Local business highlights native art

By JACOB DORAN / Bigfork Eagle

Sometimes opening a small business requires a leap of faith, which is exactly how Creative & Native owner Jill Mehall describes the shop she opened in April of last year.

However, like her love for all things native, faith is something she has no shortage of. After numerous obstacles and more prayers than she can count, Mehall arranged for a grand opening on April 21, showcasing art and jewelry from across the United States, both native and non-native.

Since that time, the shop has taken off, earning Mehall the support and endorsement of dozens of artisans—40 in all—from local tribes, as well as a growing customer base. Today, within the walls of her shop, visitors can find a wide assortment of native goods, including both traditional and contemporary leather clothing by Shadowhawke, a Penobscot Indian who lives in Bigfork, and a rare collection of Manassas turquoise jewelry, not to mention pieces from more than 100 North American tribes.

Although the shop's offerings have grown steadily throughout the year, including the creation of a room that serves as an extension of the Museum of the Plains Indian in Blackfeet Country (Browning), the journey has been both long and arduous.

The Mehalls began coming to the Flathead Valley in 1977 and bought land in the Swan Lake area, moving here permanently in 2002. While not natives of Montana, their appreciation of native art and culture has endured the better part of a lifetime, making them feel at home among the local Salish, Kootenai, Blackfeet and Pen D'Oreille whose cultures surround the Valley.

"One of the main goals of Creative & Native was that I intended to bring the local talent in — people like Barbara L. Thomas, a Cherokee Indian from Kalispell, who hand binds her own books and Steve Wingard of Bigfork, who makes native Ojibwa baskets. Some of these artists put an incredible amount of time and craftsmanship into what they create."

Building her shop around such talent and so fulfilling a lifelong dream, Jill scored big with others who share her philosophy, as well as the various tribes who came to check her out. Because of the sage that she burns, the soothing music that she plays, and other touches of authentic native culture that she has gone to great lengths to incorporate into the store, many have told her that they actually felt drawn to the shop.

Jill recalls Chief Dancing Thunder of the Susquehannock tribe, who told her that Creator told him to come into the store and was pleased by what he felt upon entering. When he saw what Jill was doing with the shop, he asked her to sell the music that he had recorded.

That's one thing that stands out to visitors who happen upon Creative & Native. It doesn't take long to discover that Jill knows the story behind every piece that she sells, including who made it, how they made it and what tribe they are from.

In fact, she can produce a list of every artist and craft, including specific information about each one—from Jay Young Running Crane's Blackfeet artifacts and jewelry to Milton Howard's hand-carved Hopi Kachinas, from Rose Feather's Skagit tripod-mounted dream-catchers and quillwork to Raging Hawk's Seneca stone jewelry, and from Walley Cassell's Lakota horsehair crafts to Elliot Vauness's Salish birch baskets.

When Leona Boy, a Blackfeet woman whom Jill met prior to launching out on her own, came to see her new shop, she was so impressed that she told her friends in Browning that they had to come and see for themselves. Boy's family even "adopted" Jill and Brian as official members of their family.

"The people are the greatest gift," she says.