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

James Pakootas (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation) is a motivational speaker and hip-hop artist. He coordinates events, mentors youth, and provides a fresh look into the world of addiction and substance abuse. A certified First Peoples Fund trainer and 2019 Artist in Business Leadership Fellow, James lives in Spokane, Washington.

“I make a living by telling my story,” James says. “I open up about the childhood abuse I suffered as a little boy, the neglect of my father being in federal prison, through to perpetuating that cycle of criminal activity and going to prison myself and falling into addiction.”

In the spring of 2017, James sat among prominent Native artists during a gathering in his community at Coulee Dam on the Colville Indian Reservation. He wondered if the others would even consider him an artist.

The Northwest Native Development Fund had invited First Peoples Fund (FPF) out to explore interest for local artists in a potential Native Artist Professional Development (NAPD) Training. A week out of treatment, James got a call from his best friend, who works at Northwest Native Development Fund, encouraging James to attend the preliminary meeting.

There he sat, uncertain, as accomplished artists began introducing themselves. His turn came and, for the first time in his life, James’ art — hip-hop music — was validated by other artists, and also by FPF. It was life-changing, marking a moment that put him on a road to healing.

““First Peoples Fund is foundational in me thinking of myself as an artist. To say I’m an artist, to feel good about the word as it leaves my mouth, is empowering.”

“When I started doing criminal activity, my music changed into emulating a street lifestyle,” James explains. “Before I went to prison, I put music and everything from the streets away. But I was still drinking and using when I came out and got into a car accident. I lost the use of my right arm below my elbow. I was broken. I started looking for a beat because I needed to write, I needed to let this pain out.”

That writing session eventually became the first verse on his latest music video, “Break These Chains.”

Over the past two years, James attended First Peoples Fund’s NAPD training on the Colville Indian Reservation, then helped pilot the performing arts version of the NAPD curriculum before becoming a certified FPF trainer in October 2018. With his 2019 Artist in Business Leadership fellowship, he partnered with an audio engineer to launch a studio in Spokane. He’s reaching out to troubled youth and to those well on the path to living their dreams.

Though he left that first NAPD training overwhelmed — questioning himself and struggling with doubts — the belief poured into him pulled James through rebranding his music business.

“First Peoples Fund is foundational in me thinking of myself as an artist,” he added. “To say I’m an artist, to feel good about the word as it leaves my mouth, is empowering.”

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

Founded by Northern Cheyenne sisters Madison and Jordan Craig in 2017, Shy Natives aims to empower women with customized lingerie. Through Instagram, Shy Natives accumulated a loyal support network in Indian Country and beyond, being featured in Bustle, Indigenous Goddess Gang, Coy Culture, 1904, and Tea & Bannock. Madison and Jordan produce meaningful content along with creating undergarments to fit women of all sizes.

Founded by Northern Cheyenne sisters Madison and Jordan Craig in 2017, Shy Natives aims to empower women with customized lingerie. Through Instagram, Shy Natives accumulated a loyal support network in Indian Country and beyond, being featured in Bustle, Indigenous Goddess Gang, Coy Culture, 1904, and Tea & Bannock. Madison and Jordan produce meaningful content along with creating undergarments to fit women of all sizes.

Though close in age, Madison and Jordan didn’t get along well as teenagers growing up in California. But their mom promised that someday, the sisters would be best friends.

With their mom’s sewing talents and dad’s knowledge as an engineer, Madison and Jordan come from a creative family.

Madison self-taught herself how to sew after her mom’s gift of a sewing machine during Madison’s college years. She modified her undergarments to fit her body, and before long, was hanging pieces on Jordan’s bedroom door and bugging her sister to test them. Jordan did and loved the custom fit.

The transition to best friends began.

When their parents moved, the sisters decided to get a place in Oakland. Madison soon had four sewing machines in the living room, and with Jordan’s film photography skills, they started an Instagram page to showcase the handmade pieces. Before long, demand for orders followed.

