Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Keeli Littleleaf
0 Plays2 seconds ago
A proud powwow dancer, cultural educator, and fashion visionary, Keeli Littleleaf continues to blaze trails wherever she goes. Known for her signature high-step jingle and fringe style, she embodies power, healing, and movement through every step and every stitch.
As the founder of the Northwest/West Coast Indigenous Fashion show & Market and creator of AYAYAT, a fashion line inspired by her Indian name Ayayat Washasha — meaning “beautiful dancing” — Keeli weaves ancestral teachings into breathtaking couture that celebrates body positivity, inclusivity, and Indigenous elegance.
From walking NYC Fashion Week to designing for MMIP awareness with her powerful Medicine Ledger Dress, Keeli’s artistry moves with purpose and passion. She is the heartbeat of a new generation — where fashion becomes ceremony and storytelling becomes medicine.
Something Rather than Nothing Podcast is an international show focuses on art, philosophy and liberation
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Keely Little Leaf
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing. Creator and host, Ken Valente. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
00:00:17
Speaker
Hey everybody, this is the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast and I am excited to have the guest that I have on, Keely Little Leaf.
00:00:28
Speaker
And Keely's a fashion designer, artist, um helps to run ah native ah fashion shows, an activist on the important issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit.
00:00:47
Speaker
I'm really, really, really happy to have you on the program,
Passion for Indigenous Fashion
00:00:51
Speaker
Kayleigh. Welcome. Thank you, Ken. I am a yeah friend of the show, Kola Shippen Tower, um ah was was talking about your work.
00:01:05
Speaker
And I'm really pleased to have the the opportunity to learn a bit more about, let's say, fashion, indigenous ah fashion and um your work around it. And um also, and was quite thrilled to read about um and design of jingle dresses. And i have a like a paucity in my understanding about kind of the history of um native design, but like the jingle dress. um There's a lot of different ah things to talk about, but can you start by telling us a bit about
00:01:41
Speaker
um your creativity in Native fashion and how you ah create a venue to um display and show and celebrate Indigenous fashion.
00:01:53
Speaker
Absolutely, Ken. Well, thank you to anyone that's listening and tuning in.
Balancing Tradition and Modernity
00:02:04
Speaker
Little Leaf, my English name.
00:02:08
Speaker
um to you i said hello good day everybody my name is keeie liie my english name Keely Little Leaf, my Indian name is Aya Awashashah, which translates to beautiful dancing.
00:02:21
Speaker
um i am from Pecani Nation, Blackfeet, Brockett, Alberta, Canada, and I'm also a descendant of the Confederated Tribes of Worm Springs, located in Oregon. um My creativity really just comes from my adherence to our cultural knowledge and traditions while trying to uphold our customary beliefs, also shedding light on ah modernization, on exploration and cultural identity through fashion.
00:02:53
Speaker
and Truly, my purpose with getting involved was to um give other young ladies a sense of pride and joy when seeing the fashion industry, the entertainment industry, and trying to propel them as well, giving them a voice, giving them you know spaces to be and opening up doors that they might otherwise see closed.
00:03:14
Speaker
um good and So really it's it's kind of like a effervescent hub of just everything in Indigenous fashion for me. I like to see other people's cultures and other people's customs um be incorporated into various fashion forms, whatever that may be, whether it's jewelry, clothes, accessories, couture, streetwear.
Journey into Art and Beadwork
00:03:39
Speaker
think there's so much beauty in all avenues.
00:03:42
Speaker
So really just creating a platform and a space for that has been the ultimate goal, Ken. Yeah, I love it. Thank you. ah So tell us, tell us like ah going back, I ask about creativity and like you know when when you were when you were young or you're growing up, like did all of a sudden you say like to yourself, like I'm an artist, I'm a creator. like was there Was there a moment, um it's just as far as your background in relation to creativity?
00:04:11
Speaker
um Well, it all happened by accident, Ken. um So if you will, I didn't really grow up in a reservation setting. i grew up in the city and then also, you know, had spent time on the reservation, but didn't like grow up there.
