November is Native American History Month. Seattle Center, the home of Pacific Northwest Ballet, resides on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. This acknowledgement reminds us to strive for respectful partnerships with all people, as we search for collective healing.
PNB celebrates the diverse Native communities who have been here since time immemorial. We honor their rich history, culture, and traditions, and recognize the myriad ways Native Americans contribute to our region every day. We recently interviewed three Native women in the PNB sphere – PNB Follow Spot Operator Tammy Martin (Tlingit), STARS President Nicole Frederiksen (Tlingit), and local artist Cynthia Masterson (Comanche) – to learn more about their work, lives, and many facets of their identities.
Tammy Martin
Greetings!
Dleit ḵáa x̱’éináx̱ Tammy Martin yóo x̱at duwsáakw
Lingít x̱’eináx̱ Ooth’ Ch’áak’ yóo x̱at duwsáakw
Sik’nax̱.ádi naax̱ x̱at sitee
X̱‘aan Hít dáx̱
In English I am called Tammy Martin
In Tlingit I am called Ooth’ Ch’áak’, Grand Eagle
I belong to my mother’s clan, Sik’nax̱.ádi
from the X̱‘aan Hít, Red Clay Clan House
We are Tlingit, we come from a small island and town called Wrangell in Southeast Alaska. My mother was not allowed to be Native, she was not allowed to learn the Tlingit language or the traditional ways. They had to hide their culture in fear and shame. When I was young, I was not allowed to claim my Native heritage because I look like a white girl. Finally, as the years pass, traditional ways are precious treasures that will be lost and need to be shared, my daughter and I are able to take weaving, drawing, sewing and jewelry and language classes.
What was your path to working in live theater production?
Since high school I’ve played music in punk bands and in college I studied audio engineering, both brought me to working live concerts and at the local theater. Eventually I moved on to joining the Local 15 IATSE stagehand union, learning so much and getting to work all sorts of interesting jobs. I love not working a regular M-F 9-5 job so I can take big breaks to live life and travel. Somehow I found myself years later in a lifetime career!
What does working as a follow spot operator entail?
I get to sit in the dark, a lot! I press my face up to a hot light and smoothly swirl around. Making my light bigger at the front of the stage and shrinking smaller as the dancer moves to the back of the stage. Lot of anticipation, lighting the dancer to the tips of fingers and toes. Changing brightness and colors and all without the light hitting the proscenium, legs, props, other dancers, etc. It’s a performance for us too and if I do a good job, you probably won’t even realize a human is operating a light (but we are human and sometimes we hit those darn Nutcracker puddings!).
When you are running the follow spot, do you watch the ballet at all or are you solely focused on the work at hand?
There are times I really have to focus to be in sync with the dancer I am spotting. Other times I can take it all in. We’re not in every second of every show, just when a star needs to shine a bit brighter.
What’s your favorite ballet to light? To watch?
I love A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it’s so silly and joyful and beautiful, fun to be a part of!
What do you like to do when you’re not in the theater?
I love to hike and climb mountains, travel and spend time with friends and family, I have a 6 year old daughter so I spend a lot of time doing fun stuff with her!
Nicole Frederiksen
Nicole Frederiksen (Tlingit) has a long history with PNB as both a volunteer and colleague; in 2025 she led planning for PNB’s The Sleeping Beauty Community Day, celebrating Southeast Alaskan Native and Seattle Urban Native art, dance, and culture.
How did you first get involved with PNB STARS?
I first got involved in 2014. STARS is a volunteer fundraising guild that supports PNB through special events. I’ve always danced and love both the arts and event planning, so it felt a natural fit. My first volunteer role was helping with a big fundraiser. After meeting the amazing women of STARS and supporting the ballet behind the scenes, I fell in love with the work. I’ve been involved ever since and currently serve as President of the organization.
Is there a ballet you’re most excited to watch this season at PNB?
GHOST STORIES! I love everything Alejandro Cerrudo does; his choreography and PNB’s dancers are such a beautiful pairing. Add in a Halloween and fall theme, plus the thrill of a world premiere, and I can’t wait. 🐦⬛
Having grown up here, do you have a favorite neighborhood in Seattle?
Yes, though it’s really more of a street than a neighborhood: 70th just off 15th, between Ballard and Phinney Ridge, near Ballard High School. Almost all my favorite things are on one block: consignment shopping, vegan ice cream, a bakery, a tiny bar, a fabric shop, and cooking classes.
You have an impressive collection of vintage clothing – what tips would you give someone who’s looking to build a collection of their own?
