Juneau’s Alaska State Museum is seen in the fall sun on Oct. 2, 2024. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
Sarah Knudsen has been beading for long enough that she says she can recognize where the artist is from in Alaska just by looking at their beadwork.
“Gwich’in Athabascan beadwork is mostly flowers and stems. In the Southeast, the motif of their culture is that they have more Eagles and their clans. We don’t have plans up here,” she said.
Her grandmother taught her in the Gwich’in Athabascan tradition on the Porcupine River, beading on felt and tanned moose hide. That knowledge eventually led her to seek a grant aimed at welcoming Alaska Native artists and culture bearers in to the state’s museums, which allowed her to travel from her home in Fort Yukon, 8 miles north of the Arctic Circle, to the Alaska State Museum in Juneau in March.
There, she researched beaded moccasin styles and saw firsthand the changes in moccasin patterns, beadwork and materials since the early 1800s.