00:04:28
Speaker
So really, once I became a little more self-aware as a child, I wanted to get more involved with my culture and I found identity there.
00:04:39
Speaker
um so I had a beating lesson from one of my aunties up in Mount Hood and it took one afternoon and she made me and make this tiny little like rosette thing.
00:04:52
Speaker
and It was slow at first, you know, first couple hours, but I spent all day trying to get this little tiny rosette done, this circular pattern of beadwork.
00:05:05
Speaker
And I kept running out of thread because I was getting somewhere. And by the end of the day, i came to her and I showed her what I had produced. And just being an eight year old kid, having produced a whole piece of beadwork in a day,
00:05:20
Speaker
was quite miraculous, I guess. up and And she kind of said, cure a prodigy. And i fell in love with it after that. And I've now been beating for 22 years since I was that eight-year-old little girl. 30 now.
00:05:38
Speaker
um And so that creativity really just came from, I think, a sense of finding finding myself through that art form and then being able to express it further in the places and avenues I was going. um And beadwork kind of became my my safe place, my sense of like,
00:05:57
Speaker
Okay, this is what I want to do. This is my creation. And it kind of became like an inner working coming out. um And i hope i hope that answers your question, Ken. Yeah, yeah. I mean, i kind of keyed in when you were talking about it, like, um you know, being...
Cultural Significance of Indigenous Fashion
00:06:17
Speaker
maybe young and and precocious and producing something. Just having somebody else say like, kind of holy shit, like look at that. like I can't believe what she did you did. that's that's that's like That's just an an an incredible thing. So it it happened young. um Tell us about, like you know i'm on on the show, on the podcast, I love talking about creators and kind of like learning. kind of like ah different ways of creating and also like some of the background. um you know
00:06:49
Speaker
um I've ah seen ah just the absolutely um ah beautiful photographs, both of of the models and in in the clothing they wear. um And I've seen ah maybe more indigenous fashion shows, at least in the Pacific Northwest, um kind of advertised and and displayed.
00:07:09
Speaker
like I'm not a fashion expert, but like for me, I have the feel, like not only in the creation and what's worn, um but in aspects of um the ceremony and presentation that there's something particular about indigenous fashion. And am am I correct in assuming that or like ah just just saying what what is it maybe that somebody would go there would see that might might might feel different um ah than ah maybe a standard fashion show? Absolutely, Ken. So let's let's talk about the stereotypes for a second. Yeah. um Throughout, you know, modern media, um there has been romanticized ideals of the American Indian. You've seen it in, you know, various Caucasian fashion shows, big corporate, um all types of different variations of that stereotypical headdress, fringe, um turquoise.
00:08:09
Speaker
Apparently we ride buffaloes and speak with animals, that type of thing, right? yeah um and so At these fashion shows that Indigenous people are holding, ah typically we want to break those stereotypes.
00:08:23
Speaker
um You know, there are so many different tribal nations across the USA and Canada that have different variations of their culture, their beliefs, their clothing. And really trying to own in on those particular tribal designs for those particular tribal artists is important to acknowledge.
00:08:43
Speaker
That acknowledgement is a huge key factor in, you know, the pride and succession of what these artists are trying to do. um So really owning our indigenous hood, if you will, and taking it back, breaking those westernized beauty standards and colonial mindsets and really trying to portray our best light.
00:09:06
Speaker
um My grandma, she always said, you know, wear your best. wear your Sunday best. um That means your hair is nice and braided. That means your moccasins are on and on fleek. um And throughout the ages, i think regardless of any nation you visit, um they always looked particularly beautiful or regal or in a sense took pride in what they made and then wore.
Educational Role of Fashion
00:09:30
Speaker
And traditionally in those those really old photographs, you see women wearing their book skin, wearing their ribbon skirts, you know, wearing these different items of clothing. And the clothing not only was significant to where they come from, but also what kind of community...
