Jamica Diamond

Jamica resides in the Mackinac Straits area of Michigan. Her grandfather Damas, moved from Quebec Canada to Oklahoma where he was married to a Cherokee woman named Dorothy St Clair.

Growing up in the straits area from the age of eight years old, she learned her craft by watching the Elder women build traditional birch bark baskets. She was taught the deeply spiritual meaning of harvesting and constructing the baskets. These birch bark baskets were very important to the native cultures as a means of preserving food for storage during the long winter months. She was taught to understand that the birch trees would sacrifice their lives for the baskets, so it was very important to honor the trees for their sacrifice. This process led Jamica to learn the very spiritual and shamanic relationships that native people had with nature and all life. She began to utilize her ever developing skills to include working with beads to tell stories on her baskets. In addition to working with leather bones and shells, to create her truly authentic style of traditional American Indian Art.