Indigenous Women and Work: From Labor to Activism

17. Beading Lesson Beth H. Piatote

chapter 17 Beading Lesson Beth H. Piatote The first thing you do is, lay down all your hanks, like this, so the colors go from light to dark, like a rainbow. I’ll start you out with something real easy, like I do with those kids over at the school, over at Cay-Uma-Wa. How about—you want to make some earrings for your mama? Yeah, I think she would like that. Hey niece, you remind me of those kids. That’s good! That’s good to be thinking of your mama. You go ahead and pick some colors you think she would like. Maybe three or four is all, and you need to pick some of these bugle beads. Yeah, that’s good, except you got too many dark colors. You like dark colors. Every time I see you you’re wearin’ something dark. Not me. I like to wear red and yellow, so people know I’m around and don’t try talkin’ about me behind my back, aay? The thing is, you got to use some light colors, because you’re makin’ these for your mama, right, and she has dark hair, and you want ’em to stand out, and if they’re all dark colors you can’t see the pattern. I got some thread for you, and this beeswax. You cut the thread about this long, a little longer than your arm, but you don’t want it too long or it will tangle up or get real weak. You run it through the beeswax, like this, until it’s just about straight. It makes it strong and that way it don’t tangle so much. You keep all this in your box now. I got this for you to take home with you, back to college, so you can keep doin’ your beadwork. How do you like it over there at the university? You know your cousin Rae is just about gettin’ her degree, she has just has her practicum, then she’ll be done. I think her boyfriend don’t like her being in school, though, and that’s slowing her down. It’s probably a good thing you don’t have a boyfriend right now. They can really make a lot of trouble for you and slow you down on things you got to do. Now you gotta watch this part. This is how you make the knot. You make a circle like this, then you wrap the thread around the needle three times, see? You see how my hands are? If you forget later you just remember how my hands are, just like this, and remember you have to make a circle, okay? Then you pull the needle through all the way to the end—good—and clip off the little tail. I’ll show you these real easy earrings, the same thing I always start those men at the jail with. You know I go over there and give them beading lessons. You should see how artistic some of them are. They work real hard, and some of them are good at beadwork. I guess they got a lot of time to do it, but it’s hard, it’s hard to do real good beadwork. You got to go slow and pay attention. I know this one man, William, he would be an artist if he wasn’t in jail. I’ll show you, he gave me a drawing he did of an eagle. It could be a photograph, except you can tell it’s just pencil. But it’s good, you would like it. There’s a couple other Indian prisoners—I guess we’re supposed to call them inmates, but I always call them prisoners—and sometimes I make designs for them for their beadwork from what they draw. The thing is, they don’t get very many colors to work with. They like the beadwork, though. They always got something to give their girlfriends when they come visit, or their mothers and aunties. You have to hide the knot in the bead, see, like this, and that’s why you got to be careful not to make the knot too big. Maybe next time you come they will be having a powwow at the prison and you can meet my students over there, and they can show you their beadwork. I think they always have a powwow around November, around Veteran’s Day. Your cousin...