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Show Indian crafts die for lack of youth interest By SLYVIA WINTERFELD Chronicle Staff Indian craftsmen are nearing extinction. Potential young artists are succumbing to the pressures of a modern society. Indians exhibiting their work in the Union Building during Indian Awareness Week, expressed their concern over their quickly disappearing arts. Mary Thompson, an Apache cradlemaker, has been working at her craft since she was 16. Speaking of the new generation, Mrs. Thompson said, "They don't want' to do it, they think it's old fashioned." It takes Mrs. Thompson about two weeks to make one cradle. She uses pine, cedar or oak branches and bends them into shape. Then the branches must dry for three days. After drying, they are covered with split pieces of Yucca and then covered with fabric. The cradle can be carried over the arm or strapped on the back. ' " - rZ. ?" - , i. - 7 -C n j . K-t ' 7' v J V 4 3 . 'V; i J : 4 ! ; I i "I'd like to see them continue, but many are losing interest," says Louis Alex. Mr. Alex, who does Shoshone beadwork, feels that the work is too hard for the younger people. "The work ,s done mainly by the older people." Pearl Sequaptewa does most of her Navajo beadwork between the washing and ironing. "My kids grew up in the city. I don't want them caught between two cultures." She pursues her hobby so her children can keep up the culture. Mrs. Sequaptewa took up beadwork when the various Indian groups around the valley started dancing for clubs and school groups. The beading they needed for costumes was so expensive that Mrs. Sequaptewa decided to make it herself. Beadcraft originally comes from the Plains Indians, but through trading of ideas and techniques, other tribes now engage in it. "That's how we learn from one another," says Mrs. Sequaptewa. Winston Mason, a Sioux silversmith silver-smith and BYU student, is so concerned about the preservation of Indian art that he is conducting classes for eight Indian students in silver work. Mr. Mason feels youth are involved, in-volved, but "not as much as we'd like them to be." Mr. Mason learned his trade on a Navajo reservation where he lived for six years. Originally learned for the Spaniards, Spani-ards, Navajo silver work dates back hundreds of years. Says Mr. Mason, "If the young don't start learning crafts soon, the old ones will all die off." Then there will be no one to teach the young. Right now, there are few people under 30 at in crafts. ( Mr. Mason added, "the o!, ' S to keep crafts alive s R teaching." p |
