Art proves to be healing for creative Bis-Man vendors at holiday arts and crafts show

Buying from Native-owned small businesses pays for ‘a meal or a bill’

More than 40 vendors came to the seventh annual American Indian Arts, Crafts, and Entrepreneur Fair to sell their art, beadwork, ribbon skirts, holistic massage oils, frybread and desserts at the Bismarck Event Center on Nov. 25. 

Shawna Fricke, Sacred Pipe’s Art and Advocacy coordinator, has been helping organize the event for the last five years. As a local artist, Fricke understands the need for outlets such as the fair to provide Native artists and small business owners the opportunity to further connect with their community. “It’s great to see different native vendors,” said Fricke. “We have apparel, beadwork, seamstresses –– we have a little bit of everything.”

Fricke had her own stand at the fair. Her preferred medium is canvas, but she also sells painted frames, cards and ornaments.

“I like to paint,” said Fricke. “A lot of people know me for that, so they come back and buy from me.” She said she also likes to bring her kids to help “so they get ​​the exposure of selling and intermingling.”

Holly Young, a self-taught and full-time mixed media artist from Fort Yates, S.D., has been creating ledger art, beadwork, quillwork, jewelry, notecards and stickers since she quit her state job in Bismarck. “I was working here in town and wasn’t very happy at it so I quit in 2013 to pursue art,” Young said.

Young began her career as an artist making jewelry but soon began experimenting with other art forms, such as ledger art. She now sells her work at events in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and sometimes the Southwest. She learned about the American Indian Arts, Crafts, and Entrepreneur Fair through Sacred Pipe’s Facebook page. In addition to her usual wares, she also made Christmas ornaments for attendees to purchase for the holiday season.

The fair is essential for Young to network and meet customers in person. She said communities thrive when they support locally-owned small businesses. “It’s important because it’s the difference between a huge corporation worrying about how much money they’re bringing in, but for us, it’s a meal or a bill,” Young said. 

Throughout the event, Sacred Pipe Resource Center staff welcomed guests and called out door prizes. Each vendor donated one of their items for the raffle. Vendors were free to attend and sell at the fair, as long as they reached out to Sacred Pipe staff.

Towards the center of the hall, a glimmering sequin blazer and colorful ribbon skirt adorned a mannequin, catching the attention of vendors and attendees alike. 

Bonnie Goodbird, from New Town, N.D., came to sell Native culture-wear, including womenswear, ribbon skirts and her latest project –– ribbon pants. For the last five years, Goodbird has been sewing, but during the past two years, she’s put her heart and soul into her work. “Sewing them, making them – it’s very healing,” Goodbird said. 

Goodbird, a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, has been using her craft to reconnect with her heritage. She encourages people to buy from American Indian-owned small businesses in order to support the revitalization of various Native cultures. “With the assimilation, a lot of our culture, including our dress and our language, have been taken from us,” said Goodbird. “Now we have the ability to embrace our culture.”

As an associate and colleague of Angie Gillette, the owner of White Corn Apparel, Jennifer Sullivan knows how much work goes into running a small business. Sullivan has been a quilter and in-house seamstress for White Corn Apparel over the past few years. 

She frequently works with Gillette to produce high-quality merchandise, including washable satin ribbon skirts, overlay skirts, children’s dresses, backpacks and Tupperware. Sullivan said White Corn Apparel came out to the fair because “Christmas time seemed like a wonderful opportunity to share the love.

“I feel like it’s important to shop small businesses because there is a real person and a family behind the business,” said Sullivan. “It helps support the community and your neighbors. It’s always great to shop small and shop local.”

Dateline:

BISMARCK, N.D.