Katie Harris Murphy (Pendleton) is a bead worker and traditional artist of the Wallowa Band Nimiipuu, Cayuse, Umatilla & Karuk tribes. She is a bead worker at Harris Sisters Co., where she and her two sisters "make traditional beadwork & leatherwork while having a huge appreciation for western and Indigenous fashion".
Bio
Katie Harris Murphy (Wallowa Band Nimiipuu, Cayuse, Umatilla & Karuk) has been beading since she was 10 years old - when her mother told her that, “Nobody is going to make you beadwork. You will have to make it for yourself, but I can teach you the basics.” Always wanting to be a Powwow Dancer and Happy Canyon Princess, Harris Murphy learned how to bead, sew, work with quills, dentalium, buckskin and the loom. Her favorite pieces to create are plateau style buckskin dresses, beaded panel belts, beaded plateau style wedding veils, and horse regalia. Harris Murphy’s goal is to see more Tribal members owning, wearing, and passing down traditional regalia to their families.
Harris Murphy focuses on creating “old style” beadwork, using references from work created before the 1950s. She aims to bring back styles that are more aligned with the cultures unique to tribes. A thorough researcher, she studies photographs, pieces in museums, auctions, regalia worn at the Pendleton Roundup, and older regalia belonging to her community members to recreate traditional pieces. Using her expertise, she provides guidance to her community members who have questions about their own projects. Harris Murphy has taught moccasin making classes, necklace making classes, and has helped create over 40 panel belts, over 20 buckskin dresses, and countless necklaces and accessories. Knowledge on these traditional practices is something to be shared with her plateau people as others have shared and taught her.
Her and her sisters’ work (Harris Sisters Co.) have been featured in National Geographic, Stetson, Ginew, Oregon Travel Guide, Majestic Disorder, and Cowboys and Indians. Harris Murphy has been a Happy Canyon Princess (2010) and a Pendleton Roundup Princess (2012).