“The Native community has been a huge inspiration and motivation for my work,” Madison says.

She and Jordan are preparing to launch an online store this year. Knowing the demand is already too much to handle on their own, they are using their 2019 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership grant to work with a professional designer who will pattern grade the pieces Madison designs, preparing them for manufacturing. Jordan heads the branding, marketing, outreach, and social media for Shy Natives.

“This is a way we can express ourselves through fashion and through photography,” Jordan says. “We both add our strengths to the project.”

They’ve collaborated with numerous Indigenous artists, including FPF fellows Gunner Jules (Sicangu Lakota), who helped produce music tracks for promotional videos, and Bethany Yellowtail (Northern Cheyenne/Crow) of B.Yellowtail, who is mentoring them on the fashion design industry.

As for those two bickering teenage sisters whose mom promised they’d be best friends someday, well, they are.

Madison says, “There was a clear moment during the photoshoot [with film photographer Andrea Gutierrez] when the music was blasting, sounds of the film camera firing, and models smiling when Jordan and I looked at each other with pure joy and relief. I was proud of being an Indigenous woman and designer, and so happy to share the moment with my sister. We did not have to say anything; the look was all over our faces.”

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

Sharing energy and ideas, making genuine connections, forming lifelong bonds –– these were just some of the ways attendees described their experiences during the combined convening where First Peoples Fund (FPF) Artist in Business Leadership and Cultural Capital Fellows and Indigenous Arts Ecology (IAE) Grant Program partners joined together this past month. The event marked the first time FPF brought together the Fellowship Programs and IAE Grant Program together for a gathering.

“A standout moment was just how many Native artists and those supporting Native artists were in the same room together,” Tosa Two Heart (Oglala Lakota) says. She is the FPF Program Manager for Community Development, which means she manages the IAE Grant Program. “We brought these communities, organizations, culture bearers, and artist together, and now they’re connected for life.”

Throughout the three day event, held in Phoenix, Arizona, attendees attended sessions on subjects ranging from legal information to performing arts, community engagement to photography. The variety of sessions meant that artists could learn helpful strategies and skills for their careers while IAE partners could better understand the needs and challenges of the artists they work with each day.

“The IAE partners, their artists, and the fellows are all pieces of their own local Indigenous Arts Ecosystems,” Tosa says. “Part of our goal in bringing our Native artists and Native artist-supporting organizations together is to strengthen the wider Indigenous Arts Ecology as a whole, allowing everyone meet each other, share ideas and learn about what they’re doing.”

James Pakootas (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation) posed a question at the convening while visiting with performing artists in similar genres to his — 2019 Fellows Gunner Jules (Sicangu Lakota) and Talon Ducheneaux (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe), as well as an IAE partner affiliated artist, Tony Louie (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation).

“When is the next time we’ll get an opportunity to all be in the same city?” James asked. “If we find a studio and each of us pays an hour, we could get a full track done.”

Once the four performing artists decided to do an original song together, James wrote all through the night and finished the song shortly before their recording session the next morning. The performing artists gathered at nearby Folded Arms Studio, did vocals for the track, and completed a rough mix, which will be featured on an upcoming album.

The other convening attendees were amazed by the project, which served as an example of what can be accomplished by providing Indigenous artists with the opportunity to get together.

“The convening was the first opportunity where he got to be in a space dedicated just to artists. It was life-changing for him.”

— James Pakootas (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation) in regard to another performing artist from his community, Tony Louie (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation)

“It was great for artists who came from the IAE sites to interact with the fellows,” says Amber Hoy, FPF’s Program Manager of Fellowships. “Combining the Fellows Convening and IAE Convening into one event helped cultivate that opportunity.”

James is also a certified trainer for FPF’s Native Artist Professional Development trainings and has taught multiple trainings at IAE partner site, Northwest Native Development Fund (NNDF). Upon learning that IAE partners would be attending the convening as well, James recommended Tony as one of the community artists NNDF would bring.

