Margaret Johnson (Pendleton) is a Native beadworker. She learned to bead when she was about 14 from elders at Colville Reservation.
Bio
Margaret Johnson is a talented Native beadworker whose exquisite work can be found in the Heard Museum in Arizona. Although she was born in Thief River Falls, MN, to a Scots father and Crow/Chippewa/Cheyenne mother, Johnson grew up near the Colville Reservation in northeast Washington State, where her mother’s parents lived. Johnson, who now lives in Pendleton, married a member of the Confederated Tribe of Umatilla Indians; all of her children are enrolled members of the CTUIR. At 14, Johnson learned to bead from elders at Colville. They taught her to make leggings; the traditional way was to encourage a young person to make the article of regalia that he or she wanted. The elders’ role was to guide the process. Johnson’s favorite designs are Plateau-style, and she likes both Plains and Columbia plateau combinations of flowers and colors. Her beadwork is a bit different than most, she explains, because she places a stitch between every bead, a technique sometimes called appliqué or “sew down.” Using a double strand of thread, Johnson threads several beads and attaches them to fabric or hide; she further secures the strand with a stitch between every bead. Besides creating regalia for family members, Johnson also does restoration work for collectors. She selects from her collection of old beads and tries to match them perfectly to the existing beads. Not many people do this work, but she enjoys the challenge. Johnson, who is also knowledgeable about healing herbs and plants, also grows her own herbs for makes tinctures and medicines. “Besides my family,” she says, “beadwork is my passion.”
