Carrie Hill is Haudenosaunee from Akwesasne Mohawk Territory and owner of Chill Baskets. In 2014 Carrie left her position at the Mohawk School in Hogansburg, New York to pursue basket making full time. The tradition of weaving black ash splints and sweetgrass goes back many generations in Carrie’s family, and her first teacher was her aunt. Weaving felt natural to Carrie, and she fell in love with the entire process. She was soon creating her own unique pieces. Her work has been sent all over the world including an entire collection representing the Haudenosaunee People for the U.S. Embassy in Swaziland, Africa.

 Susan Hoffer became interested in stories as a child, listening to her grandmother talk about growing up as an ethnic Gottscheer in what is now Slovenia. Susan’s interest in dislocation of Adirondack Park residents (she lives in Upper Jay near Lake Placid) grew from their conversations. While her work recalls and interrogates narrative images that have been around for centuries, they are crafted with a unique aesthetic. Hoffer has exhibited throughout the US with paintings in the permanent collection of the Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY, and the Adirondack Experience Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, NY.

Natasha Smoke Santiago grew up in Rochester and was brought up in the traditions of the Longhouse by a close-knit extended family. Her artistic talent blossomed early and was encouraged by family members, some of whom were also artist and artisans. In her early teens she returned to Akwesasne, her grandfathers’ homeland, joining a wave of returning emigrants, lost children returning to a now bright and prosperous Akwesasne. She works in many mediums, chronicling traditional Haudenosaunee culture, contemporary life, the miracle of pregnancy and the beauty of the natural world. Her art sustains her spiritually, emotionally, and financially as she builds for the future for her family.