“Tony is up on stage a lot, he’s creating his art and continuing to craft his music, but I think the convening was the first opportunity where he got to be in a space dedicated just to artists,” James says. “It was life-changing for him.”

For Alice Bioff (Inupiaq), who works for IAE Grantee, Kawerak, Inc., a non-profit tribal corporation that provides services within the Bering Strait Region of northwestern Alaska, the convening offered insights into how her organization can better partner with artists in their service area.

“We listened to the individual artists and how First Peoples Fund is supporting their work, and some of the barriers that they’re working through so that we have an idea on how to work through those as grantees,” Alice says. “And then to actually walk through the Heard Market — that’s the first time I’ve been to an Indian market of that size.”

The 2019 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market was a chance for the artist fellows and IAE partners to experience a well established, large scale market. The event helped participants understand what is expected of artists who participate in markets of that scale, while giving others ideas about what they might like to see in their own communities, whether similar or different from the Heard Market.

With 24 Artist Fellowships awarded in the 2019 cohort and each of the 12 IAE Grant Program partners bringing staff members as well as community artists, the convening consisted of nearly 60 participants. The wide range of artist mediums and disciplines as well as the range of the IAE partners’ services and focus areas meant that there was a great deal of learning and sharing happening among everyone.

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

As an interdisciplinary artist, Peter Williams (Yup’ik) strives to express and celebrate the oneness of all things. Under his fashion label Shaman Furs, Peter produces high-end fur garments. He also demonstrates the technique of sewing seal and sea otter fur at museums and universities.

Peter is a 2019 First Peoples Fund (FPF) Cultural Captial Fellow and was previously an FPF Artist in Business Leadership Fellow in 2018. He also received a 2018 grant from Rasmuson Foundation. He is based in Sitka, Alaska.

Clacking across the country by train, a woman seated with Peter at dinner asked what he did. From past experiences, he knew the answer could turn into an emotionally draining conversation. He said, “I hunt seals and sea otters.”

She was confused, even appalled, until he added, “Alaska Natives are exempt from the Marine Mammals Protection Act. We’re allowed to hunt marine mammals for food, clothing, and to make arts and crafts for sale.”

She accepted this, but there is much more to the answer.

Peter’s 2018 Artist in Business Leadership grant program led to opportunities in the New York high-end fashion scene. It was there Peter realized how vastly different and misunderstood his work is, this art form integrated with who he is — a Yup’ik man, practicing his cultural traditions and lifeways in rural Alaska.

After his experiences in New York, Peter shifted his focus to artisan boutiques.

“In an artisan boutique setting, people want to have those conversations,” he says. “They go to those spaces to be challenged by art.”

Developing this as a business model, he is blazing a trail on how to share what he does to make a livable wage while advocating for cultural rights.

“At the same time, I also need to share my knowledge of this traditional art form with my people,” he says. “I think those things have to go together.”

Peter’s aim with his 2019 Cultural Capital fellowship is a video showing his practice step by step for other tribal members, educating them on the lifeways that have enabled their people to survive for thousands of years in one of the world’s harshest climates. In a second video, intended for mainstream presentations, Peter wants to succinctly tell the story of how he, and hopefully other Native Alaskans, treat all created things with respect.

“I need to be able to visually show me in my environment, in my home, on the water, practicing my culture and how it’s integrated into my lifestyle,” he says, “and how my art and spirituality all are connected into that. I can visually show them what I do within a couple of minutes.”

Someday, these videos can answer the question of what Peter does and who he is — and how there is no separation between the two.

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

For our 2019 Indigenous Arts Ecology Grantees, we are honored to introduce five Native art community organizations. These organizations work closely with their artists and culture bearers who are connected with the heartbeat of their local Indigenous arts ecosystems.

