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By Levi Rickert

August 04, 2023

Award-winning singer and song-writer Buffy Sainte-Marie (Piapot Cree Nation) is retiring from live performances. The retirement of the 82-year-old singer was announced Thursday evening through her publicist.

The announcement cited a combination of contributing factors including travel-induced health concerns and performance-inhibiting physical challenges that led to her decision to retire at this time from live performances.

“I have made the difficult decision to pull out of all scheduled performances in the foreseeable future. Arthritic hands and a recent shoulder injury have made it no longer possible to perform to my standards. Sincere regrets to all my fans and family, my band and the support teams that make it all possible,” Sainte-Marie said in a statement provided through her publicist.

Sainte-Marie entered the music scene during the 1960s by singing in folk music clubs. She is multi-talented, who is a singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and visual artist.

Her music speaks out about the environment, alternative conflict resolution, Indigenous truth, and fighting corruption. Sainte-Marie is a unique force in the music industry

Sainte-Marie became a Native American activist during the Red Power movement, which gave voice to Native American concerns and issues. Her artistry, humanitarian efforts, and Indigenous leadership have made a positive impact for decades.

Through the decades, Sainte-Marie has garnered numerous awards, including an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award in 1983 for co-writing the hit song Up to Where We Belong.

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About The Author

Author: Levi RickertEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Levi “Calm Before the Storm” Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was awarded Best Column 2021 Native Media Award for the print/online category by the Native American Journalists Association. He serves on the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at [email protected].

A Harrison Hot Springs souvenir shop is facing major backlash in the wake of a lawsuit alleging the theft of original Indigenous art.

Vancouver-based Indigenous art wholesaler Native Northwest has filed a lawsuit against Sasquatch Gifts and Souvenirs and Bruce and Fiona Fearon for allegedly copying, using and selling t-shirts featuring a design strikingly close to the work of Coast Salish artist Francis Horne, Sr.

During a trip to Harrison last year, Horne was “mortified” to find a t-shirt design nearly identical to his own featuring Sasquatch, sold at the store without his permission.

“As soon as we stepped in the door, lo and behold, there’s my design,” Horne said in a video posted on social media by Native Northwest. “I couldn’t eat after that. It literally made me sick to my stomach. You think ‘Why would they steal this? Why would they steal my design?’”

Horne said the incident and subsequent lawsuit sends a message to all west coast Indigenous artists.

“We need to stand up for ourselves,” he added.

Horne is well-known for his carving skills, having created four poles for the town of Duncan. He creates jewelry and apparel primarily featuring traditional Northern style.

In a statement posted on social media, Native Northwest said they tried “everything” for more than six months to get copies of Horne’s design off the shelves. As of Wednesday, July 26, the company has not received “a meaningful” response from the Fearons or Sasquatch Gifts and Souvenirs.

“Theft of Indigenous art is wrong and we won’t back down until it is stopped,” Native Northwest stated. “The Fearons and Sasquatch Gifts & Souvenirs have been served by the Federal Court and we are awaiting response.”

In the days following Native Northwest’s announcement, Sasquatch Gifts and Souvenirs experienced a string of 12 one-star reviews on Google, bringing their rating down to 1.5 stars on the search engine. All the reviews posted within a single week condemned the store based on the art theft allegations.

The Observer has reached out to the current business owners for comment and received no response as of press time. While the store features a number of items featuring First Nations designs, the Sasquatch shirt in question did not appear to be available as of Monday.

The Sasquatch – or “sasq’ets” in Halq’emeylem – has been an important part of First Nations culture since time immemorial and subsequently found renewed meaning in Harrison Hot Springs. Harrison sits on the traditional territory of the Sts’ailes people, on the site of the ancient village of Qwó:íls.

According to Sts’ailes tradition, sasq’ets, or “hairy man,” is the caretaker of their land and can shift shape and move between the physical and spiritual realms.

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First NationsHarrison Hot Springs

Aug. 4, 2023

Watecha Bowl has opened a gift shop with traditionally made Lakota and other Sioux art.

Lawrence West, owner and founder of the Lakota street food restaurant at 2305 W. Madison St., said he started the gift shop as “an ode to Studio 1491,” his previous custom T-shirt business.

West said the new gift shop will sell Native print jackets, in-house made regalia, quill work and moccasins. 

“The main focus of starting this gift shop was to take the novelty off of the Native American trading post,” he said.

“I’m pretty particular about what items come into the gift shop. Up to this point, everything that you’ve seen (elsewhere) is not based off of our beliefs. We’re not technically represented properly because it’s not being done by a Lakota or a Sioux with our traditional beliefs and background.”

West, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said many non-Native American people sell inauthentic art and make “a ton of money off of Native American culture.” 

His new gift shop will support local Native American artists. Two local vendors provide the soaps, candles and wax melts in the gift shop.

West said the quilled items, beadwork and moccasins are made in-house.

“That’s the difference in our gift shop compared to other gift shops. We bring that actual traditional aspect to it,” West said. “So when you come in and order a pair of moccasins, they are made traditionally and properly and in good taste.”

Currently, the gift shop features paintings from an Arizona artist, Terry Glad Flores, who depicts Native American celebrities in traditional paintings. 

“Waetcha Bowl is synonymous with quality,” West said. 

