Lois Beardslee - Navtive American Storyteller & Artist
June 200

Lois Beardslee, a Native American storyteller and artist, is one among a handful of Woodland Natives keeping alive the tradition of the birch bark cut-out. These cut-outs were used as patterns for doing quill and bead work and a variety of traditional decorations on clothing, moccasins, baskets, tools and cradleboards. Beardslee’s heritage is Ojibwe and Lacondon. Raised in the Ojibwe culture in Northern Michigan, she is amazingly knowledgeable of all the old traditions of that culture and is equally determined to see these cherished ways survive. She practices every bit of that which she preaches, finding the wonderfully aromatic sweetgrass for baskets in special secret locations, gathers quills and pine needles from the woods and harvests the birchbark from fallen trees, in just the same way her ancestors have done for countless centuries. “There are special things to look for,” Beardslee says, “when picking up pine needles and sweetgrass, for instance, or knowing the kind of birchbark that’s best for baskets or cuttings. It’s not like going to the crafts store and asking for a five pound bag of basket sweetgrass. You just have to know.”

Beardslee travels between her home in Leelanau Peninsula, Ontario, her mother’s native home, and the Lake Superior shoreline where she collects many of the Agates that appear in her native jewelry offerings. Beardslee has been actively pursuing this natural career for over 25 years and has work in public and private collections worldwide.