.’ You see that ‘aha’ moment. When you sit down and write your plan out, it is easier to follow the path to get there.”

In an effort to plan their own path forward, Felecia and CPCDC artist advisor Amber DuBoise (Prairie Band Potawatomi, Sac and Fox, Navajo) attended FPF’s Indigenous Arts Ecology Grantee Convening earlier this year in Phoenix during the Heard Museum Art Market. Networking with the other Native CDFI grantees gave them ideas for how CPCDC could adapt the model for the artists they serve throughout Oklahoma. Inspired by Kawerak, Inc.’s Bering Strait Arts and Crafts Facebook group, CPCDC now has a Facebook page for artists in progress.

The IAE convening also encouraged them to set up databases. Hired part-time through the IAE grant, Amber is creating spreadsheets to track market calendars, deadlines, entry fees, gallery options, and other resources to disseminate to artists. Their work spans a broad geographic area, impacting fifteen tribes throughout Oklahoma, so the databases will help keep track of all the moving pieces.

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

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Micheal Two Bulls (Oglala Lakota) is an artist from Rapid City, South Dakota and the Red Shirt Table community located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, also in South Dakota. Micheal received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in 2009. He was awarded a 2015 Artist in Business Leadership fellowship, served as the Northern Plains Artist in Residence at the University of South Dakota in summer 2016, and was a 2018 IAIA Artist-in-Residence. Micheal is a multi-media artist with a focus on printmaking.

Studio, warehouse, bedroom, basement. Micheal has always found space to do his art despite distractions. This past year, he transitioned into a large studio inside Racing Magpie — a hub for creativity, congregation, sustainability, and learning. It’s given Micheal new opportunities for his career — and for fellow artists.

“I opened up my studio for a lot of other artists to come and work on their own projects or on collaborations,” Micheal says. “We also run it as a music studio. It’s multi-functional.”

Micheal recently collaborated with FPF employee, Bryan Parker (White Mountain Apache, Muscogee Creek, Mississippi Choctaw) and Racing Magpie to create a mural on the side of the building. Micheal grew up in a family of artists in the Red Shirt community where the tourist economy thrived on the stereotypical art of Natives. The mural they created needed to be more than that. Micheal and Bryan decided to start with telling a traditional Lakota story of the great race between the magpie and the buffalo, which also the inspiration for the building’s name, Racing Magpie. It evolved from there.

Years before at IAIA, Micheal was challenged to look past the stereotypical, to ask questions, to think critically about his art and the purpose behind it.

Now his studio space at Racing Magpie has grown into a community of its own. Printmakers are especially interested in a rare piece of equipment that came to their region through Micheal’s 2018 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital (CC) fellowship: an etching press bed.

With his CC fellowship, Micheal plans to hold community workshops to teach printmaking, and allow fellow artists to use the press bed.

“Give me a piece of charcoal, I can make something,” Micheal says. “But there’s something else to be said about having these tools and materials. You have this responsibility as well for other artists that are learning, that are willing to come and take your workshop or listen to the lecture. You become a teacher.”

“There’s something else to be said about having these tools and materials. You have this responsibility as well for other artists that are learning, that are willing to come and take your workshop or listen to the lecture. You become a teacher.”

— Micheal Two Bulls, 2018 Artist in Business Leadership Fellow

Micheal is challenging students to ask questions and push beyond the boundaries of their views on art as he learned to do.

He says, “I feel that it is important for students to have a strong sense of place and who they are and where they come from.”

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

‍Jaida Grey Eagle is an Oglala Lakota artist, born in Pine Ridge, South Dakota and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her primary mediums are photography and filmmaking. She is also a beadworker, aerial artist, and writer. Jaida received formal training in photography at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is a B.Yellowtail artist and resides in St. Paul, Minnesota.

At 11 years old, Jaida began snapping photos as the family photographer. She was given her first camera by her parents. A few years later, she set out with a vision to use her art to show the truth and beauty of being Indigenous.

Starting professionally at age 17 with little formal training, Jaida used the camera her parents had given her to take shots for newspapers, a book cover, and other works. Early on, she experienced imposter syndrome, doubting her accomplishments and fearing that she wasn’t fulfilling her purpose after all. But her mother encouraged her throughout the journey and urged Jaida to apply for the First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership (ABL) fellowship program. Jaida did, and was awarded in 2018.

