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

The Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards recognize exceptional Native artists who have shown a lifetime commitment to perpetuating their art and sharing it within their communities. These practicing artists embody First Peoples Fund’s core principles: knowing our history and ourselves; honoring our ancestors and relations; sharing our stories and knowledge.

We are honored to announce the four recipients of the 2019 Community Spirit Awards.

GEORGE MARTIN    

TRIBE: Lac Courtes Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians

Hopkins, Michigan

Use only hardwood ashes when “ashing” the shucked corn kernels. Ashes from softwood, coal, leaves, trash are always taboo because the mandaamin (corn) will never separate from its shell.

These teachings in the ways of processing Indian corn to sustain his people were given to George by elders. In the 1960s, after 10 years in the United States Air Force, George moved his family to his wife’s homeland near Hopkins, Michigan. Her mother, Gladys Sands, who lived with them, was a black ash basket weaver and knew the old ways of preparing Indian corn to eat. George credits Gladys for teaching him the art. He also practices peyote stitch beadwork.

“My wife Sydney and I try to show others to live your culture, every day,” George says. “Being an active elder in my Anishinaabe community shows others to keep going. My kids, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren see me beading every day.”

Tribes throughout the Great Lakes region, as well as colleges and universities, invite George to teach Indian corn making. He was featured on The Cooking Channel’s “My Grandmother’s Ravioli.”

Lisa Linda Lee Tiger (Muscogee [Creek] Nation) nominated George for the Community Spirit Awards to recognize him for his 60+ years as a beadwork artist, culinary artist, storyteller, Men’s Traditional powwow dancer and Head Veteran Dancer, jewelry-maker, and mixed media artist.

“He is a cultural icon, and yet a humble man content to bead, make soup, and share knowledge and stories with his people,” Lisa says.

MISCOBINAYSHII    

TRIBE: St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin

Luck, Wisconsin

“Every person needs moccasins to wear for all occasions in life and death.” —Miscobinayshii

Melissa Fowler (Lac Courte Orielles, St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin) nominated her grandmother-in-law, Miscobinayshii, for the Community Spirit Awards.

“If you have come across the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, chances are ‘Grandma Misco’ has touched your life in one way or another,” Melissa says.

Miscobinayshii, or Misco as she is known to her friends and relatives, creates beaded moccasins and gifts them to whoever needs a pair.

“My grandmother taught me the art of making moccasins,” Miscobinayshii says. “I’ve been able to pass this on to my daughters and grandchildren.”

Miscobinayshii has taught tribal members and descendants of other Ojibwe bands and communities including ones residing in Canada. Her dream is to one day host a cultural immersion camp within her own tribe. The camp would be a vehicle to empower elders as the influential leaders they were meant to be.

Miscobinayshii’s influence reaches out nationally. Her book “Miskobineshi, a Book of Memoirs,” details the life of Susan Eileen Skinaway (Miscobinayshii’s English name). This book, along with a pair of her hand-made moccasins, is onsite at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. In 2018, Miscobinayshii was asked to create moccasins for the Madeline Island Jingle Dress Dancer Project, a 12-foot statue on that island.

Melissa says, “Without her, St. Croix Tribe wouldn’t know many of the stories, history, and language.”

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MARGARET NAKAK

TRIBE: Bering Straits

Anchorage, Alaska

They might start out not knowing how to thread a needle, use a sewing machine, or design a traditional garment, but Margaret walks high school students through the process, step by step. They come together after school at the Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC) to learn how to craft kuspuq, an outer layer garment sewn from a variety of fabrics.

“They show their kuspuqs to other students, their friends, and families, and post photographs on Facebook,” Margaret says. “They wear their garments with pride.”

An award-winning artist and elder, she passes on traditions and lifeways of her Yupik and Inupiaq people by demonstrating basic sewing survival skills for emergency situations in Alaska’s challenging environment. She hosts an open class on Friday nights at ANHC, a multicultural gathering that represents the rich diversity of Anchorage.

Michael Livingston (Unangax/Chugach) nominated Margaret for the Community Spirit Awards.

“I first met Marge in 1999 when I began building an iqyax [Unangax skin on frame sea kayak] at the Alaska Native Heritage Center,” Michael says. “Marge was very helpful in putting her expertise to quick use in getting the skin sewn onto the kayak, and enlisting involvement from high school students.”

Margaret began sustaining cultural traditions in 1965 and continues strong today. She started work at ANHC in 1999 as a Cultural Representative.

“Marge stands tall as a powerful role model for youth and elders,” Michael says. “I worked in Alaska for 27 years as a police officer and know how important it is to have community spirit leaders like Marge teach and guide others.”

