Artist Jennie Wheeler has early memories of walking the three miles into Yakutat with her mother to deliver moccasins and other skin-sewn creations. People were happy to receive what they\u2019d ordered, and that made Wheeler happy in turn.<\/p>\n
Her mother, Jennie Pavlik, sewed seal skin moccasins, hats, baby booties, and other garments. Wheeler grew up sewing along with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe always had such good care in making her things,\u201d Wheeler said. \u201cWhatever she made, she always told me \u2018You\u2019ve got to have good thoughts whenever you work.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She and her siblings spent many of their younger years on Knight Island, where her parents had a place. Her mother never had many supplies, and Wheeler remembers having to sharpen two rusty needles. Pavlik would buy one seal skin at a time, and use whatever she could.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of makes me smile and laugh whenever I\u2019m sewing,\u201d Wheeler said. \u201cNow I have more needles than I know what to do with, but I still appreciate everything I have. I never take anything for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was from Sitka weaver Teri Rofkar that Wheeler learned spruce root weaving. Rofkar came up to Yakutat and showed Wheeler how to gather the roots, burn them, and prepare them for weaving. At first, Wheeler wasn\u2019t so excited about it.<\/p>\n
Then Rofkar came back to check on her progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said \u2018Here\u2019s what I did\u2026 she didn\u2019t say she was disappointed, but the look on her face told me she was disappointed. I thought to myself right then, next time she comes I\u2019m going to learn how to weave, and if it takes me all winter, that\u2019s what I\u2019ll do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s what she did \u2014 and it turns out once she knew what she was doing, she enjoyed it.<\/p>\n
Some of the baskets she weaves are tiny Christmas ornaments, others are much bigger. She also loves coming up with her own ideas. She weaves spruce root teacups, purses, coin purses. The roots are much stronger than people might think; her daughters have been using their coin purses for years.<\/p>\n
She rises early, starting her work at six and sewing and weaving off and on all day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just something I really enjoy, and I get excited when I come up with something new and I\u2019ve got to keep working on it until I get done,\u201d she said. \u201cI look for different ideas all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennie\u2019s Gift Shop, her store, is full of one-of-a-kind gifts made by hand.<\/p>\n
The shop has also led to some unexpected creations.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, a Swiss couple came into the shop asking for something she\u2019d never heard of \u2014 a pain catcher.<\/p>\n
She thought they might mean a dream catcher, but they were clear \u2014 they wanted a pain catcher. They told her they\u2019d be back in a week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said \u2018Lord, you\u2019ve got to help me,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She looked at her plant book and began thinking about what people use for medicine. Devils club, or the inside bark of alder trees, which people once peeled and boiled in tea if they had a cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started to come up with all kinds of healing things on the pain catcher,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When the couple came back, she told them about the devil\u2019s club beads she\u2019d used, and all the other ingredients. A month later, she got a long distance phone call \u2014 they loved their pain catcher and wanted 30 more by Christmas, just a few months away.<\/p>\n
Every time she makes one, she prays for the person she\u2019s making it for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a Catholic, and I love to pray,\u201d she said. \u201cIt kind of made me laugh. I said \u2018You know, Lord, you must really want me to pray this month, because I\u2019m making 30.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, she carries pain catchers in her shop.<\/p>\n
For every hour she spends digging for and finding roots, it takes between eight and ten hours to prepare them for weaving, she said.<\/p>\n
But her art is part of a larger lifestyle, as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of live off the land a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cI pick all the berries I can. We\u2019ll pick seaweed\u2026 and different plants to harvest for teas.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also gets most of her hides from family members \u2014 brother Rudy Pavlik, nephew Jeremiah Pavlik, and son Lucas Wheeler, another things for which she\u2019s grateful, she said.<\/p>\n
Wheeler has been teaching skin sewing, which she always does by hand, for more than 30 years. After she learned spruce root collecting, processing and weaving, she began teaching that as well, she said.<\/p>\n
She goes into the school, and teaches people one on one, and in group classes \u2014 teenagers and adults, people who have never sewed before and people who have. Many classes since the 1990s have been funded by the Alaska State Council on the Arts, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (students) are so excited when the class is over and they have a pair of moccasins to wear,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A while ago, her craft, and her teaching, came full circle.<\/p>\n
Her mother, Jennie Pavlik, whose maiden name was Warren, grew up in Klukwan. Wheeler is Eagle-Bear.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tribe called me a year after my mom passed away,\u201d she said. \u201cThey said \u2018Would you be willing to come to Klukwan\u2026 nobody knows how to make moccasins here anymore, and we really need to get the younger generation (learning.)\u201d<\/p>\n
She had never been to Klukwan before.<\/p>\n
She taught a class, and has been back several times, getting to know aunts, uncles and relatives she\u2019d never met.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just overwhelmed by that,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was just so powerful to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also traveled to Sitka, demonstrating basket weaving and skin sewing at the Sheldon Jackson Museum through the museum\u2019s Native Artist Demonstrator Program.<\/p>\n
Her work hasn\u2019t gone unrecognized. Wheeler was recently named one of seven recipients of the First Peoples Fund\u2019s 2016 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award, which recognizes artists\u2019 \u201cexceptional passion, wisdom and dedication to passing on ancestral knowledge in their tribal communities,\u201d Lori Pourier, the president of the fund, said in a release announcing the award.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey called me and I didn\u2019t even know what to say,\u201d Wheeler said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wheeler\u2019s daughter, Sitka artist Mary Goddard, nominated her for the award, for which Wheeler thanked her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just thank all the people that I learned from throughout the years, starting off with my parents,\u201d Wheeler said. \u201cThey encouraged me to do the best that I can, and then pass it on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wheeler\u2019s website is http:\/\/www.jenniesgiftshop.com\/.<\/p>\n
Contact Capital City Weekly staff writer Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Artist Jennie Wheeler has early memories of walking the three miles into Yakutat with her mother to deliver moccasins and other skin-sewn creations. People were happy to receive what they\u2019d ordered, and that made Wheeler happy in turn. Her mother, Jennie Pavlik, sewed seal skin moccasins, hats, baby booties, and other garments. Wheeler grew up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":23404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23403"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}