FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The Museum of Northern Arizona hosted it’s first in a three-part series on cultural appropriation on Sept. 17, titled, “Moving from Appropriation to Authenticity.”

Panelists included Santa Fe jeweler Liz Wallace, who appeared at the Flagstaff museum via Zoom, Mark Bahti of Bahti Indian Arts near Tucson, and Heard Museum Director of Community Engagement Marcus Monenkerit.

Wallace says her work is influenced by the silver making of her Diné ancestors and the basketry made by her Nisenan and Washo ancestors. Her parents Alan Wallace and Kathryn Morsea are renowned artists in their own right.

But like many Indigenous artists, Wallace has been affected by fake Native jewelry flooding the market, with the average consumer choosing to purchase cheaper knock-offs and money going into pockets of non-Natives.

“We are the only people in the entire world that can make Native American jewelry, and Native-style jewelry is popular all over the world,” Wallace said. “It’s wild how popular the reference to Native American-ness is, but how little authenticity there is out there.”

The trio talked about the shortcomings of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act which in theory prohibits falsely proclaiming an art piece is made by American Indians. A first time violator can see themselves with a 5-year prison term and/or fines up to $250,000 with businesses fined up to $1 million, but it has proved difficult to enforce.

“We can’t seem to get the prosecutors to see this and treat it as a crime of the severity and scope that it is,” Bahti said of counterfeits. “This impacts the artists, the artists’ family, the artists’ community. It has a huge ripple effect.”

The U.S. and Canada are some of the few countries with protection laws, and many of the fakes are from outside the country.

“The best way to take care of this is at the border, where it’s coming in,” Monenkerit said. “Once it gets into embarkment, and into the shops, it’s almost impossible – very difficult to determine unless you’re holding these pieces in your hand – and (the imposters) are knowledgeable about the art forms. They’re very good.”

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, of the Laguna Pueblo, has taken the issue of enforcing the Indian Arts and Crafts Act under her wing and introduced the draft for the Amendments to Respect Traditional Indigenous Skill and Talent (ARTIST) Act in March. However, polls from listening sessions in the Southwest done between April and August show largely negative support.

Bahti doesn’t think the way the ARTIST act is drafted now will help, and he doesn’t think any Native artists or collectors were consulted. Monenkerit agreed, saying the act seemed to come out of nowhere, and he doesn’t know of any Indian artists that want the changes as they are being proposed.

“I’ve got to get a semi-truck to get through the loopholes. It’s appalling,” Bahti said.

As its currently written, the ARTIST act would mean tougher crackdowns and allow federal officers to arrest, search and seize suspected violators, but will also give some non-Native laborers the right to work under a larger Native title in some situations, which could appeal to large manufacturers.

“What really, really concerned me was the proposal that things that were Native-designed and mass-produced elsewhere could be called Native-made,” Wallace said. “I have a huge, huge issue with that, because if that went into law, then a Navajo jeweler could send their designs to the same Filipino manufacturers that got busted in 2015, have their jewelry made, they could be bought back here, sold and even brought to (big) shows as Native-American made.”

How can buyers and sellers help?

Wallace said the average consumer isn’t going to want to pay extra for what looks like the same artwork at a non-Native shop.

“I think we need to elevate the image of Native Arts and Crafts, and explain why it’s so valuable, and why it has meaning, and why it’s so important to Native communities and why it’s so special,” Wallace said.

Native American art shows and ethical galleries go a long way in educating consumers with that information, but a lot of phony ones remain, he said.

Bahti said as the internet has expanded on the reservation, it has become a good tool for artists to interact with consumers.

“As internet has come to more remote areas of the reservation, artists are now using Facebook or Instagram to reach their customers directly,” he said. “If you’re out there on Facebook as an artist, and you’re trying to pull a fast one, the artists are going to oust you by the next morning. It’s a good place where you can meet an artist and develop a relationship, and learn about their work and buy with a high level of security.”

But Wallace argued that the problem will remain in some capacity until Native Americans themselves are valued more as a whole.