00:09:46
Speaker
um standing they were in, you know, how much wealth they had, how many, how successful they were in their own perspectives. So um and with that, I think it's just bringing a sense of
00:10:02
Speaker
of identity again to the piece, um to our audiences and having that exploration into education about why these pieces are the way they are, about why they're um they're here, how they were constructed, um what's the ideals, the stories behind them.
The Jingle Dress
00:10:22
Speaker
I, um in particular, in conversation, ah just like about design, it's like the, ah in different traditions, the the fantastic color and color combinations. But there's another piece too I had mentioned about ah the jingle dress. like Normally, I don't think about fashion or think about like that type of design and say, what about sound? and Can you tell me, like can you take a stab or just like help me out like as far as like the significance, not only in the design, but of of of the sound of, like say, the jingle dress? Because I know ah you have a particular proficiency and gift in in that area as well.
00:11:06
Speaker
I've done a thing or two, Ken. I noticed. Well, Jingle Dress, first and foremost, is my my love and passion. That is my safe space. Truly, in my youth, the the style and the way of life in powwow culture ah surrounding the Jingle Dress, I would say probably saved my life um in multiple aspects.
00:11:31
Speaker
Kept me sober. it Kept me on a good path. But the dingle jingle dress is really special. um And the origin story, I'll give you a brief kind of rundown because this varies from place to place.
00:11:44
Speaker
I was taught by an Anishinaabe lady over from the Great Lakes, and that's where the jingle dress is is said to come from. And pretty much it's a story about a young lady who fell ill and because the love of her father and love of creator, um she was heard. Her father was gifted a dream and there were very specific instructions in this dream to construct a dress, a garment really, but a garment of prayers.
00:12:14
Speaker
um And so it said in the story, When he had these, when he constructed these dresses, he put prayers into each and every single cone. And he did this multiple times. He created a few dresses and then had his his girl also dressed down in one of these sacred dresses because he had so much prayers. He just wanted her to get better. And so as the community was dancing, each round she was able to come to and get better and heal. And the sickness finally lifted from her as the dancers were dancing, the prayers coming up through their feet, through their dresses, emulating that sound and that that energy.
00:12:55
Speaker
Because they're scientifically, there is energy and sound. So I i believe this. um Even the Northern Lights have a very similar sound to this this dress. If you ever hear them, it's like kush, kush, kush, kush.
00:13:08
Speaker
um But the sickness lifted from this girl and it lifted from her people in the region. And so since that day, that dress was considered medicine, considered healing to all who heard it, seen it, felt it, danced And I think that resonates with so many people because our communities definitely need healing in a multitude.
00:13:27
Speaker
so From then on, it kind of flourished and grew. it was almost lost to us, you know, around the 20s to 50s. And then it just took a couple ladies from those regions to bring it back. And people were like, well, we really like this. And then it kind of rejuvenated and became ah a consistent powwow category.
00:13:51
Speaker
And those old traditional dresses, if you see in like pictures and stuff, they're very like muted and mundane and with respect a little bit ugly. But ugly but and through powwows and contesting, um as everybody does, it evolves.
Artistic Expression and Balance
00:14:09
Speaker
and For a long time, the jingle dress wasn't such a popular category, so we had to share the floor with fancy shawl dancers. and Those dancers are like the most modern like aptitude, athletic dancers in our styles. and so They're always you know looking flashy and big and bright and colorful.
00:14:30
Speaker
and so The jingle dress kind of became almost its own own style and now it is it is acknowledged as its own style um and there's two styles so there's the old style which emulates more of that old feeling traditional style and then there's the contemporary which is pretty much made to um to fit in with those fancy dancers
00:14:57
Speaker
uh thank you so much that's such a I could feel my breath holding up a couple times, a beautiful a story be behind that. And I think um I was just so enthralled, you know, haven't seen it live and heard it live like once, maybe a year or two back and being around it and like my brain kind of exploded with wonder, you know, of like you said, of the sound being healing and being like, wow, like so it was um really moving and um
00:15:29
Speaker
ah just really precious and thinking about um you know medicine and healing. and just Again, like it's such it's such an eye-oriented thing like for us in general like to think about of you know the dress, but that sound is um is is just, i could feel I could feel how you describe Thank you for so much for ah ah for for giving some more of that background in its um reclamation.
