Wisconsin Life

peaceful violin music

All I know is I was gifted with great teachers. And so now I'm at a place in my life where I need to thank them, and pay forward what they have given to me. And the only way I know how to do it is with a needle and thread.

sound of thread sliding through

soft music with drumming

My name's Karen Ann Hoffman and I'm an Iroquois raised beader. I live in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. I've been doing this kind of beadwork ever since I took my first raised beadwork workshop. And I'll betcha that's going on 25 years by now.

soft music with drumming

Iroquois raised beadwork is a rare and beautiful form of Native American beadwork. A lot of Indian people use beads, but only members of the Iroquois Confederacy use beads and velvet in this embossed, raised combination. In the middle 1800s, there was this whole network of Iroquois people who were using raised beadwork as an economy. And those are the pieces most Americans are familiar with now. But there's another strain of Iroquois raised beadwork and those are things that are made for inside the community. And so that's clothing, that's regalia, that's ceremonial items. Those are things that the outside doesn't get a chance to look at.

soft music

And now, there's this third stream, the stream that I'm involved in. This use of ancient techniques in very contemporary art forms. It's my passion to create pieces that have never been made before, but are deeply, deeply linked to those pieces that give rise to our art forms, 10,000 and 12,000 years ago. I put our origin story in here, into these pieces. I put the stories of the stars into these pieces. I put the stories of how the earth came into being into these pieces. I put the stories of contemporary political climate into these pieces because they're all part of our Iroquois heritage.

sound of thread sliding through

I think it's critical for all people to know who they are. And I think that sense of identity is what keeps all of us grounded, keeps all of us making good choices. And these things are what I try to express with such simple materials. Little bit of thread, a steel needle, some glass beads, a bit of fabric, boom. I hope that someone will pick up these gifts and carry them on forward, but I know that it's my responsibility to be this link in this chain. I think sometimes when I'm beading, I swear, I hear those old people whispering in my ear. You know I swear I hear them saying, "That's good, Karen Ann. Keep going, Karen Ann. Do a good job for us." And I can't disappoint them. I can't.