March 7, 2024

On March 7, Joy Tonepahhote will be giving a lecture on her beadworks—how she comes up with the designs and how the techniques, stories, and cultural values are passed down between generations of Native bead artists. There will also be a public presentation of Native drumming and singing, as well as dancing, to provide the context of Tonepahhote’s beadworks as they are worn and circulate at powwows.

Powwows are intertribal gatherings where Native people showcase their cultural competencies in dance, song, and other performances, but powwows are also important venues for the exhibition and sale of Native American visual arts, such as beadworks, leatherworks, and silver jewelry.

Tonepahhote regularly exhibits her works at powwows, such as Schemitzun in Connecticut, the Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival in Oklahoma, and the Gathering of Nations in New Mexico. She is herself a dancer, who has performed with the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers and the Silvercloud Singers, also serving as a judge in the dance contests at powwows. Many of Tonepahhote’s beaded works are powwow ensembles made for her family members or commissioned by other Native powwow participants.

Dancing and singing are essential to powwows because, from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, Native songs and dances were banned by the U.S. and Canadian federal governments. Song and dance are critical elements of Native social and spiritual lives, and settler-colonial governments sought to break tribal beliefs and cohesion by suppressing their performances. American Indians at powwows recuperate and reanimate these cultural and religious forms, and most importantly, reaffirm the continued collective survival of Native peoples.

If you’re ever strolling around the Pearlstein Gallery, you should be sure to take a look at the exhibition of her work on the front windows.

We look forward to seeing you all at the Pearlstein Gallery on March 7 at 5 PM.