Sadly, her mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed two weeks before the FPF artist convening in Santa Fe. But because of the fellowship, Jaida’s mom witnessed one last major accomplishment in her journey.

“With the First Peoples Fund grant, I was able to get a new camera, which I never thought would happen again,” Jaida says. “It was like being given this extraordinary gift, like I’m going down the right path. My mom got to see that before she left. She was so proud.”

Jaida used the camera and fellowship funds to boost efforts on the documentary called “Arming Sisters” she is working on with Tantoo Cardinal, Patty Stein, and several other remarkable women.

“Indigenous communities lack Indigenous storytellers and portraying our stories through an Indigenous lens, and I wish to change that with my art,” Jaida says.

Also with the ABL funds, she enrolled in classes at FilmNorth of Minneapolis. “They’ve been a really good resource for me, especially with investing back into myself,” she says.

For post-production on the “Arming Sisters” documentary, they received a Vision Maker grant. Jaida and the rest of the team flew out to the International Documentary Association’s Getting Real conference in Los Angeles, a confidence-building experience for Jaida.

“My highlight was meeting other emerging filmmakers,” she says. “They really gave a sense that I don’t need to have imposter syndrome, that we are all on the same page.”

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

As we focus on investing in the Indigenous Arts Ecology, our family continues to evolve and grow. In recent months, we’ve welcomed new staff to First Peoples Fund — three young women from diverse backgrounds who are enriching our programming while supporting artists and culture bearers at the heart of our work.

MEET GOLNESA ASHEGHALI

Born to Iranian parents in Northern Virginia, where she grew up, Golnesa has practiced traditional Japanese Karate, Shotokan, for the past 25 years. When her Sensei, Ahmad Ali Mazhari, decided to relocate, Golnesa, her husband, and her mom chose to follow their teacher to Rapid City, SD, in Oceti Sakowin homelands.

Shortly after moving to Rapid City, Laree Pourier (Oglala Lakota) invited Golnesa, then a high school teacher, to bring some of her students to the Dances With Words annual poetry slam at Lakota Nation Invitational (LNI). The young people were excited and inspired by what they witnessed, prompting Dances With Words to expand to Native youth in Rapid City and Laree and Golnesa also began working together to offer weekly after-school workshops.

For two years Golnesa served as a poet mentor for the Dances With Words program, facilitating workshops, open mic nights, participating in Tiospaye Building Days, and coaching the teams at the international youth poetry slam, Brave New Voices.

“I’ve witnessed beautiful growth and transformation in young people who are members of our Dances with Words community,” Golnesa says. “I’ve seen Dances with Words poets who went from rarely speaking in classrooms or workshop spaces to performing regularly at our open mics, at school wide talent shows, and even on the international stage at Brave New Voices.”

This fall, Golnesa joined FPF as the Program Manager of Youth Development. Laree, now working as a classroom educator, continues to work with and support the Dances with Words poets, as a beloved mentor and facilitator. Golnesa continues to express gratitude for Laree and her unwavering commitment to creating truly youth centered spaces that embody Lakota kinship values and oral traditions. Golnesa shares, “I have learned and continue to learn more than can be named from working with Laree and serving as a poet mentor, under her guidance.”

On her own transition out of the classroom and into her position at FPF, Golnesa says, “My work and intention are always driven by young people. I’m grateful I can do this work, authentically, in our Dances with Words programming and I’m excited to expand our youth programming beyond Dances with Words.”

MEET AMBER HOY

Originally from Yankton, South Dakota, Amber moved to Rapid City in 2018 to join First Peoples Fund as the Program Manager of Fellowships. She served in the US Army for 8 years, and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Ohio University in 2015, focusing on audio and visual storytelling. Before coming to First Peoples Fund, she was the Artist Program Manager at a non-profit community print studio in Berkeley, CA where she ran the residency and fellowship program. She is also an interdisciplinary artist who highlights stories of women in the military and stories often untold.