“Our artwork isn’t valued as this national treasure and I think that right there is the fundamental problem,” Wallace said. “We as Native people, we’re not valued and that’s one of the reasons they call it economic colonialism. Because to me it’s just an extension of…first it was stealing the land, it was stealing our culture, it was stealing our resources…and now its exploiting our artwork and exploiting our identities and stealing our identities in some cases. And until that changes, until we are seen as valuable and as real people…we’re always going to keep getting these problems.”

The Museum of Northern Arizona is holding a second panel discussion called, “More Than a Meal,” will take place Nov. 5. Panelists include Chef Jaren Bates (Diné), Chef Brett Vibber, and Toasted Sister podcast producer Andi Murphy (Diné). The third panel discussion titled, “Drawing Cultural Inspiration,” will be Jan. 5 and include Tewa artist Jason Garcia and Museum of Indian Arts and Culture Curator of Ethnology Antonio Chavarri.

The search for a Hoosier artist to paint the official portrait of Gov. Eric Holcomb has begun.

Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites is accepting applications online through Oct. 23 and will coordinate the selection process, according a news release.

The oil or acrylic painting, about 42-inches-by-32-inches, will be the 55th portrait in the collection managed by the museum organization.

To be considered, artists must be a resident or native of Indiana or a graduate of an Indiana institution of higher learning. Preference will be given to Indiana residents, the news release says.

Artists can apply at www.in.gov/arts/apply.

Applications will be reviewed by a panel that includes representatives from the museum, Indiana Arts Commission, the governor’s office, professional artists and curators.

The selected artist is expected to be announced by Jan. 31. The painting is expected to be complete be late summer and unveiled in Fall 2024. Holcomb will leave office in January 2025.

The artist’s commission will be paid through private funding.

The state’s first official gubernatorial portrait was created in 1869 for then-Gov. Conrad Baker, according to the release.

The Calgary Stampeders will observe Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation with a brand new logo designed by several local indigenous artists. 

The logo will be sported on Stampeders’ helmets when they travel to Hamilton to face the Tiger-Cats on Sept. 30. The team will also wear orange jerseys during the pregame warm-up in honour of residential school survivors. 

The special logo, designed by Richard Running Rabbit, Jacob Alexis and Siksika Health Services (SHS) CEO Dr. Tyler White, re-imagines the classic Stampeders horse in the style of contemporary plains-style traditional art. 

“There’s always pressure as Native people, we want to represent our people well, as well as produce something that people are gonna like and wear,” said Richard Running Rabbit, a member of Siksika Nation who also works for SHS.

“I think we did a really good job on that.” 

Some of the paint-style symbols included on the horse logo are a hand-print on the animal’s chest for fierceness, lightning bolts on its front legs for speed and agility, and spots on its hind quarters representing creation stories and teachings.  

“We’re a plains culture out here in Calgary, and the horse is a big part of our culture,” said Running Rabbit. 

“We got a chance to put some markings on the horse that had some cultural significance and tied it to the land out here.”

A braid will also run down the middle of the Stampeders’ helmets in remembrance of residential school students who were forced to cut off their braids when they attended those schools, said Running Rabbit. 

“The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is an important part of the acknowledgement of the tragedies of the past and the ongoing process of atonement and healing,” John Hufnagel, Stampeders president, said in a statement. 

“The Calgary Stampeders are proud to partner with the people of Treaty 7 and the Canadian Football League to participate in this observance.”

Running Rabbit said that while he thinks the Stampeders’ efforts to participate in the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a step in the right direction, he hopes viewers understand the healing doesn’t stop there. 

“It’s more than just a day, it’s more than just an event,” said Running Rabbit. 

“I hope [viewers] learn to understand the true history of Canada and some of the hardships, but also the beauty of Native culture.”

Fans can purchase T-shirts and sweatshirts with the special edition logo in the Calgary Stampeders online shop, with proceeds going to local youth programming in Treaty 7 First Nation communities, according to the organization’s social media accounts. 

