MERLE BIG BOW First Peoples Fund to honor four Native artists First Peoples Fund - http://www.firstpeoplesfund.org

"Merle Big Bow has been selling his artwork the only sure way he's known - by knocking on doors and showing completed work to employees in the local tribal building.

These kind of sales typically work when selling lower-priced items, such as dream catchers or miniature drums. But it's a little more difficult trying to sell a $1,500 painted rawhide drum on a doorstep.

�That's a lot of artists' downfall,� said Big Bow, a Chippewa Cree cultural artist who lives on the Flathead Reservation in western Montana. �They don't have the selling experience.� It's a situation that's kept Big Bow employed full time as a police officer and, most recently, as a building maintenance man. But the artist made a decision two years ago to quit his job and spend more time carving chief staffs, painting buckskin and stretching rawhide over bows.

The First Peoples Fund, a traditional Native art advocacy organization in Rapid City, S.D., recently recognized Big Bow's commitment to art by choosing the artist as one of four business leader art fellows for 2006."

Get the Story:
Jodi Rave: Organization recognizes Chippewa Cree man for marketing Native art works (The Missoulian 1/27)

Relevant Links:
Jodi Rave Lee - http://www.missoulian.com/jodirave

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