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

Photos by Jordan Storrer of Lifeleak Visuals  

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Elexa Dawson is a founding member of an all-female acoustic roots band, Weda Skirts (formerly The Skirts), who have released and self-distributed two albums of original music written primarily by Elexa.

She is a mother, musician, and activist living in Chase County, Kansas, the heart of the Flint Hills. She is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a descendant of the Cherokee Nation with familial ties to the Chickamauga Cherokee. The tallgrass prairie on ancestral Kaw and Osage territory inspires her music and advocacy.

“Warm honey mixed with prairie dirt” flows from Elexa’s music as she draws from Americana and Roots styles, growing her brand as an artist and in her identity as a Native woman. Her first solo album, a concept album, is taking her down a path to rediscover the lives and history of women who walked before her.

“The theme is getting narrowed down to more of a study of the women in my ancestry,” Elexa says. “It’s gotten a lot heavier even than I thought it would.”

Her Cherokee grandmother would never discuss who she was. Only recently, Elexa’s family learned her heritage. On the other side of the family, Elexa is digging deep into the lives of women she descends from — stories of Potawatomi women, names unknown, marrying French fur traders.

“Reading more about that dynamic, and how their lives might have been,” she says. “It has been increasingly important to me to reclaim the traditional knowledge that my ancestors lived by. It’s important that my two daughters and their children will know who they are.”

Elexa was amazed at how the application for her 2019 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership program helped her articulate her dreams and desires for her career as a musician, singer, and songwriter. The process guided Elexa in writing the vision of what was in her heart and mind.

“Before I learned about this fellowship, I was looking at my future and seeking guidance on how my solo musical career will continue,” she says.

While the band, Weda Skirts, still performs, the band members often can’t travel with their other life commitments.

“I’ve always thought of them as a protective nest that my music could incubate in,” Elexa says. “I could trust them to take whatever I have and make it sound really great. Pulling these tender little eggs out of that nest and thinking about them outside Weda Skirts is a super vulnerable place for me to be, the process of reintroducing myself as a solo musician to venues. It all feels unsettled, but it’s invigorating.”

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

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Kevin Locke is an internationally-recognized master traditional folk artist, visionary hoop dancer, indigenous Northern Plains flute player/recording artist, cultural ambassador, and an educator. A citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and coming from the ancestral line of Lakota and Anishinabe, he self identifies as a World Citizen.

Since 1978, Kevin has traveled to nearly 100 countries to educate, entertain, engage, and empower 1,000,000 people. He currently serves as president of the Patricia Locke Foundation.

The Arctic, tropics, deserts, rain forests, woodlands, prairies, megacities, and isolated villages. Of all the places and people he’s encountered, Kevin’s favorite remains youth in rural North America. He works with them in his effort to revitalize the North American Indigenous Flute.

“For hundreds of years, we’ve had flutes in North America,” Kevin says. “It has a unique, versatile tuning system. [In recent history] someone made flutes with a minor pentatonic scale. Pretty soon, everybody was making these flutes, doing workshops and recordings, and forgot there was even a traditional flute. It is my vision to honor the authentic history, tradition, and teachings of the Indigenous North American Flute.”

Kevin partnered with renowned music educator, Richard Dubé — owner of Northern Spirit Flutes — to create a kit to reintroduce the original flute. The design is based on a flute in Kevin’s own collection, his grandfather Powasheik’s flute which is over 100 years old.

Supported in part by his 2019 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital fellowship, Kevin has scheduled workshops at 10 schools where he expects up to 25 students at each one.

They begin with assembling flutes from the kits that include pre-drilled, food grade plastic tubes. In 20 minutes, a youth can place her fingers over the holes and breathe her first song.

After the first workshop day, Kevin leads a general assembly, the “Hoop of Life” program, at the school. It’s common to have 500 people in the audience filled with parents, teachers, and staff. The students perform, and Kevin does a presentation with flute songs, prayers, and sign language. He ends the program with a participatory hoop dance incorporating 28 hoops.

“I found that interactive participation is the only way to make ancestral wisdom and teachings come alive and take root in the hearts of the students,” he says.

Kevin is preparing for events this spring — U.S. Embassy tour to a festival and indigenous communities in Panama; Phoenix for the FPF Fellows Convening; and schools in Bismarck, South Dakota. Wherever in the world he goes, youth remain his focus.

Kevin says, “My primary inspiration comes from the sense and expression of wonderment and awe from the children.”

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

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Sheldon Raymore (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe) is a storyteller, second-generation tipi maker, visual artist, actor, choreographer, cultural consultant, count keeper, and an award-winning grass dancer.