Standing outside the modern, minimalist exterior of the US State Department’s Harry S. Truman Building in the nation’s capital, it’s difficult to picture the ornate reception rooms on its seventh and eighth floors.

It’s a dichotomy outlined in the opening pages of the new book “America’s Collection: The Art and Architecture of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the US Department of State.” Describing the building’s outward appearance, politely, as “massive, understated and ever so slightly aesthetically unappealing,” US Climate Envoy John Kerry, who previously served as secretary of state during the Obama administration, writes that many visitors to the building have no idea “of the treasures that can be found inside.”

And while Kerry notes that the Truman Building’s exterior is unassuming “by design,” the reception rooms inside are lavish for a similar reason: they provide the nation’s diplomats with “the biggest home field advantage, just one mahogany elevator ride away.”

That advantage, Kerry writes, allows guests to the State Department to “experience something akin to the moment in The Wizard of Oz when the picture changes from black and white to color.”

Rooms that take you back in time

“America’s Collection” gives those without diplomatic credentials a chance to experience that moment. (In-person tours are temporarily closed to the public, though visitors can also explore rooms online in a self-guided virtual walk-through.) The book offers a closer look at the rooms and collection, which includes an architect’s table said to have been used by Thomas Jefferson, furniture from the family of Francis Scott Key, author of the American national anthem, and silver crafted by Paul Revere for John Adams.

Its publication arrives amid the 240th anniversary of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution in 1783 — a fitting moment because most of the Diplomatic Reception rooms take inspiration from that era.

The Truman Building was completed in 1941, with a State Department extension added by 1960. In both cases, the architects favored modern design styles, shying away from excessive embellishments and embracing an understated minimalism. The rooms’ original interiors featured dark wood paneling and pale carpet on the floor, with hardly any artwork on the walls.

But while the building’s design was oriented toward the future, curator Clement Conger and architect Edward Vason Jones looked to the past when tasked with the reception rooms’ renovation in the 1960s. Relying on private donations, both men set out to redesign the rooms and build an extensive collection of American art. Over the years, other curators and architects continued their work.

Essays in “America’s Collection” — written by architecture, art and design history experts — dive into each architect’s creative vision, highlighting details that allow readers to glimpse the nation’s past as they make their way through the rooms.

Take the entrance hall, for instance. It’s a space where many foreign dignitaries first enter on their way to meetings, lunches or state dinners. Echoing the decorative plasterwork, light-colored walls and ornate ceilings found in the houses and plantations of wealthy colonial-era Americans, Jones was able to transform a room that initially consisted of dark wood paneling and carpeted floor into a space that the country’s founders could have walked through.

On the 13-foot-high ceiling, visitors see intricate plasterwork made with molds taken from the Powel House in Philadelphia. The room also features examples of fine cabinetry, notably pieces made by the personal artisans of King George III, the British monarch in power during the American Revolution.

“Seeing the before-and-after photographs, one can scarcely believe the transformation was possible,” architect Mark Alan Hewitt writes in the book.

Another example is the John Quincy Adams State Drawing Room, which Jones designed to resemble a Revolution-era drawing room. Named after the nation’s sixth president and eighth secretary of state, the room was completed in the early 1970s, nearly two centuries after the period that inspired it. Four Ionic pilasters frame the room; bold furniture, upholstered in bright yellow and red hues, is placed throughout.

It’s here that Jefferson’s architect’s table can be found, as well as the desk on which the Treaty of Paris was signed. Portraits of Adams and his wife, Louisa Catherine, and George Washington and Martha Washington hang on the walls.

A new and modern story

Much of the book is dedicated to the Reception Rooms’ furniture and art, which a press release compares to the collections of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Winterthur Museum and Library in Delaware, known for its focus on American decorative arts and antiques.

For Alexandra Kirtley, a curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art who writes an essay in the book, the collection’s decorative arts — furniture, diningware and textiles, among others — in particular provide a valuable window into the past, because such pieces were both functional and stylish.