Indigenous arts ecosystems are led by the artists and culture bearers whose art and lives embody the values, traditions and aspirations of their communities. These ecosystems are made up of local or regional communities of individuals, formal and informal networks, resources, cultural infrastructure, and organizations and businesses that interact as a system and provide support to Indigenous artists and culture bearers.

The Indigenous Arts Ecology (IAE) a relationship-based, collective system of these arts ecosystems, grounded in ancestral knowledge and are inclusive of environments, spirit, people and lifeways. Strengthening the IAE is is a key strategy of the Indigenous Arts Ecology Grant Program, helping facilitate increased collaboration between organizations and their local artists and culture bearers.

Invited to apply for the program, the following grantees offer access to new markets, knowledge and training, informal networks, creative space, and supplies in order to support and grow the infrastructure needed to uplift their artists. We are proud to partner with these organizations in their goals during their two-year program.

Gizhiigin Art Incubator

Gizhiigin (“grow fast”) is a project of the White Earth Reservation Tribal Council’s Economic Development Division in Minnesota. They work with culture bearers in their community to foster growth, promote local artists, assist with skill development and marketplace goals, and provide artists with space and resources for entrepreneurial development. They hold open studio times, where attendees harvest black ash logs, then work together to prepare the materials for weaving baskets.

The IAE funds will allow Gizhiigin to achieve three outcomes: artistic and economic growth for their artists, the creation of an arts destination to promote the economic growth of White Earth, and revitalization of their traditional arts practices as they leverage regional partnerships.

Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center

In the remote Chilkat Valley, the village of Klukwan sits on the banks of the Chilkat River in southeast Alaska. With a population of less than 100, the village of Tlingit people offers cultural educational tours that draw 3,000 visitors annually.

Song, dance, and storytelling at the traditional knowledge camp clan house lets visitors experience the traditions of Tlingit people. A gift shop in the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center allows them to discover traditional art, where over 30 local artists sell their work.

However, there is a lack of access to supplies in the remote village. This has prevented people from doing their traditional arts regularly. Lani Hotch (Tlingit), a former First Peoples Fund Community Spirit Award recipient and executive director of the Heritage Center Board, plans to use a portion of their IAE grant as initial capital to purchase leather, furs, beads, buttons, felt, yarn, sinew/sewing thread, and beading and glovers needles that artists can then buy locally. The IAE grant will also help them make much-needed repairs to dance regalia, upholding the quality and authenticity of Tlingit culture.

The artists have helped create a sense of place within the community, and the Chilkat Valley as a visitor destination.

PAʻI Foundation

Located on the island of O’ahu, the PAʻI Foundation was established in 2001 as the nonprofit organization of Pua Aliʻi ʻIlima, a hālau hula (school of Hawaiian dance) founded in 1977 by kumu hula (master teacher of Hawaiian dance), Victoria Holt Takamine.

With a goal to establish a cultural center on O’ahu to better serve the broader Hawaiian community, a new 6,000 square foot PAʻI Arts Gallery & Performing Arts Center will open in 2019 as part of the ‘Ola Ka ʻIlima Artspace affordable artist development project. Partnered with Artspace and the IAE program, PAʻI is planning an arts market in the new space.

The IAE funds are also supporting PAʻI’s involvement with the creation of a new arts market at the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture taking place June 2020 in Honolulu, featuring 28 Pacific Island Nations from all over Oceania. They expect 3,000 artists to demonstrate and share their artwork, including hundreds of artists from Hawaiʻi.

PAʻI has partnered with First Peoples Fund to conduct Native Arts Professional Development (NAPD) training workshops, and have several artists and culture bearers who are certified trainers. PAʻI plans to offer advanced-level financial literacy, curatorial, exhibition, and marketing skills workshops, to prepare artists to exhibit, demonstrate and sell their work in galleries and markets, thereby helping to preserve and perpetuate Native Hawaiian cultural traditions for future generations.

