Buffalo Bill Chaps

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Supaya was born in the Cherokee Nation and has spent much of her life living in a traditional hogan on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. Spending time with tribal elders at Pine Ridge, South Dakota and learning from her Navajo ‘heart mother’ — hearing the ancient stories and being shown antique clothing and accoutrements — has been a major source of inspiration in her work. Supaya makes reproduction Native American clothing and items from the 1800s to the early 1900s using traditional methods in beadwork, fringe, feathers, buffalo hides and other materials. She has recreated famous garments, like the dress coat Buffalo Bill was wearing in the 1889 painting by Rosa Bonheur. Made of elk hide and sewn with sinew, it was lined with an old style Whitney blanket then embellished with hand-cut fringe and antler buttons. Supaya has made fully beaded saddles; bear hide dresses with smoked deer hide and glass beads; horse masks of buffalo and smoked deer hide with sinew, glass beads and antique buffalo horns; fringed Apache cloaks of smoked deer hide with glass beads and hand-rolled tin cones; and tipi covers backed with Army blankets. Supaya says there is much to learn in a hogan, a kiva or at a Sundance. In her work, she honors those who came before.

Best in Show: Decorative Objects of Art, By Western Hands Invitational 2022