“When people lived with these works of art, they really functioned as sculpture in the room,” Kirtley told CNN.

For instance, patterns on porcelain from China would reappear on the fretwork along the walls of wealthy colonial homes, Kirtley explained. In other instances, architects and builders who helped construct rooms worked closely along with artisans tasked with creating furniture.

Learning more about the artisans behind these pieces also provides a deeper insight into the country’s past. In her essay in “America’s Collection,” Kirtley notes that some of the furniture in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms was likely made with the contributions of “unnamed, enslaved, indentured or free Black artists.”

The collection’s paintings show an energy and desire to not only meet the artistic standards of the day, but carve out a style that was uniquely American, Betsy Kornhauser, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art who also authors an essay in the book, told CNN.

“There was a desire on the part of the American public, as well as these artists, to create an American art form that really dealt with the new history of the newly formed United States,” she explained.

Without access to formal training in the colonies, early American painters went to Europe to hone their craft. When they returned, their work echoed that of their European counterparts while being unburdened by long standing academic traditions, Kornhauser said.

“America’s Collection” showcases several landscape paintings in the reception rooms that are the result of that artistic energy, including work by Joshua Shaw and Thomas Cole, who helped build the country’s first artistic “fraternity” of sorts, the Hudson River School. In an undated Cole painting, “Indians in a Mountain Landscape,” tall mountains rise through a blue sky, as Native Americans stand a forest edge, steps from the water — though, like so many landscape paintings of the era, the work is also an example of how Native Americans were relegated to stereotypical portrayals to fit an idea of American nature that was wild and untamed.

The rooms do feature some pieces of Native American art, such as a beaded Apsáalooke saddle and a Cheyenne cradleboard. When asked whether current curators have had to reckon with how these works were sourced before being donated, Virginia Hart, curator of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, told CNN, “While our collections policy did not address this specifically in the past, we are aware of the issue and our team here in the rooms is studying it.”

Future plans for the collection

One painting highlighted in the book that intrigues the museum’s curators is “A Flutist” — an anonymous work depicting a Black musician wearing a dark-colored coat with red lapels. The curators have had to rely on visual clues to learn more about the work. For instance, because he is not wearing a wig, pigtail or powder on his hair, experts can theorize that the painting could have been made after 1795.

While identifying anonymous artists of furniture or paintings is difficult, presenting the works allows viewers to deepen their understanding of the version of American history they bring to the rooms.

“If we simply put history in the closet instead of understanding it better, we’re not going to get anywhere,” Kirtley said. “So, it’s really important that these works of art aren’t just newly presented and newly understood but that they shouldn’t be put away.”

At the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, there are plans in place to grow the collection and add works from artists who have been overlooked in the decades since curatorial efforts first began, such as women and people of color. Those efforts allow for the presentation and preservation of a more inclusive array of early American art, and will offer a more accurate representation of the nation’s history to foreign diplomats on future visits.

“We’re learning through history,” Hart said. “Everyone here at the department is really furthering the nation in fundamental ways. And this collection is one small part of that larger mission at the Department of State.”

America’s Collection: The Art and Architecture of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the US Department of State, published by Rizzoli Electa, is available now.

Dana Claxton received this year’s Audain Prize, one of Canada’s most coveted arts awards, during a ceremony on Monday (25 September). The C$100,000 ($74,000) cash prize honouring distinguished British Columbia-based artists was announced at a luncheon at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.

When Reid Shier, executive director of the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver, awarded the prize on behalf of the jury, he praised Claxton’s “multifaceted” practice—describing it as “as much [Jack] Kerouac as [Eugène] Atget”—and spoke of her “landmark” works as a First Nations woman—a group who are “systematically denied a place in the art world.”

Claxton, a Vancouver-based artist whose work spans film, photography, video and multi-channel installation, is a member of the Wood Mountain Lakota First Nations located in Southwest Saskatchewan. Her practice investigates Indigenous beauty, the body, the socio-political and the spiritual and has been widely exhibited across Canada and internationally. She is also a professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and head of its department of art history, visual art and theory.

