Interview with Ollie Napesni
1700-1-1
In the first portion of the interview, Napesni reminisces about her late son, including the events leading to his death. She speaks about her year of mourning. The interview then turns to Napesni's quilting, and the difficulty she's had with it due to arthritis. She speaks of how the crippling pain in her hip was relieved through an act of faith healing. Returning to the discussion on quilting, Napesni tells of her methods regarding the teaching of quilting to her students. She mentions that she has made over four hundred quilts, and speaks of what she looks at in terms of the quality of a quilt. An hour into the interview, Napesni talks about her name. She indicates that her Indian name is "Eagle Shawl Woman". Ollie was the name given to her by her mother, and her middle initial, V, stands for "Viola". Her last name, Napesni, was given to her father and means, "never retreats". When the government required last names to be translated into English, they erroneously translated Napesni into "not stampede". As a girl, Ollie didn't like the name, and called herself Ollie Asia for a time. In the last portion of the interview, the topic returns to quilting.




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