00:15:59
Speaker
I wanted to ask you, Keely, I wanted to ask you one of the conceptual questions of the show as an artist and creator, and that you do do quite a few things in creation. What art?
00:16:12
Speaker
What is art? Why you towards and creativity? What is why do you you know or veer towards art and creativity what is it
00:16:23
Speaker
um Ken, I honestly think it's because my right brain wars with my left brain internally. And I need balance. i'm very Jingle dress dancing is balanced. I want to be a balanced person.
00:16:39
Speaker
um My day job, I work in banking. um So there are there are specific answers. With art, there's no...
00:16:51
Speaker
There's no rhyme or reason. There doesn't have to be. it can be
Fashion as Advocacy
00:16:55
Speaker
expression. It can be, you know, self-discovery. It can be so many different things um that art, I think, is almost a pop culture in my mind.
00:17:04
Speaker
and I just get the best feeling from being able to bring something into creation. And my creation seemed to resonate with people in different ways and different manners. And what really makes me the happiest is when they resonate in such a way where others feel, feel something, feel something a little bit further that they didn't otherwise think was there. Yeah.
00:17:30
Speaker
I love that. I, um, When you're talking about the the healing for yourself and and and and um the jingle dress, I was thought of of somebody very close to me who was moving into a sobriety house and it's been a very good experience in holding their sobriety. and um when they first When they first went there, there was the drum circle out there, the red road um of indigenous healing and acceptance. and i just like
00:18:07
Speaker
i tell you I can't tell you how moved I was like as ah you know with with with worry around this. I've been sober from alcohol for 16 years, but also those close to me.
00:18:19
Speaker
And i don't know, just even hearing talk about the sound of the jingle dress, it's like there's these opportunities that are just right there um that have that have just really helped me.
00:18:32
Speaker
ah in and in my family. and it was just a really beautiful, important thing that that they encountered, like um an openness and a care and an ah eye towards healing. And so I really picked up on your point of, you know, with the jingle dress and creativity and how difficult it can be sometimes. But the
00:18:56
Speaker
medicine, the healing that that can be nearby or surprising has been particularly important for me. So I really felt that when you're talking about that.
00:19:07
Speaker
William, congratulations on so many years of sobriety. Yeah, yeah. um ah really really so Really special and all the things um that can help me help you know keep me you know keep my brain balanced, including doing art, including talking to you, Keely Little Leaf, and learning about you. and and and and learning about ah art. can you How about this? Can you take us into, like Keely, you put these things together, you're heavily involved putting, ah let's say, the fashion show. Can you just like take us into, like um not all like the details that might not be exciting, but like how to what's the presentation? like What happens? um What type of ah models and designers are there when you put on a show?
00:19:58
Speaker
um I really like giving equal opportunity to everybody. So you'll, I think the buzz comes from just the unknown. Every show is different. Every show is ran a little bit, um you know, ah just different, different than everything. And when bringing people together, um really it's just to have the best intention with that, know,
00:20:24
Speaker
You want to see people succeed in whatever avenues they are. so you know, being open minded to those differences and being open hearted. i know my productions are always um all inclusive, body positive. no lateral oppression or lateral violence against each other. i think we have enough of that you know in other aspects of the world.
00:20:47
Speaker
um and Really just propelling you know indigenous fashion, business, um entertainment, ah With our designers, um just I think all avenues are beautiful. there There's really no discrimination. um you know I never ask for tribal ID or you know enrollment. I never ask for them to you know um do much of anything except just bring their their beauty and their homage to the stage for eyes to see.
00:21:20
Speaker
um with this last show the one ask i did have of the various designers was to have a look dedicated to mmip or mmaw this is not to try and glamorize the movement by any means this is not a pretty subject which i always when speaking about this i always you know give kind of a disclosure that it's hard.
