Elias Not Afraid (b. 1991) is Apsáalooke (Crow) from Montana. He is a world renowned, genre-defying artist with awards and ribbons spanning beadwork to fashion to makeup to textiles. As a self-taught artist who grew up surrounded by traditional arts, powwows, and ceremony, Not Afraid is known for creating wearable art made to survive everyday use through the generations. He is also celebrated for creating unique and innovative pieces for runways, red carpets, brand names, and museums. Not Afraid’s work has been sold at Nordstrom, adorned the ears of Lily Gladstone in People Magazine, and is a permanent fixture in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Not Afraid was one of the final five artists picked to design a bank card for Wells Fargo bank based on his beadwork; that beadwork is now in the Wells Fargo permanent collection. He collaborated with the NFL for the 57th Super Bowl in 2023, gave a TEDx talk in 2024 called “life after death”, and was featured in multiple online Vogue articles. Lily Gladstone wore his Dentallium breastplate necklace. In 2024, his beadwork was installed in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Collateral:

Can you tell us a little bit about you and how you came to art and beadwork in particular?

Not Afraid:

I grew up on the Crow Indian reservation in the country with my family. During the winter, especially when it was snowing, me and my brothers would be extremely bored, and we had no satellite / cable tv or internet back then. We lived in my Great Grandmother Joy Yellowtail’s house and there was always beadwork lying around, or in cupboards or file cabinets. We had this big wooden box in the kitchen that we had stuff piled on for years, and one winter I opened the cedar chest and it was a lot of my grandmother’s beadwork and supplies. So I took a pair of beaded leggings, cut the thread on part of the leaf design, and used a thread and needle to replicate the stitching. I taught myself how to do the two needle beading technique and it started from there.

I have been beading since I was twelve years old. In 2015, I became a full time artist living solely off my beading. In 2016, I entered my first art market at the Santa Fe Indian Art Market and won ribbons. I also attended the Heard Museum’s Indian art market in Phoenix, Arizona and won multiple awards at both art markets. I did a collaboration with Crate&Barrel and designed two area rugs for them with my beadwork in 2018.

When I bead, if not on a commission, I always create what I want to make, and I come up with the design and colors on the spot. At a young age, I made myself constantly create new designs and document the patterns. I challenged myself when I was in school to sketch in journals, notebooks, etc. to come up with a new Crow geometric/floral designs on the spot, then later on, I started to “free hand” my colors of beads and write down color combos that I liked. I wrote all these down in multiple notebooks that I keep with me in case I ever get a “beaders-block” so I can fall back on these notebooks full of designs and colors. So far, I’ve never had to use them, but I still document my work.

When I start a big project, I have to isolate myself and listen to music or go for a drive. I will picture the beaded piece in my head, then I’ll write it down in my notebook and deconstruct the piece in my head, writing down how to construct the piece step by step, then I’ll go home and have a base design to start the project. When you bead, you can’t mix colors like paint to get a different color; you have to find the correct bead color to match and most times it’s hard to find certain colors and shades in glass beads in modern manufactured beads. So I started collecting old Venetian glass seed beads.

I create art that I want to create, even if I get cussed out by elders in our community. All my designs are based in Apsáalooke tradition and culture, including the colors I use. I’m still a full time artist and am currently in Detroit, Michigan.

Collateral:

How has beadwork served as a healing art for you?

Not Afraid:

Art therapy really helped me get through some very tough times. As a recovering fentanyl addict, beading helped SO MUCH in my recovery process and kicking my addiction. It helped keep me occupied, and it helped me think about actions in past or present. If I was angry or frustrated, I would just go work on a project and put all that energy into my work.

*Top of “Life After Death” Cradle Board*

Collateral:

One of the many aspects that drew Collateral to your art is the mixture of motifs: skulls/bones & spikes among florals, hard with soft, traditional with modern. Can you tell us about the symbolism behind and/or significance of those contrasts? What is some of the symbolism behind the other visuals you create and materials you choose?

Not Afraid:

On my beaded cradle board “Life after Death”, the floral beadwork represents the renewal of life, and the skull at the bottom represents death and how decomposition and decay is essential for recycling nutrients and returning them to the soil to help the flowers grow.

Traditionally, as native people, before colonization, we never let anything go to waste when hunting animals; we would recycle and reuse every part of the animal, from fur to bone, for survival. Us Crow Indians would use elk ivory as adornments on clothing or jewelry. For my cradle board, I used elk ivory on the straps that held the baby and on the bottom of the board and outlined with beadwork. The cradle board is covered in hundreds of deaths when you step back and look at it from a different point of view, but all this death adorns and protects new life.

