Miwahsin Kiksepahyahw Niwahkomahkahnahk! Good morning relatives and friends, it is a breezy afternoon here on the Stone Child College campus on Rocky Boy’s Reservation in north-central Montana. With this blog we’re providing a perspective on life as a Native American person navigating the world of higher education, traditional teachings, and Native life in the modern era; specifically, from the perspective of a member of the Chippewa Cree (Neiyahw/Nacowino) Tribe.
We are the only American division of the Cree Nation, which extends across the majority of Canada with an arm of the Ojibwe from Red Lake, Minnesota. Our two tribes came together resulting from ever encroaching westward expansion during the late 19th century. The bands of Chief Little Bear (Imasees) and Chief Rocky Boy (Ahsiniwiin) came together to make a modern living on the remnant lands surrounding Fort Assiniboine. Since then, we have created a culture all our own, following traditions of both tribes as best we can to usher our people into contemporary American society while maintaining our cultural identity.
The Chippewa Cree Tribal Business Committee chartered Stone Child College in 1984 to aid in the preservation and maintenance of our culture and language and provide educational training for our people. Since then, we have continued to offer post-secondary educational opportunities that promote pride in our Chippewa Cree heritage. Most recently, the American Indian College Fund awarded us funding to revitalize existing Native American Art with an emphasis on Chippewa Cree art in a certificate program. As a part of that project, we conduct interviews with local artists from Rocky Boy to get to know their crafts by way of their own stories.
Stone Child College’s very own art instructor, Mr. John Murie, world-famous for his skill in beadwork, was our first interview. John is an enrolled member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe who was raised on the reservation and learned his craft through teachings passed down in his family. His grandmother, Mary Lodgepole, and his aunt, Cynthia Murie, were prominent mentors in his early years. They taught him traditional sewing techniques that produce high-quality stitches and comfortable fits for moccasins. Since boyhood, they also taught him how to look to nature for inspiration; how to observe the colors of the different seasons, the features of the earth, and the hues of sky to mix colors that appeal to the eye.
John’s use of color schemes, patterns, and symbols all come from that ancestral knowledge passed to him by his mentors, as well as the teachings and stories that accompany each design. He became a grass dancer in his early years. As he grew older, everything that he learned from his family inspired him to start to make his own regalia, and he continued to progress in his beadwork. Learning early that high-quality artwork comes from high-quality product, he followed the tradition of using the choicest brain-tanned, deer hides, provided by his uncle, when making his moccasins. He typically uses size 11 or 13 beads, as his grandmother would, to ensure his designs have the best detail.
His creations represent his views of the world, of nature, and the Native American experience in general, because we as Native peoples have a similar worldview and philosophy towards life. John believes, as do we all here at Stone Child College, that it is of the utmost importance that stories of our history, culture, and art forms, are narrated by us and not by outsiders. Telling our own story, with respect to each Tribe’s traditions and culture, is the future of Native art and education here at Stone Child College and in Indian Country as a whole, from our perspective, from the Chippewa Cree perspective.
Video of John Highlighting His Work