In a statement, Claxton noted the Audain Prize’s history of acknowledging First Nations artists, saying, “It is a great honour to be included with this group, which includes esteemed BC artists like Susan Point, Jim Hart and Robert Davidson, all who have won the Audain Prize.” In a video played at the event, she spoke of the ongoing “criminalisation of Native culture”, saying that her work was ultimately about “not dehumanising people”.

A past recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2020, she had a solo survey exhibition, Fringing the Cube, at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2018 and her series Headdress (2018-19) had its debut at the inaugural Toronto Biennial of Art in 2019.

“Besides having an outstanding international reputation, Ms. Claxton has had a considerable influence on younger artists and her UBC art students,” says Michael Audain, the chairman of the Audain Foundation, who founded the award in 2004.

Claxton is known for her video work like 1997’s Buffalo Bone China, evoking the animals’ slaughter for a European luxury item via mesmeric pixelated loops of phantom buffalo running through the plains, a white hunter shooting them and a native man alternately crying in pain and caressing fine bone china. Performance art is also a pillar of her work, like 2011’s The Elsewhere—an attempt to “Indianise space” through the use of gesture, music, and natural and man-made objects—which incorporates elements of Lakota ceremony. Her photographic work, like 2008’s Mustang Suite, employs ironic humour to defy stereotyped imagery of First Nations. As Shier put it, her work performs a “critical reversal” of “who might be looking at whom”.

In an interview with The Art Newspaper, Claxton cites a variety of influences including the multi-disciplinary artist Paul Wong and her experience in the early 1990s at Vancouver’s Video Inn media arts centre, to the Vancouver School and photo-conceptualists like Jeff Wall, First Nations filmmaker Loretta Todd, as well as her own family and Lakota traditions.

Vancouver’s simultaneous cultures of “artist-run centres and artist-as-curator” she says, as well as its “large indigenous contingency of cultural producers and image makers”, were formative influences. “It feels wonderful to win this award,” she adds. “It’s an honour, a privilege and a real blessing.”

Past winners of the Audain Prize have included the photo-conceptualist Ian Wallace, in 2022; and sculptor James Hart, the hereditary chief of the Eagle Clan of the Haida Nation, in 2021.

“Kwe kakina. Caroline nindijinkaz, nin Anishinaabekwe. Outaouais nitotci, tanjeh kitchi-minendan nindi nonggom. Kitchi migwetch.

I would like to start by thanking the Shoshone, Paiute, Goshute, and Ute Tribal Nations for having me as a guest on their traditional and ancestral homelands. I am deeply honored and feel privileged to be named this year’s Merata Mita fellow and to be following in the legacy of such talented Indigenous women that have accomplished groundbreaking work. 

While I never had the opportunity to meet Merata Mita — her vision, commitment and resilience are legendary. When reflecting on the work she has accomplished, I am reminded of the importance of trusting your instincts, working with your community, and that telling our stories without compromise can go a very long way. It is a true honor to walk in the shoes of such a strong, visionary, independent, and determined woman that has blazed a trail for my generations, and those to follow. Her legacy continues to be a source of inspiration for creativity and innovation. It gives me strength, power, and vision. 

It is through art and film that I found a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose and self-confidence. And through my process of becoming a filmmaker, I also realized how movies can be a powerful tool for education, empowerment, and revolution. This acknowledgment from the Sundance Institute comes at a pivotal time for me as I embark on the journey of writing and directing my second feature film. I have always worked towards bringing positive and authentic indigenous representation on screen, hoping to shed light on the chaos of the past, but also offer a glimpse into the future. A future filled with love, compassion, and intention. 

