Spirit Shows
Me What To Do Next
By Sandra Richardson
The hidden
treasures of Taos constantly amaze me. Like the
ancient black and white potsherds peppering my
Talpa flowerbeds, Susan Suazo is one of these
unexpected delights. Diminutive in stature, huge
in spirit, this extraordinary woman has lived a
low-key lifestyle on Taos Pueblo since 1983,
when she married into the tribe.
She makes her
living by doing amazing beadwork! You would have
seen her beadwork if you caught the movies
"Legends of the Fall" or "Geronimo." From 1992
to ‘94, she beaded several of Kathy Smith’s
costumes. For ex-Talpa-boy, Steven Segal’s film,
"On Deadly Ground," Susan beaded moccasins of
moose skin—so tough that she couldn’t use her
thumbs for almost a year afterwards. "The movie
industry is not kind. They want everything done
yesterday!"
Susan also does
her own designs, and makes special commissioned
pieces: an incredible Eagles Head (see pic),
which required 47 hours of the total 247 hours
of beading to decorate a Pow-Wow Cape for a
traditional Jicarilla Apache dancer, who said of
the finished beaded bird portrait, "I like it.
Looks like he means business." Susan thought to
herself, "It’s so heavy, you’ll need a
chiropractor after you dance in it!"
Primarily, Susan
is a subcontractor, beading designer garments.
Last year, her beadwork contributed to a Wyoming
designer, winning a design award. "They design
and make the clothes, and I guess you could say
I illuminate them with my beadwork."
Susan has been
beading for 30 years. She is self-taught, as she
is in tanning, spinning, calligraphy, and
sewing. "Just go to the library and get a book.
It’s easy," she quips modestly about her many
talents. Susan spends hours drawing the design,
and then transfers them to the fabric via
transfer paper. The bead color choices and
additional embellishments occur in the creative
process, she says, as "Spirit shows me what to
do next."
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Inspiration for her motifs comes from many
native traditions: Zuni, Hopi, ancient Anasazi
pottery graphics, or from Mother Nature. But
Susan didn’t get her knowledge of Native
American culture from books. She has lived it
for decades. She decided to try the lifestyle by
living in a lean-to in the Colorado wilderness,
wearing moccasins in the snow, emulating the
Indians she read about marching on the Trail of
Tears.
In Pueblo,
Colorado in 1978, Susan met Ernie Peters and
Floyd Red Crow Westerman, organizers of the
first "Longest Walk." Susan became one of three
white women, amongst about 250 people, to walk
with them for three-and-a-half months, from
Wichita, Kansas (where she joined the walkers
from California) to Washington, DC. Each day
they would cover about 35 miles on I_70, walking
and chanting and praying all the way. Their
mission was to bring the sacred pipe from
Alcatraz to DC, where they would confront the
American government about its intention to pass
11 laws, many expressly drawn to nullify all
existing treaties in order to strip Native
Americans of their land rights. Another bill, by
Ted Kennedy, proposed making it illegal for more
than ten people to assemble in public—virtually
outlawing future protests by citizens. The
amazing thing about all this was that the
American public was unaware of these secret
bills, due to a total media blackout! (One can
only wonder what our government isn’t telling us
now!)
For Susan, a
memorable highlight of the walk was Harrisburg,
PA, when elders from 90 tribes showed up. Each
night, Susan visited the different campfires to
listen as elders told their ancient stories. "It
gave us strength," she said. "The energy was
incredible! I don’t remember being tired. Every
day we just walked, cooked, scrubbed black pots,
did ceremony, drumming, got up at dawn, fired up
the pipe, prayed and walked some more. I didn’t
know what state I was in sometimes. Just in a
state of mind."
In DC, she
remembers 3,000 people joining them. "One day we
circled the FBI building, chanting the AIM song.
Oh we had fun that time, watching the suits in
the windows." Eventually, 25 elders met with
Mondale and got the job done somehow. All that
legislation is gone.
After the walk,
Susan went to Hopi, and then on to Pine Ridge,
where she contracted uranium poisoning from
radioactive water. Her Red Road ultimately
brought her to Taos. In 1980, she took time out
from her beadwork to fight Phillips Petroleum
Company, thwarting their plan to mine uranium in
Tres Piedras.
Of her talent and
experiences, Susan says humbly, "Spirit called
me. This is what I’m living for."
To order amazing
beadwork from an awesome woman, call Susan at
758-3673.
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