Shauna White Bear creates moccasins from her Bozeman studio that are as beautiful as they are functional.
“I wanted to make a moccasin for all,” explains Shauna White Bear, the woman and artist behind White Bear Moccasins in Bozeman. This beautifully handcrafted slow-fashion footwear is more than a shoe. Like a gait oscillates between strides to keep us upright in our path forward, White Bear Moccasins create a striking balance between past and present as we move more creatively into a generation looking to connect.
Shauna White Bear is an Indigenous artist of the Arikara/Hidatsa Nation who designs and crafts contemporary moccasins with her team of mostly Indigenous employees. Having grown up in Washington state as an urban native, she moved to Montana’s Three Forks area as a late teen and returned in her 30s. With the generous support of her employers, what started in 2018 as an experimental gift in the back of Carter’s Boots & Repair has grown into a thriving business.
“I wanted to be authentic to who I am and my style, but I was also inspired by my environment,” White Bear says of her start in making moccasins. Fast forward six years, and walking into her studio feels like entering a cabinet of curiosities. Life size in its wonder, the space is filled with radiant colors, enticing textures, and vibrant artwork. There are symbols of love, land, life, and lore. Birds and butterflies seem to land in every corner.
According to White Bear, the Gallatin Valley was considered by Native Americans to be a sacred land and named the Valley of Flowers for its fertile soils, abundant waters, and bountiful flora and fauna. “It’s been this area, the Valley of Flowers [that inspires me most],” she says. “I go out and pick flowers … I press them.”
“I was launching the Valley of the Flowers Mocc Janes [a Mary Jane–style moccasin], and I was seeing a lot of swallowtails; I was inspired by monarchs,” she says. White Bear embellishes her pieces with details such as wild flowers and butterflies, bringing wonder and delight to the wearer.
Every part of a White Bear moccasin has touched the earth. “I wanted to make moccasins that were not a traditional style, but had a traditional flair to them,” she says. White Bear uses a variety of materials from nature: She sources leathers from the hides of bison and deer from regional suppliers; she acquires pelts from a local trapper with whom she’s developed a trusting relationship. And unique and traditional embellishments are created from materials such as elk ivories, foraged horsehair, and porcupine quills. Her latest discovery has emerged as a collaboration with Terra Prints, a cyanotype artist, through which she’s been able to create vibrant blue cyanotypes on her leather, printed from foraged wild flowers.
White Bear is motivated to expand, honor, and celebrate Indigenous voices while connecting with customers who may be non-Indigenous. “I want [people] to be excited about their product,” she says. “I want them to wear the moccasins on the land where they live, but then also to be mindful. There’s something about walking on the land with your moccasins … and to know that the money is spent not just on a moccasin, but what goes into building it and what they’re supporting too. So much meaning goes into it. I want them to feel that.”
Each pair is a whispered invitation into a relationship with the land.
The concept of indigenous heritage is not exclusive to Native Americans. “We are all indigenous from somewhere,” she says. “I talk so much with my customers, about their heritage, where they come from.” She will often co-create with her customers, including custom details and materials that are meaningful to the wearer. These moccasins are a beautiful reminder that all indigenous populations, at one time, came from the land and of our ancestral relationship to it.
Connection is essential to what White Bear is building. You see it in the relationships she’s created, from sourcing materials to nurturing employees. She explains how much her staff means to her, saying it’s important for her to share her craft and artistry with young Indigenous people, mentoring them with business and communication skills and experience. “I’m in a time in the world when it is important to uplift this generation. I have this responsibility, that I’m put in this place, to be this role model.”
She fluctuates between three and five employees at a time, and most of them are currently going to school at MSU. White Bear values providing not only fair pay and a healthy work environment, but a license to create and flexibility to balance life and work as they see fit.
White Bear is a powerful last name. As with oral histories, she interprets her name in multiple ways, blending both historical and family story. She believes it to refer to the old silverback grizzly bears that would have roamed the Great Plains and also to the powerful characteristics of her ancestor, White Bear.
Fierce yet gentle, she reminds us, “Moccasins were the first shoe to be worn on this land.” A new story is unfolding through her footwear. Wearing White Bear moccasins honors the past while moving into the future. Where might her moccasins take us?
For more information or to schedule an appointment at Shauna White Bear’s shop, visit whitebearmoccasins.com.
BEAR MOCCASIN ARTISTS AND STAFF
Shauna White Bear
Arikara/Hidatsa Nation Bozeman, Montana; owner of White Bear Moccasins
Valor Killsback
Northern Cheyenne Tribe Ashland, Montana; MSU student
Maleeya Know His Gun
Northern Cheyenne and Crow Tribes Ashland, Montana; MSU student
Mae Little Light
Apsáalooke (Crow Tribe) Hardin, Montana
Summer Tapedo
Crow, Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Tribes Hardin, Montana; MSU student
Mikayla Blacksher
Non-Indigenous Colorado Springs, Colorado; MSU student
COLLABORATOR
Terra Prints
terraprints.net, @terra_prints
