NATCHITOCHES – The Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern State University will present a Native American Crafts Workshop on Saturday, July 12 at 2 p.m. at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum at 800 Front Street in Natchitoches. The workshop is free and open to the public, with crafting materials provided free for attendees.
The interactive workshop will feature four Native American tradition bearers who will share their cultural knowledge. Workshop instructors include Rhonda Gauthier, a member of the Choctaw-Apache Tribe of Ebarb, who will teach basketry and beadwork; Becky Meziere, a member of the Clifton Choctaw Tribe, who will teach applique beadwork and pine needle basketry; Alice Tyler, a member of the Clifton Choctaw Tribe, who will teach the making of pow-wow dangle beadwork earrings and Deborah West, Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, who will teach the making of Native American dream catchers.
“The native crafts workshop will provide attendees a rare opportunity to learn firsthand the basics of making these traditional native crafts,” said Dr. Shane Rasmussen, professor of English and director of the Louisiana Folklife Center. “We are grateful to these tradition bearers who are so generously offering the priceless gift of sharing their cultural knowledge.”
Each of these tradition bearers will participate in the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival on July 19. In honor of the 2025 festival theme, Crafting Louisiana, over 70 traditional crafts persons from throughout the state will display their crafts. Festival crafts persons will also be handcrafting their work during the festival.
Held in air-conditioned Prather Coliseum, the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival features three stages of live music, over 75 crafts people, Louisiana cuisine food vendors, dance lessons, music informances, narrative sessions, on-site demonstrations and more. Admission to this family friendly event is $10 for an all-day all event pass, with children 12 and under admitted free all day.
For more information on the native crafts workshop or the festival, call the Louisiana Folklife Center at (318) 357-4332, email folklife@nsula.edu, or go to https://www.nsula.edu/folklife/.
The event is sponsored by the Louisiana Folklife Center. Support for the festival is provided by grants from the Cane River National Heritage Area, Inc., the City of Natchitoches, the Louisiana Division of the Arts Decentralized Arts Fund Program, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Louisiana Office of Tourism, the Natchitoches Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Natchitoches Historic District Development Commission, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the Shreveport Regional Arts Council, and the State of Louisiana. The festival is sponsored by Atmos Energy, C&H Precision Machining, City Bank, Cleco, Evans Family, LLC, Exchange Bank, the Family Doctors of Natchitoches, the Harrington Law Firm, Natchitoches Wood Preserving Company and Young Estate, LLC. The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the program will not necessarily represent those of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.
The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program will not necessarily represent those of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.
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Handmade pine needle doll by Choctaw artist Becky Meziere
