Thinking about beadwork -- Marcus Amerman's beaded creations

I am settling in at SAR (school for advanced research) in Santa Fe and have been reading up on the history of the institution. So many artists, writers, scholars and many others have come to this place to learn, study, write and create. While reading about SAR in A Peculiar Alchemy, i came across Choctaw artist Marcus Amerman who was a fellow here. His artwork encompasses a variety of mediums including beadwork, glass, painting and performance. At SAR he created a beautiful wildflower beadwork vest - reminescent for me of the beaded floral vests made by many Metis in the nineteenth century. The use of what appears to be black velvet as a background for the beadwork also parallels metis fashion choices. In Amerman's other works, he often combines well-known images of native people, juxtaposed against skyscrapers, and other geographies situating and asserting native space. His skillful beadwork technique is at once traditional, recalling earlier native artists, but also contemporary in his revamping of visual culture, using beadwork to transcend the gaps between what are often seen as two distinct categories in art, "traditional" and "contemporary" beadwork. Though i think that these two areas are not neccessarily exclusive.
Above is a photograph of his beaded vest, created 2005. You can also access his website by clicking on his name.