My next film project is no different, titled Thunderbirds. It’s a story based on real events that took place in 1976 during the final months leading up to the permanent closure of an experimental college for indigenous youth in Quebec. Called Manitou College, it only existed three years, but the experience, however brief, deeply transformed the indigenous youth that were fortunate enough to attend. It is said that the government decision to close the college was motivated by fear in the face of the rising Indigenous intelligentsia. Basically, they were scared of a bunch of native youth making art and film. And they were right. Because when we control the narrative, we can achieve great things. 

Thunderbirds is a project that seems incredibly fitting for this Fellowship, considering the impact Merata Mita had not only in film, but also for her community and for the rise of Indigenous voices at large. While I will be focusing on themes of love, friendship, freedom, humor, and sense of belonging in my film, I will keep in mind the struggles and achievements Merata Mita carried through her remarkable career with energy, vibrancy, and ideas of hope for the future. It means a great deal to me to be part of this Sundance native community and to be surrounded by like minded individuals. I am humbled that the work that I’m so passionate about can resonate with others. This recognition will allow me to continue my journey as a filmmaker and enables me to strengthen and further define my cinematic voice. It inspires me to continue to challenge myself and to strive to make impactful work that can be healing, inspiring and transformative. 

I realized I could not have made it here today without the invaluable and continuous support of my community and my peers. I am deeply grateful to the Sundance Indigenous Program, to Adam [Piron] and his team for its support, and for paving the way for Indigenous artists like me to tell their stories. Receiving this fellowship today fills me with the confidence and the inspiration to continue Merata Mita’s legacy. I am proud to be Anishinaabe Kwe and I am proud to contribute to Indigenous cinema. I am surrounded by such incredible Indigenous talents from all over the world. You are truly inspiring. Your voices bring about change, allowing us to dream. These are really exciting times to be making films and to tell their stories. Kitchi migwetch.”

Charlie Ann Harris, a Jackson, Miss., native, was working as a telemarketer when she decided to use the eight hours she spent each day sitting at a desk to develop her artistic talent. 

“To kill the time, I just kind of doodled, which I’ve done most of my life,” she said. “But I started taking it a little more seriously just because for eight hours a day you just repeat the same work, so you get pretty bored. I started focusing more on that and developed my own style and figured I could kind of just see if I could make business with it.” 

Saturday was both Harris’ first time in Starkville and her first time selling her crafts at the Cotton District Arts Festival, an annual gathering with dozens of artisans and food vendors selling homemade creations on University Drive. Harris had colorful skateboards with hand-painted snakes and chains and a painting of a disco ball sitting in front of her booth, waiting for someone to take them home.

“Everything has to be handmade,” said Mary Switzer, executive director of the Starkville Area Arts Council. “It’s a really strict requirement that we have, and we’re really proud of that.”

Artisans and food vendors must apply to have a booth at the festival, and no two booths can sell the same items.

Although no one knows exactly when the Cotton District Arts Festival started, Starkville native Switzer said it’s been a tradition for as long as she can remember.

Dan Camp, who was often called the “mayor of the Cotton District,” started a version of the Cotton District Arts Festival in the 1980s, “but it was not the same” as it is now, arts council program coordinator Juliette Reid said. 

“It was more of a social gathering, and they had musicians and they had artisans, but it wasn’t, like booths. It was more of a gathering of minds, I would say,” she said. “From what I’ve heard recently, the arts council was doing a festival. It was not called the Cotton District Arts Festival, … and then in the early 2000s we were given the name the Cotton District Arts Festival.”

Hundreds of people walked the streets of the Cotton District on Saturday, where beaded jewelry, paintings of pets and flowers, macrame plant hangers, soaps, candles and any type of craft one can imagine were on display. About 95 artisans and 14 vendors sold their creations. 

Jackson native Mary Williams was at a craft show in another city when a customer asked if she would attend the Cotton District Arts Festival. The artist agreed and set up a booth at the festival for the first time. 

She found her passion for making Southern farmhouse creations when she asked her son to build her a birdhouse, but he didn’t have time to do it.

“And I said, ‘A birdhouse, I can do that.’” Williams said. “So, I got a little handsaw and made my birdhouse. And I said, ‘Oh, I like that.’”

