Jhane Myers-Noisecat:
A Tough Act to Follow
By Gregory Pleshaw
At Indian Market 2008’s Native American Clothing Competition, two contestants – one, age-old Philip “Fuji” Noisecat, the other female, 13 year-old Wakeah Myers – stood out from all the rest to win Best in Show in their respective gender categories. But perhaps not everyone there was aware that the pair were actually brother and sister, and their outfits, resplendent to even the most casual observer – were both made by their mother Jhane Myers-Noisecat, (Commanche/Blackfeet.)
An internationally renowned ceremonial dancer and traditional beader, Myers-Noisecat wears many hats in the Native American arts community, as both an artist and an administrator for a number of prominent projects, including Executive Director of the American Indian National Center for Television and Film. Raised in Lawton, Oklahoma by her Comanche/Blackfeet grandparents, Myers spent her childhood dancing on the pow-wow circuit from one end of the country to the other. She is also a fifth generation dress-maker, and she currently divides her time between Los Angeles and Santa Fe, where she lives with her husband Ed “Archie” Noisecat and their six children.
On the day of the event, both Fuji Noisecat and his sister Wakeah Myers stood on the stage in their respective regalia. Philip was dressed in a traditional chicken dance outfit, complete with traditional bead work and old style colors along with traditional turkey feathers. Wakeah’s traditional dress was a southern Plains buckskin dress.
Throughout Indian Market, you can see hundreds of artists keeping tradition alive through the creation of their art works. Myers-Noisecat does the same, by keeping tradition alive through the creation of historical fashion that illustrate the tradition of her people.
“I wanted to make them both look as if they stepped out of the history books,” said Myers-Noisecat.
When I caught up with Myers-Noisecat, she was sitting in a booth that she shared with her husband Ed “Archie” Noisecat at the Heard Show in Phoenix doing one of the things she does best – educating interested passersby in her regalia’s origins, style, fabrication and meanings.
“There’s a lot of tradition to fall back on when designing a dress,” said Myers-Noisecat.
She points to a dress hanging nearby that is comprised of white buckskin known as a traditional southern competition dress that features what’s known as a “lazy stitch” of red, white, blue and yellow glass beads along the borders and long strands of white fringe hanging from the sleeves. As a final statement, bright yellow tassels hang from the piece, made from dyed horsehair.
“I like my pieces to tell a story with color,” she said, noting that designing the bead stitch pattern is one of the first things she does when designing a dress. The process of designing a dress is complex, but it has certain steps that Myers-Noisecat follows every time. First, she figures out what to make. Then she’ll gather all her materials, which in this case including 2 kilograms of background blue beads, made from Czech glass.
“It’s important to buy all of the beads at once to make sure they come from the same dye lot,” she said. “That’s how you can ensure that all the beads will be of exactly the same color.”
Then, she said, she cuts the front and back parts of the dress from tanned buckskin and stitches the beading into the appropriate spots. Then she sews the dress together. As the finishing touch, she individually sews on each strand of fringe and voila, the dress is complete.
Myers-Noisecat produces a photograph of another fine garment that she wore to the Avi Casino Pow-Wow for the Mojave Nation. It is a beautiful T-dress, comprised of black broadcloth alternated with blue ultra suede and covered with 400 elk teeth. As accessories, the photo shows her wearing elk teeth earrings and conch shell hair ties.
“Nothing is incidental to one of these outfits,” she said. “Every detail is carefully considered in order to reflect good design as well as historical accuracy.”
On a nearby table, there are a number of traditional dance shields designed and created by Myers-Noisecat’s husband, Ed Noisecat. Made of rounds of deer hide painted with Northcoast motifs, and festooned with cedar or sweetgrass ropes, Noisecat started making the pieces when his son Julian Noisecat (15) started to participate in traditional Salish dancing from his home base on the Northcoast.
“Traditional dance shields are worn on the dancers arms while dancing,” said Noisecat.
The Noisecats lead something of a charmed life – and a busy one. With a home in Santa Fe and Jhane’s job in LA, they are also on the go most of the time. When not commuting between the two locations, both Ed and Jhane are busy working on their individual art projects, or traveling from one end of the country to the other going to either art shows or Pow-Wow events – or both.
“She and I are an anomaly that you rarely find – as a champion dancer, she’s a star on the Pow-Wow circuit, while I find my grounding in Native American fine art,” said Ed Noisecat. “So you see this crossover between the fine art world and the traditional Pow-Wow circuit. Together, we can walk in both worlds.”
Because of her steadfast approach in designing her clothing and her experience within the fashion world, Jhane Myers-Noisecat was recently award the position of Chairperson of the Native American Clothing Competition. The Competition is one of the most widely attended events at Indian Market, and is arguably the most photographed as shooters jockey for position to get their lenses fixed on some of the most spectacular regalia seen outside of the pow-wow circuit. Myers-Noisecat has big plans for the event.
“I’m really excited because it’s the most photographed event and one of the best attended,” she said. “We just want to update it a bit, and make it more exciting and accessible. We also want to get more people involved, more sponsors, including at least one Native casino and a non-Native fashion designer.”
As for her own life and all it’s movement and change, Myers-Noisecat had this to say.
“In my house, art is an everyday occurrence,” she said. “But this is the way Commanches have always lived – in a mobile fashion. I am living my traditional Commanche life in a modern way.”