00:21:45
Speaker
um And I'm not just the one voice about it. You know, so many people have been affected in various ways from this this crisis within our community that it's it's very hard to sometimes speak on.
00:21:59
Speaker
So instead of speaking on it, i feel like sometimes the best way to show support, to show advocacy, hopes for justice and a brighter tomorrow is to have visuals and to honor those that haven't haven't been found or haven't you know gotten the acknowledgement.
00:22:22
Speaker
And so that red color, ah red being the only color spirits see in a lot of our lore and a lot of the various nations across the USA and Canada, believe, um you know, in hopes this brings a sense of closure and also a sense of hope that there can be continued support, continued success and um a means to an end.
00:22:51
Speaker
for this pandemic that's been hurting Indian country for honestly forever. Yeah. I was some shocked to consciousness about it within, you know I think it was very important to um the visual display. Like you said, not there has to be a balance of like you know the visual representation of something so deeply ah historically intense and wrong.
00:23:18
Speaker
But for me, you know, my brother's a runner. So I like the first thing I saw was like ah um Rosalie Fish and Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses, Daniel, um with the mark on the face and the and and the paint.
00:23:36
Speaker
And it was a shock to consciousness. It prompted all the questions. I'm like, you know, what is this? and so I would say even from that point in doing this show six years ago, it was that singular, what what is that? And running, and you know, so that it brought me into it. And, um really has helped me create deeper relationships and having somebody like Keely, on the show um to talk about this. um and I'm really proud of my own exploration and trip ups, honestly. But you know the trip ups have led me to a deeper understanding of um this is an important issue for me. I i had forgotten, I talked, like for example, of like these ancillary things that can happen. I forgot I talked to my, visited my ah dad out east a couple weeks ago, visited my family. And I had mentioned this maybe three years ago. I was like, hey, you know hey family, do you do you know like this is happening? Do you understand like that this this is, and they were kind of like, whoa. And then my dad watched a movie or two and he came back and talked to me i was like, i didn't remember like kind of like being,
00:24:45
Speaker
like, hey, you need to know this. So it's like just kind of years later and it's this it's just this feeling of like when it shows up and bringing about awareness and maybe it's just like the visual or something else or a story, it can lead people, I truly believe in unexpected people to be like, you know, that's like seriously wrong. is Like there's this unreality. I think sometimes that can't happen. There's laws here and it's like, you know, like,
00:25:13
Speaker
of breaking and saying this is this is a true ongoing historical moment atrocity that... So anyways, i like in a sense of never knowing how to come in contact with it and and and when then you do, I really appreciate everything you
Collaborative Fashion Shows
00:25:32
Speaker
do. I know in talking Kola Shippen Tower, a friend and us ah ah a guest on on on the show, um again, deepening my learning and trying to
00:25:45
Speaker
um
00:25:48
Speaker
fight injustice, look for safety, ah that people should be able to walk, move, run freely, and that there should be protections against the the worst type of crimes. so oh And COLA is a great resource for you know not only...
00:26:05
Speaker
self-defense and personal safety, but also just as someone that has been, you know, personally affected by that, by the pandemic and, you know, has has a lot of accolades to behind what she does. She's a professional athlete and actually she's one of my main models too for my brand. So she'll be accompanying me to Palm Desert next weekend, which is incredible.
00:26:31
Speaker
she was featured in... Yeah. Oh, go ahead. I saw the ad for that. Go ahead. Yeah. yeah is um So it's called Gathering Under the Stars and it's at the California Nations Indian College in Palm Desert, California.
00:26:45
Speaker
i am the featured designer there. So I'll be showcasing with a lot of local talent. But then I do try and make it kind of a habit to bring a couple of my own models um just because there's certain designs or certain things like I make specifically for them to showcase.
00:27:02
Speaker
um because they inspire me for various reasons or they have, you know, a sense of they know how to wear these garments and what they're about. So it's just it's more of a personal touch. Kola actually was in New York and she wore two designs for me this last year at Red Horizons fashion show. So she wore my jingle dress and I made her dance a jingle song, which is really cool. um And then I also had her wear these wings.