After finishing the birdhouse, she put her skills to the test, made other designs from wood and painted them with lively colors. 

Starkville native Tessa Luke was selling her handmade jewelry at the festival for the second time. Beaded necklaces adorned with crystals dangled from displays, catching the light. 

“I really like creating beaded pieces that have, like, dangly, teardrop pieces,” she said, adding that gothic jewelry and rosaries inspire her designs. 

Switzer said hosting a yearly gathering for artists and art lovers in Starkville brings the community together.

“My favorite part is definitely the artisans, and that’s because, you know, I myself am an artist and I know how important to be able to have a way to communicate with people who are interested in art,” Switzer said.  

Details

By Kaili Berg

September 25, 2023

Viewable here, the cover story features actress Lily Gladstone (Blackfeet), draped in the Eighth Generation blanket, and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, both stars of the widely anticipated film, “Killers of the Flower Moon.” 

The story features interviews with Gladstone and DiCaprio and photographs of them wearing accessories made by Native designers. 

The Craig McDean-lensed editorial was aimed “to see Lily shine,” while Gladstone herself tasked British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful with sourcing pieces that reflect her Native American heritage. The results complement craft-centric brands and highlight the importance of preserving old techniques. 

Among the featured Native designs is The Coast Salish Pattern Wool Blanket, designed by Nooksack artist and Eighth Generation founder Louie Gong.

Before Gong was creating Coast Salish art on a commercial scale, it was rarely represented in contemporary textiles. 

“The Coast Salish pattern is one of the most iconic, truly American designs that you can find on the market today, “Colleen Echohawk (Pawnee/Athabascan), Eighth Generation CEO, told Native News Online. “Louie designed this piece in collaboration with his ancestors and it is very traditional. This is the very first blanket that I bought for myself when I was just a customer; it is truly beautiful,” 

Founded in 2008, Eighth Generation works with more than 35 different Native artists from all over Canada. The brand provides a strong, ethical alternative to “Native-inspired” art and products through its artist-centric approach and 100 percent Native-designed products. 

“We are so fortunate to bring a lot of art and design into people’s homes. Louie was so visionary to think about what the impact would be if there was a Native-owned company that made beautiful wool blankets,” Echohawk said. “That is what we are known for and that is what got us on the cover of British Vogue.”

Echohawk said British Vogue emailed their team and asked to send over scarfs for a photoshoot. Without hesitation, Eighth Generation’s marketing manager, Devon Kelley, sent over a plethora of the brand’s items. Weeks after, the company found out they were going to be featured on the cover of the magazine. 

“We could not believe it,” Echohawk said. “To see our work so prominently featured is truly historic. I think we will have a big impact on future generations, to see this kind of representation, and to be proud to know that they have a place in this world.”

Several more of Eighth Generation’s products appear in photos with DiCaprio and Gladstone throughout the cover story, including their Butterfly Dreams Throw Blanket by John Isaiah Pepion (Piikani/Blackfeet), and fashion and accessories by Eighth Generation artists and collaborators, including Jamie Okuma (Luiseño and Shoshone-Bannock), Pat Pruitt (Laguna, Chiricahua Apache), and Sarah Agaton Howes (Anishinaabe/Ojibwe). 

“It is such a good moment for Indian Country and all of these incredible Native designers, artists, and brands in this issue,” Echohawk said. “We are so honored to be a part of this. It is such a good moment and a great time to be Native.”  

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About The Author

Author: Kaili BergEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Staff Reporter

Kaili Berg (Aleut) is a member of the Alutiiq/Sugpiaq Nation, and a shareholder of Koniag, Inc. She is a staff reporter for Native News Online and Tribal Business News. Berg, who is based in Wisconsin, previously reported for the Ho-Chunk Nation newspaper, Hocak Worak. She went to school originally for nursing, but changed her major after finding her passion in communications at Western Technical College in Lacrosse, Wisconsin.