13 years
of rolling beads
Tina Smiled
2023
MEDIUM
Regalia; white buckskin, family heirloom beads, abalone, 47-year-old handwritten personal card (from Tina Manning Trudell to Tara Trudell) rolled into beads, reprinted news articles about Tina’s death and loss by John Trudell rolled into beads.
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Tara reflects on her stepmother Tina Manning Trudell and siblings, who died in a 1979 fire. She honors their memory and the guidance Tina gave her, transforming grief into healing and continuing to serve humanity and the earth as Tina prepared her to do.
Violence Against Native Women Is Not Natural
2023
MEDIUM
Hand-rolled paper beads from report, crystal beads, wire, juniper berry beads, kota, juniper, lavender sprigs, abalone, vintage burlap fertilizer sack dress costume
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
This work acknowledges that violence against women is not traditional in Native communities, and calls attention to colonization and genocide as root causes of violence against Indigenous women.
Anagoptan
Ah-nah-gohp-tahn • (Dakotah, “To Listen”)
2022
MEDIUM
Metal vintage megaphone (10 × 5½ in.), hand-rolled beads, white buckskin, porcupine quills
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
This sculpture, made from hand-rolled paper beads of the 2018 MMIW Report, transforms painful statistics into ceremony, honoring survivors, families, communities, and ancestors while fostering dialogue and healing. Porcupine quills at the megaphone’s mouth symbolize the danger Indigenous women face when speaking out and the urgent need for accountability.
Awarded the Justice Through the Lens of Native Artists Initiative, First Nations Development Institute, Spring 2023.
Left Behind
2012
MEDIUM
Photography, hand-rolled paper beads (from the 2011 Applied Research Center report)
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Paper beads made from the 2011 Applied Research Center report, which underestimated the 5,100 children affected by parental deportation and highlights the barriers to family reunification. This was one of the artist’s first statistical projects, and the situation remains to this day deeply troubling.
“Immigration enforcement greatly increases the chances that families will never see each other again. Detaining and deporting parents shatter families and endanger children left behind. It’s unacceptable, un-American, and a clear sign that we need to revisit our immigration policies.”
— Rinku Sen, Race Forward
Communication: Warrior Pamela Foster
2023
MEDIUM
Hand-typed and hand-rolled paper beads from Pamela Foster’s testimony, layered with pages of the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act, with abalone discs, ball chain
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Each bead is a hand-typed word, repeated four times to honor each direction, from Pamela Foster’s March 2022 testimony on behalf of her children, Ashlynne and Ian Mike. Following the tragic loss of Ashlynne, Foster helped enact the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act, which strengthens tribal access to AMBER Alert training and integration with state plans. These beads contain her testimony, layered with pages of the Act itself, transforming words of grief into a call for justice and protection.
Ms. Foster said, “I made a promise to [Ashlynne] that I would do my part to fix the loophole that exists in the system. I would fight for an AMBER Alert for Indian country.”
Envision Regalia
2024
MEDIUM
Hand-rolled beads from printed vision board on resume paper, wire, dentalium, glass, seed, and crystal beads, juniper berry beads, vintage and turquoise beads from personal collection, leather strips, lapis lazuli
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Inspired by the concept of a vision board, this work creates a tangible way to carry aspirations and goals—transferring energy from the page into a form that can be held, prayed with, and carried forward.
The Song Her Mother Taught Her
2024
Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut (1966- 2023)
Medium:
Black vintage dress and slip, black paint, hand-typed beads, ball chain, glass beads, vintage ribbon, abalone shells, dentalium, black mussel shell.
Courtesy of the artist
Once called Lolita, then Tokitae, and now Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, she was taken from L-pod in 1970 and has been held at Miami Seaquarium ever since. She continued to sing her L-pod family song, learned from her mother as a baby. The Lummi Nation and individual Lummi advocates have taken legal, cultural, and community actions—including NAGPRA claims, press conferences, and a Totem Pole Journey—to bring her safely home to the Salish Sea, with guidance from ancestral wisdom and science.
“We promised when you hear a drum, it’s your heartbeat, it’s our heartbeat, you know you’re not alone, we love you, your people love you, We’ll bring you home.”
Toki is survived by her L-pod relatives in the Salish Sea, including L25, believed to be her 95-year-old mother.
QR: https://sacredsea.org/skalichelhtenaut/
Marcellus Williams
Poem Beads
2024
—
MEDIUM
Hand-typed and rolled beads, word for word, from Marcellus Williams’ poem “The Perplexing Smiles of the Children of Palestine”.
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
From Ancestor Marcellus Williams’ powerful and heartbreaking poem ‘The Perplexing Smiles of the Children of Palestine’. These beads were made the week of his execution. As I mourned him, I typed and rolled them to honor his life and unjust transition, uplifting him as the true warrior he was in this realm. Max he forever rest in power and continue to guide us.
Sonya Macey In Her Last Words
2024
—
MEDIUM
Hand-typed and hand-rolled prayer beads, attached to a reclaimed Maasai beaded choker/regalia, with wire, seed beads, and glass crystal beads
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
These prayer beads honor the life and transition of warrior Sonya Massey, who was 36 years old when, on July 6, 2024, she was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy responding to her call for help. The beads carry her last words in order, serving as a testament to her warrior spirit and uplifting her memory, focusing on who she was rather than how she was ruthlessly and violently killed.
The most current update on the family and their wellbeing as they remember Sonya Massey one year later:
“For Donna (her mother), it has been twelve months of hard days. While she has heard from people around the world who have watched the video, she does not want to remember her daughter that way. "She was so caring and very smart," said Donna. "I miss her so much because that was my best friend."
Violence Against Native Women Is Not Natural
2023
MEDIUM
Hand-rolled paper beads from report, crystal beads, wire, juniper berry beads, kota, juniper, lavender sprigs, abalone, vintage burlap fertilizer sack dress costum
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
This work acknowledges that violence against women is not traditional in Native communities, and calls attention to colonization and genocide as root causes of violence against Indigenous women.
We Are Power Regalia
2024
MEDIUM
Blue glass beads, wire, abalone beads, cedar juniper beads, clear crystal beads, white buckskin leather strips, and handmade paper beads from the zine pages of John Trudell’s We Are Power speech (July 18, 1980)
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Earrings and necklace regalia. Handmade/rolled paper beads from the zine pages of John Trudell’s We Are Power speech (July 18, 1980) at the largest gathering, at that time, of Indigenous peoples and their supporters in the Paha Sapa (Black Hills), South Dakota.
“I was with my Dad for this speech and did not realize 40+ years later I would be making special prayer beads and creating my own regalia to remember who I am as well as create my own regalia as part of my continual survival
and protection.”
Rising Star
2016
MEDIUM
Hand-typed and rolled beads from the Rising Star poem, written for John Trudell by his daughter, on resume paper, with typewriter, ball chain
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Tara Trudell spent the last week of her father John Trudell’s life with him before his passing on December 8, 2015. This poem carries the emotions, memories, and energy of that time—bearing witness to his transition while also reflecting on the complexities of their bond. In her words, she honors both the grief and the peace that came from being present with him, transforming personal loss into remembrance and connection.