00:27:30
Speaker
um And i I am a huge lover of Victoria's Secret fashion. i'll I'll put it out there. um i i don't know. Just ever since i was a little girl, I've wanted to design for a Victoria's Secret. And so I've made my own renditions of the wings. Yeah, those. Yeah, the the large. Yeah, yeah.
00:27:48
Speaker
I'm just waiting until they pick me up someday, Ken. but hey i mean know I'll just say like in general, I'm more for everything that you're talking about. like it's Yeah, that's all good.
00:27:59
Speaker
but i did I did design some specifically for the MMIP, MMIW movement. And so I made it a community effort. I bejeweled one half of the wings um to be pretty and beautiful and eye-catching.
00:28:13
Speaker
And then on the other side of the wings, I put the names of various missing or murdered people within our own community. And then I put in bright bold letters, let's talk about it. And that's to signify...
00:28:29
Speaker
you know, the the glamorization of everything. It's a duality of, um you know, trying to pull people in and then having the conversation about what this actually really means.
00:28:41
Speaker
Having that deeper layer, that deeper meaning and continuing to advocate and acknowledge what has happened.
Finding Keely's Work Online
00:28:49
Speaker
And I think it's a great way through fashion because you have so many eyes on you. And then people are, you know, they're wondering what's what's this? What does this mean? Like, let's talk about it. And then it's a perfect open ah airway to talk about, hey, these this is a visual of how many are still missing who still haven't you know received their justice or received closure. So what can we do?
00:29:11
Speaker
How can where can we start? How can we get government more involved? How can we. create, you know, funding for searches and for these, mand I think, what should be mandatory um investigations. You know, there needs to be a lot more justice. Can you let us know ah folks are interested here? I'm more interested, of course, but where to find um your your work, your creativity, ah potentially um resources about MMIW, MMIP, places to lead folks to because you do a whole bunch and I'd really love people to come in contact with your work.
00:29:51
Speaker
Absolutely, Ken. Well, all of you can find me at Keely Little Leaf spelled exactly how it sounds on Facebook. That is my only form of social media at this time, as well as my YouTube channel, which is far outdated, but you can see some dancing snippets if you're ever interested.
00:30:08
Speaker
i will be launching my website, a House of Ayayat. At the, ah i want to say beginning of December, and I will have links to all the associated brands, including Umpqua Advocacy, which is a nonprofit organization based out of Grand Ronde specializing in advocacy for MMIP and MMIW.
00:30:30
Speaker
I will also have links to Native Queens Design, which is my producer for a lot of my garments at this time, as well as sourcing my own garments in the future that I've been working on I'll have my full portfolio collection, access to open model calls, all of my model portals so that from previous shows they can view their walks and their videos, photos, items like that. I'll also have a missing persons board on my website as well. So if anybody in the local community needs support, um and just having that open dialogue for interpersonal connection.
00:31:10
Speaker
um And i yes, I will just link all of that in my on my website and also links to art forms like this, podcasts, interviews, um all types of things and so that you can stay up to date all in one place.
Conclusion and Farewell
00:31:27
Speaker
I tell you, so and at least for me with the website and everything got going on there, thank you very much. I'll be looking forward looking forward to seeing it. and um Just really deep thanks. um it is it's It's truly an honor, Keely, and I know we haven't met before, but it's truly an honor. um to be able to speak with you and um you know to to talk about these important and and beautiful things um and and difficult things as well. But um really appreciate everything you do. um Best of luck in upcoming
00:31:59
Speaker
um upcoming shows and um yeah i we should chat again soon there's there's a whole bunch um since you do so much there's a whole bunch i could see myself uh walking with you and talking with you about further on so uh thank you so much for coming on to the something rather than nothing podcast absolutely ken thank you for having me have a good day everyone take care keely thank you ken you too thank you bye-bye
00:32:37
Speaker
This is something rather than nothing.