Menominee arts, crafts tell stories

The Native American Artist Arts and Craft Sale held at the Menominee Cultural Museum on Nov. 12 displayed the artistic talents of its vendors and gave voice to a few special individual stories.

When rummaging through various church or yard sales, Sue Welk’s creative vision sees more than just a used sweater — she sees mittens. She repurposes sweaters into mittens that highlight the designs or colors that attracted her to a sweater in the first place. Her mitten creations include buttons, appliques or designs that were part of the original sweaters.

Welk has been selling her mittens at craft sales in the area for many years, along with other original creations, such as doll clothes, scarves and pocket tissue covers.

“I originally started sewing Barbie doll clothes,” Welk said, “but now I sew American Girl doll clothes, which are much easier to craft.”

Recently, she fashioned an American Girl dress using fabric from a special wedding attendant dress.

Welk’s talents are displayed at quite a few fairs each year.

“I had a booth at Shawano Fest and the Farmers Market this year, and also Octoberfest,” Welk said. “I was in a show in Pella just last week.”

Ron Bowan Sr. and Marguerite Bowan have been involved in countless arts and crafts fairs for many years. They lived in Chicago for a while and that location made it convenient for them to take part in the pow wow circuit, selling their Native-themed craft items.

“The main thing is you have to enjoy it,” Marguerite Bowan said, “and these events are important to us, to our community.”

Ron Bowan sells beaded items made by school children in New Mexico. Proceeds from sale of the items, which include various beaded items, help to fund the school. He makes leather medicine bags as part of his display, which is separate from Marguerite’s.

“What’s important to you can be put into the bags. I have tobacco and other items in mine.” With a chuckle, Ron Bowan added, “My largest bags are used by women for their Bingo supplies.”

Home economics class at Shawano High School spurred Marguerite Bowan’s interest in sewing. She makes a large variety of items, including baby bibs, adult bibs, Native-patterned Christmas stockings and Native-themed hot pads. Items using sports team logos are also popular.

“The plastic canvas medicine wheel is my big seller,” Marguerite Bowan said, noting the wheel embodies the Four Directions and is very important to her.

Marguerite Bowan once sold 10 Green Bay Packers-patterned small Christmas stocking to a customer who planned to put a $100 bill in each one for her grandchildren. She laughingly said she asked the woman if she could become her grandchild.

The Bowans became involved in arts and crafts after the deaths of their four daughters in a tragic carbon monoxide accident in January 1970.

“Staying busy helped us to move forward, to deal with the loss,” said Marguerite Bowan, who wears a necklace holding a picture of their daughters to remember them every day.

Since then, the couple was blessed with a son and two daughters, which also helped them to be able to move forward.

Ron Bowan’s uncle, Jim Frechette, did multiple carvings for the cultural museum, including the large carved bear featured in the community room. The Bowans wore special T-shirts from the Oshkosh Museum to honor his uncle at the sale.

Alex Menore Jr. is an artist who has done carving and painting for more than 30 years, with involvement in arts and crafts markets for about 20 years.

Menore worked with his uncles, John and Anthony Gauthier, to paint the murals around the common area of Menominee Indian High School, which started his artistic ventures. This summer, he painted a mural in the common room of the cultural museum. The museum directors had a general idea of what they wanted. Menore took their suggestions and created a painting showing the floral themes the Woodland Indians used, along with the Menominee creation story, using the river and ancestors of the five main clans of the tribe (bear, eagle, wolf, moose and crane) in the mural.

“I dedicated this to my two uncles,” Menore said. “If it wasn’t for the patience they showed me, I wouldn’t have been able to create this mural.”

Menore signs his works “Gokey,” a name his mother called him, derived from her maiden name, Gauthier. His crafting booth features vinyl decals, which he traces and hand cuts. The decals are for cars, vans, trucks and other hard surfaces.

“I enjoy seeing my work on other people’s cars,” Menore said.

His nephew, Tom Gauthier, joined him at the fair on Friday. He is beginning to forge his creativity by making braided cords and painting lively patterns onto athletic shoes.

Darrell Okachekum’s wife, Rita, is the inspiration for many of his creative projects. He said she tells him, “Why don’t you do so-and-so?” He laughed and said he follows through on her ideas.

His hobby started with carving designs into ostrich and emu eggshells about 35 years ago. Okachekum was a country musician and took some of his projects on the road with him. He turned the hobby into Boodieful Creations by Okachekum when he saw how popular his crafting was with his fans on the road.

The ostrich eggshells are lit from the interior, and show the intricate scenes he carves into them. Okachekum said that he follows the natural shadings in the shells when carving. After the ostrich and emu eggshells, he started painting goose eggshells, typically with a Native theme. Inspired by his wife, who admired them at other fairs, Okachekum then turned to painting gourds. Rita finishes the edges of the gourds by incorporating braided pine needles as trim. Another popular item in his craft offerings are painted tree mushrooms.

A number of Okachekum’s creations are on display in the cultural museum, located at W3426 County Road VV in Keshena.