I was honored this weekend to spend some time with some truly gifted men and women. I attended a training session put on by First Peoples Fund, in partnership with Northwest Native Development Fund (NNDF). The training was about how to hone your skills and market yourself in a variety of ways. This included budgeting and pricing of your art. But much more was covered, and I found some great people with greater stories.

You know many of the names, but how they got to the little NNDF building on a sunny weekend in April is a novel ready to be printed.

Like Laura Wong-Whitebear. Her roots are deep here on the Colville Reservation. Her story, like many of her baskets, is filled with tradition, art and passion. Her mother was from here and passed on here many years too early. Laura has rekindled her culture through others and she has become quite good at it, too. She may live in Seattle, but her heart beats for the Twin Lakes area and the places she remembers from her past. B Street today still holds a place for her, where a long time ago her family started a restaurant. She now mentors many basket weavers and teaches them in Louie Gong’s studio.

The story of the struggling artist was also told. Frank Andrews III, a working artist with a funny side that comes through in his art. If I was describing it, I would say it was as if Andy Warhol did comic books, with superior emotional details. You know Frank’s name and his family, but very soon we will know the artist as well. His personality and huge heart to help others are what shine on when he speaks. Attention to detail and the importance of what he does burns like the brightness of his works.

Dan Nanamkin is a name you know. He has traveled a lot over the last year. He has experienced things that he had only thought were stories his ancestors told. He stood at Standing Rock. He saw people of all nationalities, sexes and backgrounds join together as brothers and sisters. I could listen for hours and hours about how a higher spirit has guided him and directed him. The storyteller in him is from a time of long ago, and his words bring you back in time but are just as relevant today, if not desired more than ever in today’s age.

Roxanne Best is a photographer and marketing guru. She has a passion for food, and now she is tying her passion into tradition, taking art-show-quality stills of traditional foods. It is her way of tying into her ancestors and elders. It also is a way to preserve history in a new way. Showing traditional foods and sharing a recipe many generations passed down to keep alive as an artistic record. Her tears are not just from her passion, but they come from a long journey of walking alongside her past people as they join hands again in today’s light.

Then there is the rap star, the lyrical maestro, the man with a plan: James Pakootas. His struggles are real and he wants to share that with youth today. He is just starting out in this process of healing the land and the people from which he feels he took so much. His words are of a raw energy that wants to ignite those around him. His story is one of epic survival against all odds and a higher purpose from a higher power. The stars are the limit, but he wants to go beyond them, as well. He brings a message of sobriety, hope and music and how those notes and words have brought him back from the brink of madness. Powerful wisdom from a place of healing that continues and never stops.

Cassandra Waters says point blank, “I am not an artist,” but she is; we all know it. She has orchestrated this dance of beaders, painters, weavers, dancers, musicians and storytellers to come together and grow. To have a place to communicate and learn. Not just about the business but about each other. She is an artist; her history proves it. She once did things to faces that brought them to magazine cover-type places, and now she is helping to bring that same beauty to baskets, canvases and pages. We all prosper from her work.

There were others too: a poet from India, a master beader and her student from Squaxin Island, a ledger art legend, a want-to-be writer (that’s me) and a beginner weaver. We all shared our visions and passion, setting each other on fire for the desire to do more and lift each other up.

There are many artist in our area in many different forms. Look out for them, buy their work, and support their endeavors. That is what First Peoples Fund and NNDF is trying to do, and we should do our part as consumers and art lovers as well. I’m Jess saying.