Elias Jade Not Afraid (born 1990) is an Apsáalooke (Crow/Absaroke) artist known for his traditional and non-traditional

beadwork Beadwork is the art or craft of attaching beads to one another by stringing them onto a thread or thin wire with a sewing or beading needle or sewing them to cloth. Beads are produced in a diverse range of materials, shapes, and sizes, and vary ...

. He is a member of the

Crow Tribe of Montana The Crow, whose autonym is Apsáalooke (), are Native Americans living primarily in southern Montana. Today, the Crow people have a federally recognized tribe, the Crow Tribe of Montana, with an Indian reservation, the Crow Indian Reservation ...

, who grew up on the Crow Reservation between

Lodge Grass Lodge Grass () is a town in Big Horn County, Montana, United States. The population was 441 at the 2020 census. It is at the confluence of Lodge Grass Creek and the Little Bighorn River, on the Crow Indian Reservation. Source and derivation o ...

and Wyola, Montana.

Career

Not Afraid is self-taught. He began making beaded jewelry when he was twelve years old and living in Lodge Grass. He taught himself how to bead using two needles by

reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...

the beadwork on a pair of leggings his great-grandmother, Joy Yellowtail, had made. Not Afraid described the experience: "It was during the winter. It was a really bad winter. We couldn’t do anything outside. We were living in my great-grandmother's house and she had a lot of her old stuff there, a lot of it was beading stuff. I found a pair of her leggings and I always wondered how she did it, so I just kind of took it apart. I would take one row of beads out and kind of reverse engineer it and see how she did it." He also learned beading techniques from examining the historical beadwork in the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

. There he noticed three varieties of beadwork that were no longer being produced. Because of his concern that these techniques were dying out, he figured out the process and shared it with others. Not Afraid also taught himself how to sew ermine fur into pouches. He is interested in passing along these techniques to younger generations, stating that: "Beadwork is vital for our tribe's survival in the modern times to keep our traditions alive." He has exhibited his work in several venues, having first exhibited it in 2016 at the

Heard Museum The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitio ...

's Indian Art Market in Phoenix, Arizona and at the annual

Santa Fe Indian Market The Santa Fe Indian Market is an annual art market held in Santa Fe, New Mexico on the weekend following the third Thursday in August. The event draws an estimated 150,000 people to the city from around the world. The Southwestern Association for ...

where he won several awards. His work was featured in the ''Apsaalooké: Women and Warriors'' exhibition at the

Field Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

in Chicago, Illinois. Not Afraid's work became widely known when it was featured in the film, '' Killers of the Flower Moon''. The necklace worn by

Lily Gladstone Lily Gladstone (born August 2, 1986) is an American actress. Raised on the Blackfeet Reservation, Gladstone is of Piegan Blackfeet, Nez Perce, and European heritage. She earned critical acclaim for portraying Mollie Kyle, an Osage woman who sur ...

was a modernized version of a traditional Crow-style dentalium

breastplate A breastplate or chestplate is a device worn over the torso to protect it from injury, as an item of religious significance, or as an item of status. European In medieval weaponry, the breastplate is the front portion of plate armour covering th ...

. His work has been written about in ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** '' Vogue Adria'', a fashion magazine for former Yugoslav countries ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ' ...

'', ''Shoutout Arizona'', ''Western Art and Architecture Magazine'', and '' Native Art Magazine'' where it was featured on the cover.

Collections

Not Afraid's work is in the permanent collections of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, the

Henry Ford Museum The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in Dearborn, Michigan, United States, within Metro Detroit. The museum collection contai ...

, the Museum of the Chicago Art Institute, the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

, and the

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the List of largest art museums, largest ar ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

Elias Not Afraid Instagram
Crow Tribe of Montana Native American beadworkers 21st-century Native American artists People from Lodge Grass, Montana 1990 births Living people Artists from Montana Crow Tribe people 21st-century American male artists Native American male artists