In Seattle, some great spots are Editor Consignment, where wonderful vintage is tucked in among the consignment pieces, plus Beats and Bohos and Lucky Dry Goods in Ballard. Honestly, though, my best finds have come from small towns and travel. Wherever I go, I keep an eye out for shops and pop in. Port Townsend, Arizona, Maine, and Paris are a few places where I’ve found favorite pieces. I shop to actually wear my vintage, and I love that I can wear it to the ballet. It’s one of the few places left in Seattle where I can dress up and not get weird looks, haha!
Do you have any media recommendations for our readers?
Reservation Dogs, hands down. If you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend it. Created by Sterlin Harjo (Seminole and Muscogee) with an all-Indigenous writers’ room, it beautifully weaves together hard truths, history, and humor. Having grown up Native in Seattle and worked for my tribe for years, I love how perfectly the show captures that experience. Watching it, you realize the aunties, the humor, and the inside jokes are the same across tribes, which is so fun!
Cynthia Masterson
Cynthia Masterson (Comanche) is a bead artist, educator, and speaker based in Jimothy’s neighborhood, where you can also find her Little Bead Library. You may recognize her iconic earrings from PNB’s 2025 The Sleeping Beauty Community Day.
You have a new collection with Hotel Populus. How did that come about?
Hotel Populus calls them bead amenity kits; they had me back a couple of times and then commissioned 50 kits [inspired by] the paintings in the hotel. They have a collection of mostly local artists that made these enormous canvases, and then there’s some art in the rooms. I’m curating five different palettes to match different canvases, and whatever combination they do is going to come out looking good. It’s a DIY swag, a memento that you’ll always remember from that trip or being in the space.
You regularly hold beading workshops for pre-med students. How did you land on the connection between beading and practicing medicine?
That started in the pandemic. My friend Polly had been working with Oregon Health Sciences University and everybody was just desperate for content. We started doing the bead weaving class virtually and it really worked well. My brother’s a doctor and I talked to him about the connections. It’s just so multifaceted; you’re experiencing complex emotions in a safe space. You might be feeling anxious, because somebody’s giving you these instructions and you’re trying to listen and you can’t follow, and you’re trying to process and understand and it’s scary. And if you can learn how to manage whatever is happening in a safe space, and then carry that over to when it’s really on the line, that’s a pretty good skill to have.
When you’re beading, what’s your work process ? Do you like to binge a TV show or listen to an audiobook, or work in silence?
Sometimes I will watch TV or binge something, but most of the time I need to be looking at what I’m doing, so it’s either KEXP or podcasts. I probably have a dozen different podcasts that I listen to. My favorite themes are scams; I also love science podcasts and Good Hang with Amy Poehler.
What inspired you to teach yourself how to bead?
I had seen things and one day decided, I’m gonna figure this out – but I’m in Seattle, 2,000 miles away from where the tradition (peyote) lives in Oklahoma. I got the video from the library; it was made by somebody in Oklahoma. I learned from the video, and there was a message board where I would communicate with somebody – I have no idea who he is – who would answer questions. I also met a master beader, John, who is also Comanche, and he helped me.
The thing with my beading style is that it can go in two different directions; there is a different technique for each, and the patterns don’t transfer. I only learned that when John gave me a water bird pattern (a sacred design in the Native American church). I had to really look at it to see what was going on and from there, I made a video to show what was making it look different. Then when I was teaching pre-med students, a student had done it differently from the way I did and the way John did. I have that documented too – so if you’re trying to teach somebody [who processes information differently] then that’s a whole another eight ways to give directions.
Where can our readers find you this fall and winter?
The telephone is on view right now in an indigenous takeover at the Thurston County Museum of Fine Arts, or for a few months, [it’s known as] Coast Salish Museum of Fine Arts (on view through December 11). It’s intended to demonstrate these two different styles of bead weaving. People can call and listen to the message, and then I actually call people back.
I’m also going to Tulsa to give a talk called The Buyer’s Guide to Beads (November 10). It’s what I wish I would have known starting out: what beads to buy, suppliers, and the history of beads and seed beading.
Do you have any media recommendations for our readers?
KEXP Sounds of Survivance on Saturday mornings, and Pacific Notions on Sunday mornings. I’m usually not up then to listen to it, but I’ll listen to it on their [streaming archive].
There’s also a Maria Tallchief documentary – I heard the director talk about the difficulty in editing the vintage film to align with the music. It’s amazing to be able to see history on the screen.