Community elders craftwork exhibit at Grand Portage National Monument

The beautiful craftwork created by Grand Portage community elders at the National Monument from 1968 to 2002 is now on display at the Grand Portage National Monument Heritage Center. Top: These simple and elegant beaded leather dresses were created by Cecelia Hendrickson and Mary Dahl. Upper left: Dora Kasames created this intricate hairpiece with a beaded rose. Upper right: Using beads and quills, Sharon Vogel made these exquisite earrings.

Grand Portage National Monument is proud to announce the opening of a new exhibit featuring brief biographies of 17 Grand Portage community elders and examples of their craftwork produced as part of the monument’s cultural demonstration program from 1968 to 2002. There will be an open house for the exhibit on Tuesday, Oct. 4 from 5-7 p.m. at the Heritage Center, where the exhibit is featured on the second floor.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is a notebook containing information about Sharon Vogel, Rose Porter, Dora Kasames, Elizabeth Thibault, Rachel Hunter, Ellen Olson, John Flatte, Walter Caribou, Margaret Kozlowski, Martha Bushman, Emma Gagnon, Sophie Crawford, Jennie Hietala, Mary Dahl, Bertha LaPlante, Eleanor Olson and Cecelia Hendrickson. The notebook contains pages where family, friends, and visitors are encouraged to share their favorite memories or stories about the craftworkers.

The exhibit also features an extensive sampling of beadwork including necklaces, bracelets, earrings, barrettes and beaded moccasins and leather dresses. Additional craftwork on display includes canoe paddles carved by Walter Caribou, a painting by John Flatte, and birchbark baskets made by Rose Porter.

 

Items on display in the exhibit are on loan from several private collections of community residents and from the park’s museum collection.

All are welcome to come and join in the celebration of Elders’ craftwork at Grand Portage National Monument. The Heritage Center is open seven days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. through mid-October, then Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during the winter.