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Artwork, 'Heart' Work

By Tetona Dunlap

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MISSION, Kan.—Pamela Minick owns White Buffalo Trading Co., a store specializing in Native American jewelry and artwork. An artist herself who does beadwork, Minick understands how hard it is for Native Americans to display and sell their work since it is not a mass-produced industry.

Minick hosts exhibitions in her store for Native American artists in the greater Kansas City area to help them showcase their work, which include jewelry, shawls, regalia, beadwork and quilts.

On a recent Saturday, Minick hosted a showcasing of artwork by local artists Arthur Short Bull and Rodney Steiner. Short Bull, Lakota, displayed his original watercolors and Steiner, Dakota, demonstrated how he paints his handcrafted hide war shields. Attendees not only had the opportunity to buy an original piece but a chance to meet the artist as well.

"It makes them a little bit more visible," said Minick. "If you hear some of the background and some of the stories behind the paintings, or why they choose a stone for jewelry, people are more inclined to understand the art of it and the beauty of what they do.

"Usually the person who made it with their hands, their heart is in their work."

Tetona Dunlap is a member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. She graduated from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., with a B.A. in Journalism in 2004. Dunlap works at the Kansas City Star in Kansas City, Mo., as a photographer/videographer.

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