Artist visits Hot Springs to teach classes

HOT SPRINGS - The Songstick shop in Hot Springs had a very special visitor Sunday afternoon. Rachel Bowers, a celebrated Native American beader, held the first part of a two class session on two needle style beading.

A small, intimate group of women who were all beginners sat with Bowers for three hours and began stitching beads to patterns. Despite the simple look, it took the beginners hours to work on just outlining a small design.

Once the students understood the basics of the process they sat for three hours beading away. Some had to stop and step away, while others patiently worked continuously. Bowers, who herself is getting up there in age but would not say how old she was, sat there watching the group of four working away. Often a student would have to come to her and ask for help to set a row of beads or fix a problem. With ease Bowers knew right away what to do and fixed it with as she talked to the others.

Irene Falvey, a student of Bowers and friends with the owners of the Songstick, Liz and Troy de Roche, came all the way from Portland, Oregon to Hot Springs in part to take the class. She said, “It made it that much sweeter to come and take the this class over Spring Break.” Falvey traveled to Hot Springs with her daughters who are on break.

Bowers, who is very well known in the Native American community, said she had been beading since she was very young. “The elders would sit around and bead in the winter and I would sit there and pick up the beads off the floor... I didn’t know the beads were mine,” she said explaining that this was the beginning part of her journey as a beader.

After starting school and finding interest in many other things, Bower explained she stopped her early beading. Out of high school she married and moved to California. There, living in a new place and culture she said, “In order to live in their community (Latin Community) I had to learn all of their things.” Bowers said she lost all of her knowledge about her heritage’s traditions.

Eight years passed while she was in California before Bowers decided to move back to Montana. In that time she had two children and wanted them to learn what she learned as a child. Her grandmother and great aunts had passed away and in a long search for a teacher to relearn her traditions with her children eventually found her grandmother’s friend, Agnes Vanderberg. As Bowers puts it, “She (Vanderberg) took the place of my grandmother.”

For some time Bowers learned old techniques from Vanderberg and even traveled to Washington, DC in 1984 to visit the Smithsonian where the two were part of a large showing. Bowers says she was even offered a position at the Smithsonian and Georgetown University, but declined because she didn’t like how humid the weather was and wanted to learn more.

The Smithsonian bought a dress she made which she called her, “Dream Dress.” Bowers explained that her grandmother came to her in a dream and kept giving her instructions on the specifics of the dress. The dress is now in a traveling show called, “Lost and Found Traditions: Native American Art 1965-1985.”

Today, Bowers teaches Wednesday evening and afternoons at Salish Kootenai College and helps run a heritage program to preserve her Native American heritage. She said, “I wanted to teach on the reservation to teach people we have all of these things and to have pride in themselves.”  

As the class finished for the day everyone packed up their beads and hung around to talk. Bowers sat for awhile as her daughter and son helped her pack as she is slow on her feet nowadays. Falvey said, “What I have learned is patience... It’s a bit of a journey in itself,” describing the process of beading. She then said, “It’s been really beautiful to get to be with this group of women. I can see it as a special way to connect,” as she packed her work up.