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Pendleton to Produce Student Blanket Design for the American Indian College Fund

Denver, Colo. – The horse culture of the Plains is reflected in the Painted Pony student blanket design winner by Thomasina Stevens. The Painted Pony will gain international fame this August when woven by Pendleton Woolen Mills as part of the American Indian College Fund's (the Fund) limited edition student blanket line. Stevens' The Painted Pony design won first place in the student blanket contest and will be sold internationally to benefit the Fund's scholarship programs.

Stevens, who was raised traditionally and danced at powwows since she was a young girl, says after her design was chosen as the winner, she learned that her paternal grandfather raised horses, many of them paints. In what she says seemed to be a fated twist, she says the Painted Pony design pays homage to her grandfather.

Stevens, 37, is a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes/Ft. Peck Sioux, and is attending Fort Berthold Community College in New Town, North Dakota. She has been married for 12 years to husband Mike Stevens, the director of the technology department at Fort Berthold Community College and a computer programming teacher. Stevens has four children, three boys and a girl, ranging from ages 8 to 17. She said she decided to go back to school so that her children and family would have a better future. Coming from a family of educators, in addition to being married to a teacher (both of her parents and a sister are educators, her two other sisters are paraprofessionals in education), she chose to study teaching, and will enter the field as a high school science teacher after graduation. She attends a tribal college because “I did not have to leave home; I could be there for my kids. The school also offers online courses, which is a big factor. I could not have done this if I had to go away.”

As part of her student teaching and curriculum design programs, Stevens says that she is required to design curriculum with an American Indian cultural component. Coming from a family that raised horses, she asked her father one day why horses turned their backs to face the wind. He explained that the wind raised the hair on the horse, creating static electricity, hence energy, thereby providing warmth to the horse in the windy Great Plains winters. Through Native observation, Stevens said that American Indians had identified a property called electron transfer. Stevens works to pass on this Native way of scientific observation to students so that they can be proud of and preserve their cultural heritage and celebrate their Native intelligence. “If we don't pass this knowledge on to kids now, we as a culture are going to lose what we know. It is important to incorporate these lessons into our modern culture,” Stevens says.

Bob Christnacht, the Blanket/Home Division Manager of Pendleton Woolen Mills and a member of the selection committee, says the contest criteria included how compelling the design is, how the pattern would look after being woven, and the artist's background and intent.

Stevens will receive $500 for her design, and her expenses will be paid to attend the Santa Fe Indian Market or the Fund's New York City Gala in October.

The Painted Pony blanket is available for purchase on the American Indian College Fund Web site for $185, on the Pendleton Woolen Mills web site, and at select retailers nationwide. As part of a limited edition series, it will be retired upon the selection of a 2009 student blanket design contest winner.

The contest is open to all tribal college students, regardless of major. Richard B. Williams, president and CEO of the Fund, says “To ask our students to share with us their artistic talents is to have our relationship with them come full circle. Our students are our future.”