Governor's Arts Awards - Nevada Arts Council

MIKE WILLIAMS
EXCELLENCE IN FOLK AND TRADITIONAL ARTS
The foremost practitioner of an ancient style of tule duckmaking, Mike Williams
transports viewers back hundreds of years to when another civilization lived in
the Great Basin.
In the late 1990s a deepening respect for his ancestors and the survival arts of the
early Native peoples of northern Nevada led Williams to investigate the tule work
and duck decoy making of his family in Fallon. While visiting the Lovelock Cave
where 2,000-year-old duck decoys had been excavated in the 1920s, Williams, a
Walker River Paiute, connected to the people who created nets, snares and
baskets and their way of living from the tule stalks-otherwise known as bulrushes.
This connection was so deep that he recreated the art of decoy making in the
ancient Lovelock style and dedicated himself to reviving Northern Paiute arts
such as string manufacture, quiver and mat making and other 'tule technologies.'
“The decoys and other items he has produced have been of the highest caliber,
truly works of art,” notes Nevada Anthropology Professor Catherine Fowler, in
her supporting letter. “He takes great pains to use the correct paints and other
substances on his decoys.”
An engaging communicator, Williams generously shares his techniques and
knowledge of the prehistoric Lovelock Culture, teaching traditional arts to family
members, Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe children and traveling to Israel as part of
a Native American ministry. His work is on display at the Nevada State Museum,
and now represents Nevada at the National Museum of the American Indian in
Washington,D.C.
“It's my purpose in life to teach this art and pass it on,” says Williams. And, in so
doing, preserves Northern Paiute art and culture for future generations.