Mitchell and Morseau taught students a traditional style Anishinaabe technique for bead embroidery. 

“This is commonly seen at powwows, on powwow regalia and different sorts of Native art,” Mitchell said. 

This beadwork is used on a variety of garments and jewelry: moccasins, medallions, keychains and necklaces among others, Mitchell explained.

Angie Sanchez, a doctoral student studying geography, environment and spatial sciences said beadwork is not only just an artistic expression, but also a social pastime for some Indigenous communities.

“It's just something that we do, we were brought up this way,” Sanchez said. 

Beadwork has a long history in Indigenous cultures like the Anishinaabe. Mitchell said the practice predates contact with settlers, with older forms of embroidery using beads drilled from shells or cedar berries and Caribou hair used for thread.

Mitchell, who owns a bead shop in Grand Rapids, said beading is a form of expression for her culture and can be a meditative process.

“It's many things. It's art, it's meditation, it's a career,” Sanchez said. “A lot of us wear beadwork every day.” 

Sanchez compared Indigenous cultures’ passion for beadwork to a cultural obsession with name brand shoes like Jordans.

“And we do the same, except with beadwork,” she said.

After a month of working on programming for Native American Heritage Month, Morseau said this event serves as a way to decompress.  

“It's that point in the month where I feel like we're all really drained and have over committed ourselves to things, because we’re 1% of the population, but the need has increased for Native perspectives on things, and our relative population has not increased,” Morseau said. 

Mitchell said she wants to hold more beading circles in the future but pointed toward a lack of administrative support as a roadblock. She said herself and Morseau provided all of the materials for the event, in addition to the initial planning.

“We can't be regularly running out to buy the snacks or make sure this stuff is here,” Mitchell said. “We need administrative support to build this kind of programming. And not having that is hard on us, but it's also it's depriving the student experience.”