He starred in ABC’s Born to Explore with Richard Weiss “Legend of Dance” where he was the featured grass dancer at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Sheldon was awarded the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Community Arts Fund “2015 Performance Art” Grant. He is a 2019 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital fellow and resides in Brooklyn, New York.

In Sheldon’s Lakota culture, Winter Count images record and preserve the history of passing years. Traditionally spread out across an animal hide, each year is represented by an image, typically one that reflects the most significant event of that year. They are a pictorial accounting of past happenings, serving as a kind of “history book.”

With his 2019 Cultural Capital fellowship, Sheldon will be working with elders, youth, and other community members to create “Waniyetu Wowapi” (Winter Count) images for the 50th anniversary of the American Indian Community House (AICH) in New York City. The project will preserve the last 50 years of history for urban Indian people in the area.

“We’re fortunate to have many of the elders from the past 50 years still with us,” Sheldon says. “Their generosity in sharing their stories and narratives will preserve the integrity of the project.”

The AICH 50 Winters project won’t be Sheldon’s first winter count project. He has participated in others (such as the project pictured right) in an effort to build awareness about important stories from the past that can help inform This particular practice is one to which he feels deeply connected.

“The hand drawn technique of creating a pattern for the image, painting, cutting of patterns, stretching of leather hide, erection of tipi's, and storytelling while working return me to a world of the grandmothers and grandfathers,” he says. “It's a connection to my father who taught me, and a connection to my elders who've kept the traditions of storytelling.”

Sheldon is welcoming community members to join the 50 Winters project so they can work on it together. Bringing in youth for the project allows them to witness the importance of knowledge keeping as they work to create initial images for the project.

Throughout the process, Sheldon is going to be documenting the project through video, capturing not only the details of the process but also the stories behind the images that are representing the last fifty years. The videos Sheldon is producing will be for sharing with the AICH community and beyond through online platforms like YouTube.

As a multi-disciplinary artist, Sheldon has often incorporated numerous artistic mediums for a project. Sheldon has learned to make time and space for a wide range art forms, ranging from fashion design to acting, beadwork to filmmaking, traveling installations to traditional instrument design. Through every medium, he is committed to honoring his Indigeneity.

Sheldon continues to develop other innovative ways to merge the old with the new, while maintaining the integrity of ancestral knowledge and traditions.

“I use a sense of smell to invoke the ancestral connection especially when painting on traditional brain tanned hides or smoked hides,” Sheldon says. “At the same time, creating these pictorial images of modern-day events with the soundscapes of cars, planes, boats, skyscrapers, and people of the urban reality in the background, allows participants to revive a tradition their ancestors might have done.”

The 50 Winters Count project will not only preserve the past fifty years of urban intertribal Indian life in New York City, but will also give the city’s urban Indian population a way to dream of what images could be created in the next fifty years for future generations to remember.

Want to learn more about Sheldon? Visit his website at: https://sheldonraymore.com/

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

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Gunner Jules (Sicangu Lakota) is an Alternative R&B recording and performing artist. He grew up with his family on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. He currently works in the Sicangu MVP program as a mentor to young males recovering from violence and other trauma.

Gunner is releasing a new song in January 2019 called “Energies,” making it available on all streaming platforms. He is expecting to release his first album this spring.

He is a 2017 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership fellow and 2019 Cultural Capital fellow.

Music has been Gunner’s medicine since high school when a suicide epidemic raged on their reservation. It took his best friend, and prompted Gunner to write a song called “Lonely Nights & Days.” The song spread through the internet and radio play. There was a story there that resonated with others.

Drawing from life experiences, Gunner tells stories of people within his community through recording and performing original music. For his open mic performance at the 2018 National Performance Network (NPN) annual conference, Gunner chose to do a song he hadn’t released publicly yet titled, “Come Along.” The song sheds light on issues his people face on the reservation.

“As a music artist and producer, I always look to create a sound that is unique to my artistry and to the place that I grew up. I understand my responsibility as a leader and role model.”

With little infrastructure and collaborative space for music on the Rosebud Reservation, Gunner is reaching out to other Native artists who have resources to create. He brings everything he can back his community.

Though Gunner is a full-time father and works a full-time job with the Sicangu MVP Program, he always makes time for music. He is using his Cultural Capital fellowship for travel outside the reservation to make connections. At the same time, he is working on a preservation project of bringing elders and drum groups to his studio to record traditional songs.

Gunner’s fellowship also allows him to mentor young males in his community. One of them, who aspires to be a rapper, has already been in Gunner’s studio for his first recording session.

Another Way - Gunner Jules (Official Music Video)

“Whether I’m trying to entertain or maybe teach a lesson through my songs, you get a piece of me and my home and my people,” Gunner says. “I love my home and feel that I need to do the best I can to bring hope and prove that it’s possible to be successful on the reservation.”

