Calivika Shareholder Highlight: Creative Native

Q&A with Karen Denise McIntyre of Creative Native

Calista Shareholder Karen Denise McIntyre teaching a fish leather tanning class in Utqiagvik.

Calista Shareholder Karen Denise McIntyre is a talented Yup’ik artist who joined our Calivika Shareholder Directory in 2022. McIntyre uses fish skin leather to make baskets, bags, and jewelry. She learned and fell in love with the practice while living in Sitka. We’re pleased to highlight her business, Creative Native, in our ongoing series of articles on businesses that have joined the Calivika Shareholder Directory.

Tell us about yourself and your ties to the Yukon-Kuskokwim.

I’m Karen Denise McIntyre, formerly Karen Kehoe. My grandparents are Lott and Elizabeth Egoak Sr., my mother was Nellie Egoak, and my father was Harold Kehoe who was an Irish man born in California. Harold took my mother Nellie to Nevada, and that’s where my sister and I were born. So, I’m an Eskimo cowgirl!  I used to ride my grandpa’s horse in Nevada. I am the second of four siblings.

We moved around quite a bit during my childhood. My younger brother and sister were born when we came back to Alaska. When I was 4 years old, my father Harold took a job in Red Devil as a mercury miner.  While we were living in Red Devil, ANSCA rolled through our Alaska native villages. My mom, my eligible siblings, and I were enrolled into the Native Village of Red Devil Tribe.  People always wonder how we are connected to the middle Kuskokwim and that is how. We loved living in Red Devil and have fond memories of living there, so we never felt it necessary to change our family’s Tribal status.

McIntyre at her grandparents’ fish camp along the Kuskokwim River in the 1980s.

When I was 21, I lived in Anchorage. I thought I was a city girl. I went to Bethel to visit my parents for 2 weeks and during my two-week visit, I got sick with the “Bethel Crud.” So many people I didn’t even know came to my parents to visit and wish me well, dropping off caribou soup, moose soup, etc. I sure felt the love from our people and the community, so I quit my 3 jobs in Anchorage and moved to Bethel. While visiting, I met my beautiful husband, Greg. We were married on the Kuskokwim River and celebrated 37 years of marriage this last August.  In 2013, I discovered I had an allergy to dust, and living in Bethel was negatively impacting my health.  After 27 years of living in Bethel, my family moved from Southwest Alaska to the Southeast in Sitka.

What led you to start your business, Creative Native?

Shortly after moving to Sitka, a grocery store bulletin board flier caught my eye. The flier advertised a class on making a salmon fish skin bag with Athabascan artist Audrey Armstrong of Huslia. I was so excited and signed up for the class. That was the beginning of my fish skin journey.

I started out making bags and baskets, using any kind of fish skin I could get my hands on including salmon, lingcod and halibut. Over the years, I was privileged to learn from other talented fish skin artists: Janey Chang of British Columbia; Alutiiq artist June Pardue of Sutton; and Sugpiak artist Hanna Agasuuq Sholl of Kodiak. Working with them, I learned different skills, techniques and methods to make fish skin into beautiful leather. With a great deal of practice and patience, I became more knowledgeable of the process and felt that I could begin to teach classes of my own.

How do you tan different kinds of fish?

Creative Native products include medicine pouches crafted from fish skin leather.

In Sitka, I like to tan pink salmon because the skin is super thin. Last year I got beautiful chum salmon from Sitka Sound Seafood. Those chums tend to have a much thicker skin, so it’s a little harder to tan. Halibut skin varies by the size. Large halibut have very thick skin, too tough for hand tanning. If you must try a bigger halibut, get the skin by the belly, as it is thin and best for hand tanning.

Yukon kings and probably any other salmon from the Yukon have a lot of oil and require a great deal of washing to remove the oil. Yukon salmon skin may take a couple of days of washing and soaking in the fridge to get the oil out. Back in the olden days our ancestors used to collect urine to tan fish skin.

What do you enjoy about teaching?

It has allowed me to visit and teach at several communities across the state including my hometown of Bethel, my current home base in Anchorage, Kenai, the village of Eklutna, and most recently, I taught at the top of the world in Uqtiagvik (Barrow).

Note: If you would like McIntyre to teach a class in your community, you can message her through her Instagram or Facebook accounts. 

Felt hat with fish leather band and tufting by Renae Egrass.

Teaching my own people—Alaska Native people—brings me the greatest joy and the greatest satisfaction, It’s like a spiritual connection with the fish, the land, our ancestors and each other. I’m so happy to be part of the movement to keep our culture and our heritage alive and thriving. During this journey, I’ve noticed that my creative ancestral skills were simply sleeping, and just needed a gentle nudge to wake up. After about 3 or 4 attempts at learning a skill or craft, I realize I’m not too bad at that. When I look at my mother’s beautiful squirrel parka—which was made to communicate that my beautiful mother had come of age and was ready to be courted—and touch the stitches that her mother and grandmother stitched so beautifully, each stitch so evenly spaced, I know it was sewn with love. And I know the skills and the love put into making that parka have been gifted to me from the generations before.

Where can people buy your products?

You can purchase my artwork directly from me on Instagram and Facebook. My work is also in the Island Artist Gallery in Sitka and I sell my artwork at local events that provide vendor booths when I can. Make sure to follow me on social media to see my latest artwork and to know when and where I’m selling in-person.

What future plans do you have for your business?

I’ve been dreaming of creating high-quality wool and beaver felt hats using Alaskan wool and Alaskan beaver fur. Making these hats by hand takes up to 20 hours. My dream is to find a manufacturer to make them efficiently. I would trim them with my fish skin leather. I also dream of working with other artists, too, when designing the trim on my hats.

What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Do something that makes you happy, something you enjoy doing, and you will do it a long time.  And most important, don’t give up!  When I first began sewing and beading it wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst either. Keep practicing and you will get good at it!

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