Smithsonian Institute to display Stevens Point woman's Iroquois raised beadwork | Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune | wisconsinrapidstribune.com

Smithsonian Institute to display Stevens Point woman's Iroquois raised beadwork | Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune | wisconsinrapidstribune.com:

1:23 AM, Nov. 21, 2011 |

When it comes to one of her pieces of Iroquois raised beadwork, Karen Hoffman said it's not enough for people to think it is pretty.

"This work has to have a more cultural connection," Hoffman said. "We're telling the story of a people that has gone back more than 10,000 years."

Many more people now will be able to see Hoffman's interpretation of that history because the Smithsonian Institute recently bought one of the Stevens Point resident's pieces.

"It's a great honor, and I am honored to be able to help educate people about the history of the Iroquois people," said Hoffman, 54, a member of the Oneida Nation, which is one of the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Hoffman said her artwork originally was spotted by Emil Her Many Horses, curator of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, at an art market in Indianapolis.

The piece, a three-sided urn, commemorates the story of wampum -- sacred shell beads used as symbols of the commitments made in treaties and woven together to tell stories -- and how it came to the Iroquois.

Hoffman said a man named Peacemaker was grieving for the loss of his daughter when he came upon a lake covered with white ducks. As he crept closer to look, the ducks flew away, taking the water with them, leaving only the wampum in the lake.

Peacemaker then took the wampum to the six nations -- the Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, Tuscarora, Mohawk, Cayuga -- and asked them to live in peace, which they accepted.

Hoffman, who has been doing beadwork for 12 years, said all beadwork is meant to tell such stories, and knowing the history of the Iroquois is as important as the technique to make the pieces.

She said she has benefited from great teaching, primarily from her mentors -- Lorna Hill and her son Sam Thomas -- who she said are the premier Iroquois raised beadworkers in North America. She said she has followed them to conferences in New York, Toronto and Africa, among other places, to learn from them.

"I follow them around, a bit like a little lost puppy," Hoffman joked. "I'm very grateful to them, because they have been so good to me and so generous with their time. It's a great gift and a great responsibility they have given to me."

Hoffman is doing her part to pass on that knowledge to a new generation. She is working intensively with two apprentices, Chris Munson and Rodrick Elm, and teaches a group of about six people.

"I have a reason for teaching beadwork, and that's to preserve and promote the Iroquois worldview, religion and culture," Hoffman said.

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