Find him on Instagram @Gunnerjules to follow his music.

Story by Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer (Choctaw Nation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2015.

Header Image: Biatché - A Place of Honor and Love by Ben Pease (Crow Tribe of Montana, Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation), Artist in Business Leadership Fellow 2019

We are excited to welcome a dynamic cohort into our fellowship programs for 2019. The variety of art mediums they practice show the incredible range of Native arts and the depth of Indigenous talent found across the country.

2019 ARTIST IN BUSINESS LEADERSHIP FELLOWSHIP

Many of these artists are taking center stage in mainstream media — literally. Several of the fellowships were awarded to performing artists who take their vibrant music, dance, storytelling, hoop dancing, spoken word poetry, and acting to audiences across the country, and around the world.

“First Peoples Fund has funded performing artists in the past but this is the first year almost half our fellows are performing artists,” says Amber Hoy, FPF Program Manager of Fellowships. “This is an area where we are expanding. It’s great to have this cohort of performing artists that can really share different ways of creative expression.”

We see the long term impact on the careers of fellows like 2018 Artist in Business Leadership fellow Raye Zaragoza (O’odham, Mexican, Taiwanese and Japanese).

“My FPF fellowship has connected me with so many new resources for my music and has connected me with people I would have never met otherwise,” Raye says. “And above all, it has deepened my pride for being an indigenous artist and sharing my work.”

One of FPF’s first performing artist to receive an Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship, Frank Waln (Sicangu Lakota), recently visited FPF and mentioned how exciting it has been to see more and more performing artists enter the Fellowship programs.

“I remember being one of the only performing artists at the fellowship convening my first year being a fellow, and now I see so many more kinds of performing artists entering the program,” said Frank. “You guys are responding to what many Native artists are doing and learning to support what they need.”

Alongside performing arts, there are traditional arts, film, mixed media, fashion design, and a variety of other visual arts represented in this year’s cohort.

The 2019 Artist in Business Leadership Fellows are:

Elexa Dawson
(Citizen Potawatomi Nation)
Music.
Emporia, Kansas

Danielle and Desiree De La Rosa
(Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation)
Music. (Miracle Dolls)
Beaumont, California

Terra Houska
(Oglala Sioux Tribe)
Beadwork, jewelry, mixed media, regalia/fashion design.
Rapid City, South Dakota

Margaret Jacobs
(Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe)
Jewelry, sculpture.
Enfield, New Hampshire

Addison Karl
(Chickasaw Nation, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma)
Drawing, painting, sculpture.
Bremerton, Washington

James Pakootas
(Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation)
Music, poetry/spoken word, storytelling, writing.
Nespelem, Washington

Kalani Pe’a
(Native Hawaiian)
Music, storytelling.
Wailuku, Hawaii

Ben Pease
(Crow Tribe of Montana, Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation)
Drawing, graphic design, mixed media, painting, photography, regalia/fashion design, sculpture, storytelling.
Billings, Montana

Darby Raymond-Overstreet
(Navajo Nation)
Beadwork, graphic design, mixed media.
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Joseph Running Crane
(Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation)
Music.
Browning, Montana

Marty Two Bulls Jr.
(Oglala Sioux Tribe)
Mixed media.
Rapid City, South Dakota

Madison Ann Craig and Jordan Craig

(Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation)

Fashion design. (Shy Natives)
Oakland, California

2019 CULTURAL CAPITAL FELLOWSHIP

When Amber attended the Santa Fe Indian Market (SWAIA) as an introductory to FPF staff and the market, she encountered the work of Deborah A. Jojola (Isleta Pueblo, Jemez Pueblo). Amber was struck by Deborah’s use of color with her traditional pueblo frescoes.

“Her work is geometric, and has these gorgeous shapes and colors that is aesthetically pleasing,” Amber explains. “She’s been showing her work at SWAIA for more than 25 years. I encouraged her to apply for First Peoples Fund’s Cultural Capital program.”

Cultural Capital grants support artists in perpetuating practices in their communities. Performing artist Gunner Jules is using part of his fellowship to further his work in helping youth heal with music and traditional practices.

“Deborah proposed to deepen her knowledge about pueblo frescoes techniques and teach some of those techniques to youth, and Gunner Jules will continue to mentor youth in his community,” Amber says. “Cultural Capital fills a need for artists to continue the work they are already doing.”

Deborah is also the recipient of the Cultural Capital Fellowship funded from our 2018 #GivingTuesday campaign to raise money for a culture bearer who exemplifies three of First Peoples Fund’s core principles: Knowing our history and ourselves, Honoring our ancestors and relations, Sharing our stories and knowledge.

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.”