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Sitting Bull College

Guided by Lakota/Dakota culture, values, and language, Sitting Bull College is committed to building intellectual capital through academic, career and technical education, and promoting economic and social development. The college is located on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation which spans 2.3 million acres across southern North Dakota and northern South Dakota.

They offer cultural classes and workshops in making star quilts, shawls, horse masks, ledger art, parfleche, painting, pottery, regalia, skirts, ribbon shirts, baby moccasins, beading, and quilling.

While the college provides opportunities for artists to market their work through the Sitting Bull Visitor Center Gift Shop and the Sitting Bull College Bookstore and holds art classes and training, they want to coordinate all the efforts through organizing an artist association. The association can then be used to market programs and services that help build capacity for Standing Rock culture bearers and artists.

The college believes artists give life to a creative art community by thinking outside the box and teaching traditions important to Lakota/Dakota lifeways.

Zuni Pueblo MainStreet

Zuni Pueblo MainStreet was created in 2012 to utilize new approaches and methods, encouraging revitalization of the local economy while continuing to preserve unique traditional and historical elements.

7,500 Zuni artisans help support the local economy with the creation and sale of various arts, including silversmithing, pottery making, fetish carving, painting, woodworking, and weaving. But while the arts and crafts industry is an essential asset to the Zuni community, those involved in arts production are not well woven into the economy or supported by training.

Zuni Pueblo MainStreet works with 150 artists, an imbalance with the 7,500 who rarely have access to assistance. The organization’s vision is to reach out to more artists and empower them as entrepreneurs by creating opportunities for them to display and sell their work locally, and enable them to refine their current skill set and gain knowledge and expertise on how to better market themselves.

The IAE Grant Program is supported through the Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Northwest Area Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation.

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

Supporting families, uplifting communities, empowering emerging artists. When an individual receives a First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership (ABL) Fellowship or Cultural Capital (CC) Fellowship, they are given the opportunity to start a new project or bolster a current one. This impact on their artist career comes through in the data we gather and track throughout each fellow’s year.

In 2018, First Peoples Fund (FPF) supported 15 ABL fellows and 10 CC fellows. Becky Monnens, our Story Tracker/Data Analyst, sorted through the extensive data we collected to help us understand the impact of the fellowship on these 25 artists and culture bearers. Combined with our previously published research on the 6 Resources Artists Need to be Successful, Becky was able to identify not only encouraging data but also the beautiful stories of what our fellows accomplished and experienced throughout the year.

IMPACT ON 2018 ARTIST IN
BUSINESS LEADERSHIP FELLOWS

Creative Space

Fox Spears’ (Karuk) primary medium is monotype printmaking. Using hand-cut stencils and layers of ink on paper, he creates images inspired by Karuk basketry designs. Through his fellowship, Fox purchased a small print press he uses at home and in workshops, where he provides creative space and inspiration for himself and other artists to find their voice.

Having creative space –– both the physical space to work in and space within their daily schedules –– helped fellows elevate their ability practice their art through the course of their fellowship year. 80% of fellows spent 20+ hours per week on their art, up from 60% before the fellowship year.

Markets

Able to move beyond saturated local markets, 47% of ALB fellows increased their travel to sell their work or were able to book performances in new market areas.

Pauline Klementson (Yup’ik) is a master seagrass weaver from Nome, Alaska, is a wonderful example of how the fellowships can increase an artist’s access to markets. Throughout the year she developed relationships to strengthen and grow her art business, from working with grass harvesters to local and statewide retail outlets.

“I was able to meet new artists, share my art and express how important it is to share our stories and our culture,” she says.

Raye Zaragoza’s (O’odham, Mexican, Taiwanese and Japanese) was able to share her stories with new markets as well, with 2018 being her first year as a full-time musician. She launched the year with a tour in Germany and continued touring throughout the United States. “I was in higher demand,” she says

Supplies and Materials

Seven of the fellows had difficulty accessing supplies or materials at the beginning of the fellowship year. Five of these seven increased access to supplies and materials through their fellowship.

