Tribe: Northern Arapaho

Art form: Star quilts

The artist:

I am a young Native entrepreneur building my own business. I am enrolled in the Northern Arapaho Tribe and have lived on the Wind River Reservation for most of my life. In 2020 I attended Sherman Indian High School located in Riverside, CA. Sadly, my time was cut short and not one senior got to walk the stage at graduation. The COVID pandemic sent us all home before we could enjoy the experience of graduating. A very important and symbolic moment was taken from me.  It felt like all the years I invested in school, the hardships, and the chance to close that chapter of my life was taken from me. I was broken and I became really depressed. My mom noticed my feelings and pulled me into her quilt shop. Unfortunately, I was still depressed and started going out more with my friends, not being home, staying out late, and even getting into trouble. July 4th, 2023 was the most devastating day of my life. I was with some people who at the time I called friends. On that day, things went very badly. I ended up in the hospital that night and was in a coma for 5 days. To me, it was just one night, but to my family it was days. That was probably the worst feeling I could have ever experienced, knowing what I put my family through. After going through such a traumatic experience, I wanted to change my life around and do better not just for my family, but for me as well. I turned to making quilts with my mom then eventually striving to make it my own business.

When creating my business my family has always been the meaning and inspiration behind everything. When I made my logo for my business I centered it around my family.  I asked my mom and siblings what each of their favorite colors were.  Then I spiraled each color together including mine so they all interconnected with one another. My logo is symbolic and represents that we have each other no matter what. In my logo, there is also a star representing my sister who is no longer here with us but will always be in the sky looking down and watching over us. Her Indian name is Evening Star. In the future, I want to incorporate my family into my business if they choose. I want to uplift each of my family members to follow their dreams and be who they were meant to be. I want them to be able to fall back on something to help with any funding they need. I just love being able to create all these blankets and see people's faces light up.

My mom taught me the traditional meanings and intentions when making star quilts. You have to think positively, pray, and not be negative while doing them because the quilts go to other people, along with whatever energy you put in while making them. We don't ever want our star quilts to have negative energy. I love creating my star quilts because they have so much traditional culture and meaning, making each one unique. This form of art has been passed down for so many generations, not just in my family but with so many Native Americans throughout history.