Crafted heritage: Traditional handcrafts at center of bazaar at Wanapum Heritage Center

PRIEST RAPIDS DAM — Emilee Maurice unwound her string and laid the dried stalks of the tule reed in a neat row. 

“This will be a table mat,” she said, as she began looping string around each reed. 

The tule reed, also known as the bulrush, was — and is — a big part of the Wanapum way of life. Maurice was demonstrating a traditional technique during a holiday bazaar Saturday at the Wanapum Heritage Center at Priest Rapids Dam. The Wanapum also will sponsor a second one, scheduled for Dec. 9.

Traditionally tule reeds provided housing, as an exhibit in the heritage center demonstrates. Reeds were turned into sleeping mats, among many other things. Maurice wound string around each stalk, tied it off and moved on to the next reed. The string will be woven horizontally, a row about every five inches. 

“It’s about three feet (wide) by however long my string is,” she said.

Kia Owlchild, one of the organizers, said the Wanapum have been sponsoring the bazaar since about 2016, with an interruption for the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s getting bigger every year,” he said. 

Most vendors offered handcrafts that featured techniques rooted in Wanapum history. Telling the Wanapum story is central to the heritage center’s purpose, he said. 

“Our main mission is to let people know we’re here,” Owlchild said. 

Mersady Atkins filled her table with a mix of smoked salmon, beaded jewelry, soaps and scarves. The soap exemplified her approach to making her crafts; she takes traditional elements, she said, and combines them with contemporary techniques.

She uses shea butter, goat milk and oatmeal in her soap recipe, she said, mixed with bear root.

“A traditional medicinal root,” she said. 

It’s used by Native American groups throughout the country; it’s great for coughs and colds and especially sore throats.

“It smells really good when you’re making the tea,” she said.

Her necklaces include different kinds and colors of glass beads, but they all feature the same fish pendant, a recognition of the central place of salmon in the life of the Wanapum.

Stacy Stanley has been experimenting with seed beads for a couple of years, she said. She learned how to bead a while back, she said, but got interested in seed beading from examples she saw online.

“I like to try new things,” she said. 

She figured out how to adapt the peyote stitch, typically used for making beaded tubes, into a flat stitch suitable for patterns. Sometimes it’s a little tricky. 

“I try to make my own design if I can,” she said. 

Alex Buck was watching the table for his mom, Angela Buck. Angela Buck also brought many different handcrafts and had figured out a use for those orphan earrings, where one of the pair had gone astray. She adds the remaining earrings to the wreaths she makes. 

“Pretty, pretty, pretty,” Alex Buck said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com. 

    Alex Buck, left, talks with interested shoppers at the Wanapum bazaar.
  

    Stacy Stanley turns seed beads into an earring.

    Mersady Atkins lays out soaps, jewelry and scarves at her table at the Wanapum bazaar Saturday.
  

    Shoppers check out the wares at the bazaar at the Wanapum Heritage Center near Mattawa.