Heidi K Brandow (Native Hawaiian/Diné) is a painter and printmaker. The funding helped her upgrade her home art studio. “First Peoples Fund has been fundamental in allowing me to get the materials and tools I need to have a more streamlined process,” she says.

Income from Art

Traci Sorell (Cherokee Nation) writes fiction and nonfiction for children featuring contemporary characters and compelling biographies. She leveraged her fellowship to launch her debut book, “We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga,” released by Charlesbridge Publishing.

“I had the support of First Peoples Fund to assist with marketing, brand development, and travel to present at conferences and schools,” she says. “This benefitted my art tremendously.”

53% of ABL fellows increased the percent of income from their art, earning an average of 60% in art, compared to 49% prior to their fellowships.

Additionally, seven artists implemented a change in their financial systems and tools by budgeting, creating separate bank accounts for their art business, and using software for invoicing clients.

Networks

All 15 ABL fellows increased their networks and strengthened relationships within existing networks.

Jaida Grey Eagle’s (Oglala Lakota) primary mediums are photography and filmmaking, but she also practices beadwork. During her fellowship year she began her beadwork with B.Yellowtail, the company created by 2015 ABL Fellow, Bethany Yellowtail (Northern Cheyenne/Crow). The company focuses on “providing an empowering, entrepreneurial platform for Native peoples.”

“As Native artists, we tend to undersell ourselves. Bethany [Yellowtail] is trying to change that narrative we hold ourselves and others to,” she says. “I believe setting this precedent within the Native community — that we can ask for higher prices for our time and energy — will help remove that barrier of underselling our creations.”

IMPACT ON 2018 CULTURAL CAPITAL FELLOWS

While entrepreneurial growth is a key goal of our ABL fellowship, for the CC fellowship is focused on expanding cultural impact — how these artists share their wealth of knowledge more widely through the fellowship. That, in turn, elevates their visibility and respect as artists in their communities.

Wesley May (Red Lake Band of Chippewa) is from the Red Lake Indian Reservation. As Wesley continues his journey as a full-time artist, his work in communities is raising awareness for his business, Wesley May Arts. 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.

Artistic Practice and Intergenerational Transfer of Knowledge

Matilda Wilson (Hat Creek Atsugewi Band of the Pit River Tribe) says she involved multiple generations “from five to 75 years old — grandmas, aunts, sisters, cousins, and nieces as well as grandchildren — in gathering the raw materials — chokecherry, gray/red willows — in making and creating our cultural and traditional cradleboards.”

At the beginning of the fellowship year, six CC fellows reported a total of 40 family members engaged in their art and cultural practices. By the end, the number increased to over 62 family members.

“From five to 75 years old — grandmas, aunts, sisters, cousins, and nieces as well as grandchildren — in gathering the raw materials — chokecherry, gray/red willows — in making and creating our cultural and traditional cradleboards.”

— Matilda "Tillie" Wilson (Hat Creek Atsugewi Band of the Pit River Tribe)

Putting Values into Practice, Giving Back and Mentoring Other Artists

While nine of ten fellows gave back to their communities by mentoring other artists previously, FPF’s support extended their reach through workshops and mentorships on a larger scale. Through the fellowship year, CC fellows conducted 87 community workshops in their art forms.

Kandi McGilton (Metlakatla Indian Community) is a modern Tsimshian artist in southeast Alaska.

“Through the FPF grant, I was able to bring awareness to my community about our unique weaving style,” she says. “That awareness has branched out to neighboring communities such as Ketchikan and Juneau.”

TRACKING THE STORIES

The data from fellows helps us know more about their successes, and their needs, for stronger programming going forward.

“I’m grateful to these artist fellows for sharing their outcomes,” Becky says. “It’s wonderful for them to share that time and knowledge with us.”

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.