November: National Native American Month

November is National Native American Month. My son, Patrick and I were invited to exhibit at an art show held by Offut Air Force Base in Bellevue, NE on November 1. Offut sponsers Native events each November. The show was held in the entry of the Base Exchange.

I took this shot of the window as I think it would be interesting to bead a bracelet using this stylized corn design. Always thinking.......

Here I am with trays of beadwork and leaning on one of Patrick's raccoon head walking sticks.

Patrick with a display of selected Native Art. On the far right are turtle rattles, fur bags, one of his gourd shakers, alligator claw necklaces and various other native crafts. On his left is a better shot of the raccoon head stick.

This is our great friend, Judy Crouch. Judy is a talented artist that paints native themed items on feathers. While she is not native by blood, she is native in spirit. Her paintings are award winning and get the full and undivided attention of the public where ever she exhibits. We always enjoy being located next to Judy at shows!

This is a fellow Oklahoma transplant to Omaha. She is Alpha Marie Goombi. She and her husband are ministers and she is currently running for the Nebraska Learning Community Coordinating Council. This was our first encounter. However, it turns out that she is the niece of Robert Redbird. He is the famous Kiowa artist whose work we have collected for years. The work in front of Alpha is that of Robert Redbird, Jr (son). The wonderful ceramic horse piece was done by Alpha Marie. We had a great visit and shared our common interest in the works of Enoch Kelly Haney, Acee Blue Eagle and Woody Crumbo as well as that of the Redbird family.

We caught Dennis Beckman knapping! He demonstrated knapping arrowheads during the show. We had not met Dennis prior to this event. But look forward to seeing him in the future. While this was not a "selling" event, I did manage to make "arrangements" to purchase a wonderful Brazilian agate arrow head from him. Perhaps it will be incorporated into a piece of jewelry some day....or maybe I will just continue to enjoy handling and viewing it as it is. Only the Spirit knows!

A display of very old arrow heads from the Bellevue Historical Society was available.

It was a fun exhibit. It is always great to see old friends and meet new ones at these events. There is a lot of talent in the Heartlands and thank you to Offut Air Force Base for allowing us to come together each November!