Sara Scott (Warm Springs) is a traditional leather and bead worker as well as a root digger. Scott learned the traditions from her family and continues to practice them. She still digs roots on the south end of the Reservation where her grandmother first taught her to dig.
Bio
Sara Scott (Warm Springs) is a traditional leather and bead worker as well as a root digger. Scott learned the traditions from her family and continues to practice them. Scott who works with rawhide, grew up on the the Warm Spring Reservation. Her mother, Brenda Scott, taught her daughter the first steps by having her string beads for necklaces and key chains. Scott now creates intricate beaded regalia for family members. She especially likes the turquoise of the Southwest tribes and uses it in earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. Scott’s sister, Brigette McConville, sells Scott’s beaded jewelry at her shop, Salmon King Fisheries. Beadwork was not the only childhood tradition that Scott learned; she often watched her paternal grandmother, Lela Scott, do rawhide work, which inspired her to begin making saddle bags as well as quivers, earrings, and parfleche (French term for a Native American rawhide bag or container) from commercially tanned hides. Scott still digs roots on the south end of the Reservation where her grandmother first taught her to dig. Root diggers use a traditional tool to dig with called a cuppin that is now made of metal instead of wood. This is backbreaking work, requiring 3-4 hours to dig about 3 gallons. Scott uses traditional methods of cooking and preserving the roots, which she peels, washes, and boils and then cooks with fish, usually salmon. Scott regularly contributes to the annual community Root Feast/Huckleberry Feast.