West said the restaurant also has a 12-piece charcoal series on handmade paper created by local charity artist Kurt Holdorf. The drawings are of Native American chiefs, medicine men and women leaders. 

“The thing that makes it unique is that the head busts used for these drawings were also used to make a Native American deck of cards that are an education piece,” West said. Watecha Bowl also sells these decks of cards in the gift shop.

From honey sticks to tumblers, “everything is handmade by a local artist and has a connection or does some sort of beneficial work for the Native American community.”

West said that as the gift shop expands, it will add traditional Lakota-made drums, regalia and more Native American items for personal and ceremonial use.

Backpack drive

With the back-to-school season approaching, West is offering guests one Indian taco in return for the donation of a backpack. Donations will be accepted through Aug. 21.  

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On one of MaryBeth Timothy’s birthdays in Muskogee County’s Greenleaf State Park a wild deer gingerly approached her face for a big wet affectionate lick. That’s when her husband John Timothy II knew it wasn’t just his wife who likes the many creatures that run free and wild, the loving feelings are mutual. The Timothy couple are Oklahoma artists. He’s Muscogee Creek and MaryBeth is Cherokee.

The art they make is dissimilar from each other. Timothy’s style is often tongue- in-cheek pop. Think a mixed media cartoon picture of Pink Panther in moccasins. MaryBeth is inspired by the natural world and its living inhabitants. It’s not typical for wild deer to come close to humans. They may pause 40 yards away and gaze at us out of curiosity then bound off in an instant. To get a kiss from one is unheard of.

“It doesn’t surprise me that MaryBeth does wildlife art, its means a lot to her and apparently she means a lot to wildlife. This is the gal that deer will walk up to. Birds will fly to her,” Timothy said. “It’s really quite something to see. She can spot animals far before I can. She’d be an awesome deer hunter and I’m sure she’s cleaned her share. She puts a lot of detail into her art and she’s very passionate about her techniques. She will paint every individual hair on a bear. Wildlife is part of who she is.”

That conjured the image of Walt Disney movie character Snow White and her menagerie of helpful domestic critters.

“If I could only get them to do my housework for me,” MaryBeth said with a chuckle. “I put out a lot of hummingbird feeders and when they go dry the hummingbirds come to the windows. As soon as I go walking out with more my nectar here they come. We’ve taken care of possums and all kinds of animals.”

Together the Timothy couple operate Moonhawk Art LLC (moonhawkart.com). Norman’s Tribes Gallery, 512 W. Main Street has their original work on hand. Timothy is an award winning artist. He was a resident artist at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum and Cultural Interpreter at Bacone College’s Ataloa Lodge Museum and Center for American Indians. For 18 years Timothy served at Bacone as the American Indian Arts and Crafts Coordinator. MaryBeth has shown work internationally. Her pictures have been selected for numerous magazine covers and she was a 2019 feature in Rogers State University TV’s Cherokee Artist Profile series. A new gig has been book illustration. She’s had dozens of pictures published in both adult and youth books since 2020. The prestigious HarperCollins publishing house is among her patrons. Cherokee author Traci Sorell (“The Way of the Anigiduwagi”) is credited with bringing MaryBeth to this new facet of her career after she requested a single book illustration from the artist three years ago.

Both MaryBeth and John have been creative since they were children. Friends and family recognized their talents early.

“I was born an artist and have an artist’s personality,” Timothy said. “That doesn’t always click well especially in western Oklahoma.”

MaryBeth’s family was musically inclined more than visual art.

“Mom plays piano and I grew up with a lot of singing in church,” she said.

The pair take advantage of their divergent talents and proclivities to bounce ideas off each other.

“I’ll be working on a children’s book and something just won’t look right,” MaryBeth said. “So I’ll take a picture of it and send it to John asking what he sees in it. What it needs or what I need to change. He’ll give his opinion on it. Most of the time I take it, sometimes I don’t. But it seems to work really well that way. I trust him and respect his artistic eye.”

Timothy is the kind of artist who must wait for the muse to appear. As he phrased it, you can’t put a quarter in and expect art to come out.

“Sometimes the muse is there and sometime not but I’m always waiting,” he said. “If you go to work eventually she shows up. That’s how I roll more or less, it’s part of my artist’s personality. Most of my life I thought I was just a weird kid who didn’t fit for various reasons. I was fortunate at the Five Tribes Museum because I could focus in an artistic environment.”

After a chance encounter with a museum visitor who sent him a book in part about creative “right brain” personalities, Timothy learned to forgive himself for being the way he is. It also helped when museums and galleries began hanging his work alongside that of other well-established artists.

The couple are “Enrolled Tribal Citizens,” registered artists with the Indian Arts and Crafts Board and members of the Southeast Indian Artists Association. “Made in Oklahoma” is proudly displayed at their website. How each arrived at this point culturally is quite different.

“John was raised with a lot of Native tradition and culture within his family and I wasn’t,” MaryBeth said. “My mom got married to my stepdad who was German and we moved to upstate New York, Illinois, Texas and finally back to Oklahoma. I really wasn’t around any of my tribal people until I was an adult. I felt like something was missing, like a hole that needs to be filled. One of those was becoming an artist and the other was being around Native people and artists. Then I felt like I could breathe. This is it, this is my family.”

MaryBeth and John Timothy II will be at Norman’s Tribes Gallery for its 2024 art calendar signing event Nov. 18 and 19.

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