“My relationship with art has been changing while I’ve been at First Peoples Fund,” she says. “I learned there isn’t a word for art in the Lakota language because it’s so ingrained in life. Seeing how family and community come together to learn and share practice is amazing. From cooking to quillwork, art can be both aesthetic and functional, there’s no separating it. Art increases your quality of life, allows you to slow down and appreciate the way something is made, the amount of time and energy that goes into it.”

Working with the 2018 Fellows, Amber has noted how open and generous the artists are in sharing and giving of knowledge.

“I’m inspired by all the artists that I have talked to,” Amber says. “I’ve been reaching out to the current fellows, having one-on-one conversations about their practice.”

She keeps up her own art projects and sharing of her knowledge through guest lecturing on museum studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and also with curating exhibitions there.

“I’m excited about the 2019 Fellowship cohort and seeing how the program grows.”

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

Traci Sorell (Cherokee Nation) writes fiction and nonfiction for children featuring contemporary characters and compelling biographies. She is an active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), and gained literary representation by Emily Mitchell of Wernick & Pratt Agency. She holds a Master’s degree in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin. She and her family recently moved to Wagoner, Oklahoma.

Where are the children’s books about contemporary Cherokee people? Traci asked herself, combing through a stack of books at the library. Those kinds of books were nowhere to be found. How could she read aloud to her son about who the Cherokee people are—and who he is?

“I said, ‘okay, you better figure out how to write these books because there are clearly some holes here,’” Traci says. “Storytelling is huge in our Native cultures, and we need to tell the stories.”

And so she did. In September 2018, after years of honing her writing craft and networking with veteran Native children’s book authors, Traci’s debut book, We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga, was released by Charlesbridge Publishing.

Since the release, welcomed by starred reviews from Kirkus, School Library Journal, Horn Book Magazine, and Shelf Awareness, Traci has traveled to D.C. and New York to promote the book at conferences, libraries, and more with help from her 2018 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership program. She is also using the support to visit Title I (low income) schools within the Cherokee Nation in northeastern Oklahoma.

Through the busy launch season and family health challenges, Traci keeps writing. Two more of her children’s books are under contract, set to release in 2019 and 2020. She was pleased when the publisher chose an illustrator from the recommended list she sent. Marlena Myles (Spirit Lake Dakota), a 2017 FPF fellow, will illustrate Powwow Day.

Back home, Traci was thrilled to release her debut children’s book at the Cherokee National Holiday in September. Her people were the first to have We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga.

“We have to be grateful for the survival of our ancestors after the Trail of Tears,” Traci says. “We’re still here.”

While at the fair, newly selected 2018-19 Junior Miss Cherokee, Kaitlyn Pinkerton, came by Traci’s table to get a copy of the book. Kaitlyn plans to take it on school visits, excited to have a book she can read to children about contemporary Cherokee people. She now has what Traci couldn’t find for her son.

“I write for the child in me who never had books showing existing Native culture and people,” Traci says.

She is grateful.

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

Throughout her distinguished career, singer/songwriter Annie Humphrey (Anishinaabe/Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) has collaborated with Keith Secola, Jim Boyd, Chris Eyre (movie soundtracks), Wayne Horvitz, Winona LaDuke, Keri Pickette, and James Starkey. She partnered with John Trudell on the award-winning video “Spirit Horses.” Her CD projects include UnCombed Hair, The Sound of Ribbons, Edge of America and The Heron Smiled.

Annie was raised on an Ojibwe Indian reservation, and was a 2017 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership fellow.

We caught up with Annie this month after she wrapped a tour with the Long Hairz Collective, and receiving a prestigious honor: Native American Music Awards (NAMMYS) 2018 Artist of the Year with her newest album, The Beast and The Garden.

Congratulations on your latest award, Annie! What does this award mean to you?

Thank you. I had won other NAMMYS back in 2001. I was out on the road with my kids from 2000 - 2004 and then I put them in public school and had to get a part-time job. I wasn’t playing or writing from 2005 - 2015. Coming back and starting all over — the award really confirmed that I was doing what I should be doing again. To be recognized by industry people, the public, it felt good to get back to where I was from 15 years ago.

What was that experience like of performing during the award show?

It was a bucket list moment because I got to perform on stage with two of John Trudell’s bandmates, Mark Shark and Quiltman. These guys are epic performers. I said on stage that even though John wasn’t there physically, that these two guys were the next best things.

Why did you compile The Beast and the Garden?

I wrote it during the time I was working for Honor the Earth. I was an active organizer against the Line 3 pipeline that runs through our land. Most of the songs are about the environment and social justice.

That record was made possible directly because I had gotten a grant from First Peoples Fund, so a big thank you because that grant helped to make that record, allowed me to go to the NAMMYS, allowed me to get the award.

What was a highlight of the 2018 tour?

I took the album on tour — Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota. The highlight was that Mark Shark flew in from Portland and he did two or three shows with me. Just making music with those guys, and that they would come when I asked them, was a huge compliment.

I remember when I finished recording my very first CD, John had come in [he did spoken word parts on The Heron Smiled] on the last day of recording, and I asked him, “John, what do you think, how do you think it compares to other Native artists?”

And he said, “Don’t compare yourself to anybody else — let the music stand on its own.”

I feel like I have to follow the things he told me.

Something else First Peoples Fund paid for was to get Mark Shark on the record. It’s all connected, all woven in with John and the things he told me, all the advice he ever gave me. It was a special project, and the tour was special. I feel really honored to have known him.

““Don’t compare yourself to anybody else –– let the music stand on its own.”

— John Trudell (Santee Dakota) in response to Annie asking how her CD compared to other Native Artists

How do you feel your time as an FPF fellow impacted your career?

It helped me do this comeback. The grant and having Lori’s support, it is what made this project possible, what made me educate myself and actually learn more about social media. I’m 62, and I really don’t know anything about social media. It was brought to my attention, especially being with all the other fellows. There were a lot of young ones that were there. They’re all so knowledgeable about that whole arena I know nothing about, so being there with them taught me that importance. Now my niece manages my social media.

I remember when I went to the fellows convening in Minneapolis. Lori was sitting next to me in this big talk-circle. She said, “I can’t believe that I’m sitting here at our First Peoples Fund convening next to Annie Humphrey.” I thought that was such a huge compliment, and I won’t forget that moment.

Just being selected as a recipient of the grant was awesome. It made the record possible, it made the nomination possible, it made the Artist of the Year possible.

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

2018 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital fellow Lisa Iron Cloud (Oglala Lakota) is a listener, community member, teacher, sewer, beader, traditional food maker/trader, hunter, and mother. Her husband, Arlo Iron Cloud Sr. (Oglala Lakota), is also a 2018 Cultural Capital fellow. He works for KILI Radio and Thunder Valley CDC on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The couple reside in Rapid City, South Dakota, with their four children.

Like a river, knowledge flows from elders and culture bearers. Then it branches off into communities, families, and individuals. Lisa and Arlo are in those streams as they take knowledge poured into them and let it flow to others.

In 2012, the couple created the Lakota Sewing Circle / Wiyan Omniciye. Lisa is using funds from her Cultural Capital fellowship to support the work of the circle, providing classes through the Lakota style of learning. She purchased arrow making supplies for the class to work with while listening to Joseph Marshall III (Sicangu Lakota) tell the story of the arrow.

“We have a passion for revitalizing our culture with nontraditional learning,” Arlo says. “Our work is hands-on — we’re teaching as we’re learning.

After a parfleche bag making class, Lisa received calls asking if the family could teach outside of Rapid City. “Being able to go to other people to do these teachings was something new to us,” Lisa says, “It worked well.”

Arlo’s Cultural Capital project focuses on preserving the history of the KILI Radio station through interviews with its founders.

While working on the project, Arlo continues learning and telling stories of their people’s traditional ways with the assistance of modern technology.

Using a camera and drone he purchased with his FPF funds, Arlo went on buffalo hunts with elder Richard Sherman (Oglala Lakota). Richard told Arlo to watch the buffalo, and the way they moved. Flying the drone above the running herd, they could see the flow of the buffalo herd as they moved just like a school of fish — knowledge long held by elders viewed through technology.

“These places that I love so much, I’m able to see them from a different perspective,” Arlo says. “And that’s what a lot of our community members like — seeing those perspectives. Because of the drone, I was able to show people shots of places we just can’t go.”