*Elias Not Afraid with “Life After Death” Cradle Board*

Collateral:

Collateral is interested in understanding and addressing the societal impacts of violence. Are there particular pieces you have created that directly confront the violence of colonialism and/or your personal battles?

Not Afraid:

Teri Greeves once said, “Every stitch I take is an act of resistance.” My Cradleboard “Life after Death” is my 5th “Horcrux”. It took me four years to collect the materials used because they are hard to find, or there’s some form of regulations and restrictions on some traditional materials we use, by the US Government, in order to complete our regalia and our traditional arts. It took two years to construct it.

While working on the project, I ended my relationship with my ex of nine years and moved back home to Montana from the Najavo rez in Arizona. I was in an outpatient program that I’m with to this day and still going, but besides that, I was mentally struggling. Then we started losing my grandparents in both my mom’s and dad’s family in the span of 2-3 years. So I channeled and poured all my emotions, the grieving and the ended relationship, into this cradleboard.

Traditionally, my tribe would bead the headboard and the straps that hold the baby, but I did something completely different. Working on this helped me process emotions and is the perfect coping mechanism to help me through this. Beading as art therapy really helped me stay out of trouble and to continue to create art. Another reason why I did a full size cradleboard was due to the fact that this art form is slowly dying out. In recent decades, beaded cradleboards were hardly made, and the ones we did see were only shown to the public by their owners during Crow Fair in August. But they are making a comeback, and I hope to make many more.

Collateral:

You were among sixteen Indigenous creators included in the recently published Ours to Tell: Reclaiming Indigenous Stories by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger (Annick Press, 2025). Through your beadwork, what story do you hope to tell about decolonization?

Not Afraid:

That we are still here.

Collateral:

What artists inspire you, and how do you hope to inspire young artists?

Not Afraid:

Growing up on the reservation, I would go to local powwows and would look at all the beadwork everyone wore on their regalia, and I would obsess over how they did it—the colors and the design. I wanted to learn to bead, but no one in my family would show me. So I just taught myself how to bead.

I just want the next generation to continue this art form so it don’t die out, and the only way to get through to them and get them interested in beading is by creating pieces that resonate with them. We also have to communicate to them how important it is to keep our traditions alive.

Collateral:

What do you feel is the most significant obstacle you face as an individual artist? What obstacles confront the Indigenous artist community?

Not Afraid:

Cultural appropriation and scammers. A lot of designs, imagery, and photos get stolen and used by large fashion houses in Europe, with no collaboration or recognition of the artist or tribe they stole designs from. Then you have scammers who make fake profiles of you, use your work posted on your page, and repost it for sale on their fake page. They use your name with an extra letter in the name or something, and people will send them money for items they won’t receive, then they delete the page; the people who were scammed go after the artist who had no clue. Because of this, a lot of talented artists hardly post anything and it’s not right.

Speaking of names: living in Montana for 20+ years and growing up there, my last name was never an issue, or was never brought up, but as soon as I moved out of state and away from the MT, ND, SD, WY area, EVERY TIME I had to use my ID card at a business, or whenever I was asked my name, they always reacted to my last name, thinking it was funny, or that I made it up.

Most times I pay it no mind, but some people will be interested in knowing what it means. Then there’re idiots who think it’s a joke and will joke too, like in Santa Fe, at the Santa Fe Indian art market (this year will be my 10th year participating in the market). The first 2-3 years I had a simple banner I hung in my booth with my name and would get asked “if I’m really Not Afraid of anything.” I’d give various responses to them, like “it’s short for ‘Not Afraid to stab you’” or “its shortened for ‘Not Afraid to shoot his enemy,’ ‘Not Afraid of to take your money.’” I mean, you name it, I said it.

Collateral:

Do you feel the non-Indigenous population’s perceptions of Indigenous artists is changing for your generation? What is your hope for future generations?

Not Afraid:

YES!!! They are starting to recognize it as a legitimate art form and I see more people interested in buying native art. With social media, we are able to expand and get our work out there in the world. It’s definitely helped me. The future generations will learn the importance of keeping our traditions and culture alive while they get older and will do their part.

Collateral:

If you had any advice for your younger self, what would it be?

Not Afraid:

Start collecting beads.