Teri Greeves

Born: 1970

Country of Birth: USA

Nationality: USA

Ethnicity: Native American - Kiowa

St. John's College 1988; Cabrillo College 1993; University of California-Santa Cruz BA American Studies 1995

""By repeating to customers what I heard her saying when she was selling to and educating the public," Teri says, "I unknowingly gained a broad knowledge of different beadwork from tribes around the US." (Wikipedia); "A long time ago, a Kiowa woman brought beadwork to her Kiowa people. She was compelled to express herself and her experience as a Kiowa woman of her day. My grandmother was a beadworker. She too was compelled to bead/express herself and her experience as a Kiowa living during her time. ... I must express myself and my experience as a twenty-first-century Kiowa, and I do it, like all of those unknown artists before me, through beadwork." (Wikipedia); "By speaking about the history and values of my people through my work, I can help bring balance into the world my children would grow up in." (fourwindsgallery.com); “I started beading around eight years old and I’ve never sat my needles down. I say every stitch I take is an act of resistance. Every stitch I take is also a prayer. A prayer for survival, for the joy of life, for our beloved ancestors and our yet-to-come generations.” (unitedstatesartists.org); “What Zee [her Shoshone aunt] really told me was to look at the overall object,” Teri recalls. “When we were done with the moccasins, it was the negative space created with those beaded lines that created the pattern—a deer hoofprint. That space informed the viewer as to what the moccasins meant. And so from the moment I first started working on beadwork, I didn’t just see it as a way to cover things up.” (historynet.com); “Part of it is fighting for sovereignty, mutual respect,” she says. “That’s what my great-grandfather fought for as a Kiowa person. That goal is what I try to bring through in my work. If I can make an object that is so beautiful, that someone comes over to see and then walks away realizing what it is to connect to a Kiowa person—I mean similar things flow through all of us—if I can do that, then I’m still fighting the good fight.” (historynet.com); "

— Teri Greeves

Field of Study: Textiles - Traditional Beadwork

Institution/Corporation: None found

Degrees & Memberships: Membership: American Craft Council (2022);

Awards: has won awards from the Heard Museum, Indian Market, and Eight Northern Pueblos Arts and Crafts Show; 1999 Best of show, Santa Fe Indian Market; 2025 Maxwell/Hanrahan Award in Crafts

Achievements: is widely known for her fully beaded tennis shoes, which feature pictorial elements on solid, lane-stitched backgrounds; is a regular contributing writer to First American Art Magazine; was a co-curator of Hearts of Our People, a groundbreaking national traveling exhibition of Native American women’s art that opened in 2019; uses her beadwork to tell stories;