There is no separation from art and life for Lisa, Arlo, and their four children. The family works together as those streams branching off from a river of knowledge to keep it flowing through their communities and beyond.

This month First Peoples Fund and partners Lakota Funds and Artspace broke ground on Oglala Lakota Artspace, an 8,500-square-foot Native arts and cultural center on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The $2.75 million construction is scheduled for completion in late 2019 and will include individual artist studios, shared workspace for group collaborations, a recording and sound studio, a classroom for art classes and business trainings, commercial space, a storefront for Lakota Federal Credit Union and more. The new arts space will be located across from the Pine Ridge Chamber of Commerce near the Prairie Ranch Resort and the Oglala Lakota College administrative offices and a few miles down the road from Thunder Valley CDC.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, First Peoples Fund President Lori Pourier (Oglala Lakota) said, “Oglala Lakota Artspace didn’t just happen overnight. It has been in the works for many years and we’re having a moment of celebration.” Lori and Sherry Salway Black, First Peoples Fund board chair, were a part of the founding of the Lakota Funds in the mid-1980s. Lakota Funds’ early research made a strong case for supporting Lakota artists and culture bearers.

Others echoed that sentiment, chronicling the years of work that have gone into making Oglala Lakota Artspace a reality.

“Many years of enormous effort have gone into this –– building relationships and trust, years of community outreach and market studies to project planning and development,” 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.”  

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

“We might leave this world and leave these positions,” said Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribal President, Scott Weston, “but those artists, their work is going to continue. Oglala Lakota Artspace is about sustainability for our tribe, for our traditions, our ways and our culture. It’s my honor to be here, because this is what we as tribal leaders push for.”

The local community has been pushing for Oglala Lakota Artspace as well. Years of community engagement meetings helped confirm the need for the facility. Consistently the need for physical workspace was a top priority both for individual studios and for gathering space where artists could collaborate.

Identified in First Peoples Fund’s 2013 market study as one of the six resources artists need to succeed, space is provided through the creation of Oglala Lakota Artspace. The facility also aims to provide access the other resources: Business knowledge and training, new markets, networks, supplies, as well as credit and capital.

Elsie Meeks (Oglala Lakota), board chair of Lakota Funds, 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 51% of the households on Pine Ridge depend on a home-based enterprise of some kind to provide income. And that 79% percent of those home-based businesses are arts-based.”

Lakota Funds has been instrumental in bolstering the local economy of Pine Ridge and helping to create local access to essential economic infrastructure. Since its founding in 1986 as the first Native Community Development Financial Institution, Lakota Funds has been a leader in local economic development and in the Native CDFI field. In 2017, Lakota Funds provided over a $1 million in loans, created over 100 jobs and helped launch nearly 50 businesses.

“I think Lakota Funds is doing incredible things here every day to break down road blocks and create economic opportunity on Pine Ridge. I really applaud your leadership.”

— Dennis Alvord, U.S. Economic Development Administration Deputy Assistant Secretary of Regional Affairs

Tawney Brunsch, executive director of Lakota Funds, emceed the event. She has been a fierce advocate of creating access to financial resources throughout her career. She was instrumental in helping to establish the Lakota Federal Credit Union –– the  first banking institution on Pine Ridge, which shattered projections for accounts opened and financial products provided within the first quarter of operation. Oglala Lakota Artspace will expand that success by providing another permanent location for the Lakota Federal Credit Union.  

“I can’t lie, I’m most excited about the financial piece of this project,” said Tawney. “Oglala Lakota Artspace will provide a second location for the Lakota Federal Credit Union –– although we might have a location in Pine Ridge before then!” she said, laughing.

“And I want to mention that we’ve had a bit of practice in this testing out this partnership through the Rolling Rez Arts bus helping Lakota Federal Credit Union take our products out to meet the needs of our members in the districts,” Tawney said. “It means a lot ot us at the credit union to be able to take those services out into the community where they’re needed.”

First Peoples Fund’s Rolling Rez Arts bus is a state-of-the-art mobile arts classroom and banking unit, which, depending on the day, can be found providing banking services to community members or hosting art classes taught by one of the 22 local artists and culture bearers. In three years of operation, the bus has driven over 8,500 miles and taught over 75 Native art workshops to nearly 1,000 artists of all ages.