In North Idaho, Lapwai is home to many members of the Nez Perce tribe, who call themselves the Nimíipuu. Raised in Lapwai, Jenny Williams, Omaha-Nez Perce, is a skilled Indigenous weaver who is passing down generations of traditional hand work to others in her community.
In June of 2024, Williams sat in a conference room at the Lapwai Middle High School, spools of twine and balls of acrylic yarn in front of her. She wove strands of fiber into bags, baskets, dreamcatchers or necklaces. Williams teaches her craft in workshops and classes across the Northwest, including this school, where she was about to meet up with a student to work one on one.
“I am a grandmother, a great grandmother; I'm a mother, and throughout my life I've raised many children or helped raise many children. The more that you can teach, the more that you can spread it out — the more people that you reach, whether it's the children or the parents or the grandparents. It all moves out and everybody should have that knowledge. Everybody should be able to grab something that they want to learn, something traditional.”Jenny Williams
Williams was awarded funds from the Idaho Commission on the Arts Apprenticeship Program to mentor Rhonda Taylor, who is enrolled as a member of the Yakama Nation but has lived on the Nez Perce reservation for the last 30 years.
“I have a real mothering instinct. Rhonda's my other daughter,” said Williams.
Now in the middle of their apprenticeship, Rhonda arrived with her own supplies and a half-complete project. The two were weaving flat bags, part of traditional regalia for ceremonies and dances. Williams, 75, has taught Indian arts for 45 years. Taylor, 47, started helping out at the school four years ago, when Williams was teaching a summer Native American Arts class.
Taylor was there packing lunches and organizing supplies while Williams led the students through various projects, beaded keychains, dream catchers, hand woven baskets — Taylor got curious.
“Well, I just sat down right along with the kids and was learning too, at the same time,” said Taylor of her first experience working with Williams.
Now, sitting together, they maneuvered the weft yarn through the vertical warp of open hemp strings that ran the height of the bag — about two feet. The yarns intertwined and fish bones, scales and mountains emerged.
“This is the one project that's really had me on my toes,” said Taylor.
The patterns in this bag were more complex than the simple baskets she had woven before with Williams. An added layer of detail requires careful planning and attention.
As she wove the fibers, she referred to a piece of graph paper where Williams helped her plan and map out the pattern. Every row and column of the bag has to be accounted for. Taylor counted to make sure she was on the right track.
Taylor’s bag was adorned with butterflies, blue and pink — the colors of Lapwai. In the Nimíipuu language, “Lapwai” means the sound of butterfly wings flapping.
Although they met at the school, the pair also weave together outside the classroom, and travel to Indigenous art gatherings.
“Anytime we do classes, she's there to help me work on all of the weaving projects that we do,” Williams said.
Weaving is integral to the Indigenous cultures of the Columbia Plateau, an area that stretches the length of the Columbia River watershed across Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Williams weaves using many different mediums like acrylic, wool, hemp, upcycled plastic, corn husk and a fibrous plant called qēemu, known as dogbane in English or Indian hemp.
In Lapwai, the museum of the Nez Perce National Historic Park Visitor Center displays historic flat bags and baskets made of qēemu, as well as modern woven pieces that integrate materials that were used after the plant became less available and colonialism in the area brought new materials to the tribe.
“All the original bags that you see in the museum were done from dogbane. I've done small bags, breaking down the sticks. You clean them, you comb them, you get the fibers and it's the inner fibers you use. And then you twine those and it's a very long, tedious process,” said Williams.
The Nimíipuu and other tribes have used dogbane for thousands of years to make cords and string, which they then weave into hats, bags and fishing nets. The plant also has medicinal purposes.
“When it's growing, it has these bright red, really beautiful stems,” explained Williams. “And then, as it grows into the fall, it has these beautiful flowers that come out. The time to harvest is after the first frost.”
Dogbane grows throughout the West in gravelly, sandy soils near creeks and in meadows. When Europeans settled in the U.S., they worked to get rid of it because it grew in cultivated fields and was believed to be toxic to livestock. Now, Williams and others in the community are bringing the fiber back into use.
Williams and others planted dogbane in front of the school to teach students about the fall harvest. She hopes the exposure will inspire her people to create heirlooms they can treasure and pass along through generations.
Her apprentice, Taylor, agrees.
“It's easier to go ahead and buy a bag. But it's more sentimental when you make it, and then you see the product when you know they're wearing it, you know it just makes it more special.”Rhonda Taylor
Back in the conference room at the school, the two women sat side by side, laughing and teasing each other, weaving the wefts through the warps. Williams not only values the tradition, but also the healing calm that weaving brings practitioners.
“It's just like this creative energy, and it just sparkles in that room because you're all doing something that's really in your heart,” said Williams.
Taylor’s daughter will wear the flat bag and represent her community at ceremonial dances for years to come. She hopes the bag will be passed to future generations and that, like her mentor, she’ll also be able to pass on these skills.
Expressive Idaho is produced by Arlie Sommer and edited by Sáša Woodruff. This story was produced with additional edits from Corinne Ruff. Original music in this story is by Jared Arave. The written article is by Arlie Sommer and edited by Henry Larson, Lacey Daley and Katie Kloppenburg.
Expressive Idaho is made in partnership with the Idaho Commission on the Arts’ Folk and Traditional Arts Program with funding support from Dr. Suzanne Allen, MD, Jennifer Dickey and Andy Huang. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.