Thunder Hill April 29 - 12:00, 2:45, 5:35 PM April 30 - 12:00, 2:35, 5:20 PM May 1 - 12:00, 2:25, 3:50 PM May 2 - 12:00, 2:25, 3:50 PM

NATIVE AMERICAN VILLAGE PARTICIPANTS

WOOD CARVING
Ivy Billiot
United Houma Nation
Houma, LA

Ivy Billiot is a woodcarver whose work is exceptional in its beauty and close attention to detail. For years he worked for Terrebonne Parish as a crew leader and channel finder. He was an expert chain saw operator whose work entailed cutting down trees in ditches and along bayous. Retired now, he is a full-time artist who does much of his carvings on commission. A number of private collectors collect Ivy Billiot's pieces. His regular buyers specifically request a more natural look. Much of Ivy's work is marked by its lifelike realism, complete with such painstaking details as whiskers on a crow and blue and green highlights in a trout's scales. He carves a wide variety of birds, animals, and other objects: ducks and geese, alligators, chickens, pirogues, fishing boats, and blowguns. He says that he is always experimenting and trying new things in his work

BASKET WEAVING
Lora Ann Chaisson
United Houma Nation
Montegut, LA

Featured in Seasoned With Spirit, a PBS Native American cooking show, Lora Ann demonstrates Houma traditional palmetto half-hitch coil baskets & crafts. She learned to make palmetto baskets from Janie Luster when she was twenty-five years old. Lora Ann also uses the half-hitch coil technique employed by her mentor. She has demonstrated her craft at the Cabildo, Cannes Brulee, the annual Native American Arts and Crafts Day in Natchitoches, and at a number of museums throughout the nation.

RIVER CANE BASKETS
John & Scarlette Darden
Chitimacha
Charenton, LA

The Darden family has played an important role in preserving the centuries-old Chitimacha basket weaving tradition. They have discovered older, uniquely Chitimacha designs and have been able to recreate them in their single and double weave baskets. Currently, there are more than fifty different designs used by the tribe.

The Chitimacha, were once considered among the most skilled basket weavers in the Southeast. As older tribal members passed away, however, the tribe had almost lost this tradition. Such elders included Scarlette's grandmother, Ernestine Walls, as well as Lydia Darden and Aida Thomas. Fortunately, a few younger tribal members (who had observed the basketmaking process growing up) began actively weaving the baskets starting in the late 1980s, thus reinvigorating the tradition. Of the younger tribal members, John learned this craft as a child by listening, watching, and practicing as his grandparents created their traditional basket art. Using only his teeth, a sharp knife, water, and canes, John makes some of the best and most beautiful split cane baskets in the state.

Creating a basket takes many hours as the cane must first be gathered and then cut, split, cut again, dried, dyed, and, finally,split and cut a final time so that it is thin enough for weaving. The Dardens use red cane in the hem and on the rim of their single weave baskets, a design which has become one of their trademarks.

GARFISH SCALE JEWELRY
Janie Luster
United Houma Nation
Theriot, LA

Ms. Luster is recognized across the Southeast for her coiled half-hitch palmetto baskets—a style that had been lost to the Houma until Luster was invited to the Denver Museum of Art where such a basket was being restored. Janie also creates beautiful pins out of garfish scales which festival goers love to collect. She is one of the elders from the United Houma Nation tribe who come to the festival yearly, to share traditions at the Folklife Village.

WOOD CARVING
Roy Parfait
United Houma Nation
Dulac, LA

Roy Parfait grew up around the tradition of carving wood-his grandfather was also a woodcarver. Roy began carving on his own in 1976. He has since traveled throughout the United States and Europe demonstrating his craft. He creates animals such as ducks, beavers, rabbits, birds, fish, and pelicans using local woods like cypress, willow, and tupelo gum.

Parfait speaks both French and English. He often serves as a spokesperson for his tribe and representative for other Houma craftspeople. He has been a regular participant at the Jazz Fest for over twenty years and has twice demonstrated woodcarving at the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife.