Elena Charles
Yup’ik maskmaker
Yup’ik maskmaker
Although basketweaving was experiencing a decline in Maine in the 1950s, Keezer became involved in the revitalization of the basketweaving tradition. Not content to replicate old forms exclusively, she began building on the tradition of the strawberry basket.
Member of the Raven T’akDein Taan (black-legged kittiwake) Clan of Hoonah/Glacier Bay, Alaska, highly respected cultural leader and multitalented artist who has contributed to the revival and perpetuation of the Chilkat blanket weaving.
Ehlers is a master artisan of Chilkat weaving, an ancient art form indigenous to the Native people of Southeast Alaska.
Athabascan traditional basket weaver
Although Kenmille has spent most of her life on the Flathead Reservation in northwestern Montana, she is now known worldwide for her skills in beadwork, hide tanning, and leatherwork.
In her artwork, Anita Fields comfortably helms the intersection of duality, a deeply held philosophical concept of her Osage culture, where notions of earth and sky and male and female inform many of her designs.
Alberta Schenck is most notably remembered for her role in the advancement of native rights during a time when segregation against Indigenous people ran rampant in her hometown of Nome, Alaska. Her advocacy for equality for Indigenous peoples played a role in the passing of the Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945.
Lee’s biology research at the university led her to be recruited to work in the hematology lab for the Manhattan Project in 1945.
Ann was a Pamunkey chief in the 1600s and 1700s