Many 20th century Native American artists engaged with contemporary art movements of the day while drawing on a deep tradition of abstract art made in Indigenous communities.

Artists began congregating at the Institute for American Indian Artists in Santa Fe, New Mexico, after its 1962 founding. Teachers encouraged students to experiment, including finding ways to meld longstanding Native American art practices with increasingly influential movements like abstract expressionism.

Dozens of artists working in many disciplines are represented in “Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s-1970s,” St. Louis Art Museum’s first exhibition of work by modern and contemporary Native American artists. It runs through Sept. 3.

The core of the exhibition originated at the IAIA’s Museum of Contemporary Native Arts and has toured various museums in recent years. Curators at St. Louis Art Museum expanded the show, nearly doubling the number of items with additional loans and selections from the museum collection.

St. Louis Public Radio’s Jeremy D. Goodwin spoke to Alex Marr, the museum’s assistant curator for Native American Art, about the exhibition — and how artists in the show responded to 20th century art movements while forging their own, unique voices.

Jeremy D. Goodwin: Early in the exhibition we see a selection of textile works by Lloyd Kiva New and his students and apprentices, from the AIAI and his commercial workshop that preceded it. Why is New so important to the growth of contemporary Native American artists in the mid-20th century and onward?

Alex Marr: What Kiva New did that was so important was develop an approach to teaching that he described as using cultural difference as the basis for creative expression. So at his atelier, which was very collaborative and included a number of native apprentices and artists specializing in things like silverwork that would be integrated into his clothing, there was an emphasis on studying past forms of native art — and not simply replicating the designs, but using the aesthetic systems as the basis for artistic innovation.

And that approach really sparked an outpouring of innovation across multiple contexts, in Scottsdale and then of course at IAIA in Santa Fe, and opened the door to what we’re now seeing thrive, which is the contemporary Native American fine arts movement.

Goodwin: How does “Action/Abstraction Redefined” show an artistic conversation going on, among artists of different cultures?

Marr: As these artists were engaging with mainstream art discourses and styles, they were bringing a history of Indigenous abstraction to the discourses and styles. We sometimes think of abstract art as being a 20th century phenomenon. Most Native artists will tell you that there’s a very long history of abstraction in Native North American art.

Goodwin: One of those artists is Neil Parsons, a Blackfoot artist from Montana who was an early teacher at AIAI. In the exhibition audio guide, there’s a clip of him talking about how his environment while growing up affected his perspective as an artist.

“I’ve always been horizontally inspired. And I think that horizontal inspiration comes from being brought up on the Plains,” Parsons said. “The Plains are horizontal. There always has been abstraction in Plains Indian art.”

Marr: There are two paintings by Parsons in a series where he’s creating what would have been called at the time Color Field paintings. He has large blocks of undifferentiated tone abutting each other, and he sets those fields of color apart with small fields of gestural brushstrokes.

These gestural brushstrokes create a sense of depth to what is otherwise a very flat painting, and a sense of monumentality across the canvas that Parsons clearly would have seen in the architecture of Sante Fe, which is pueblo forms.

That type of place-based understanding of abstraction came into dialogue with other notions of abstraction from all across Native North America at IAIA.

Goodwin: A prominent artist in the exhibition who is not affiliated with the AIAI is the Cherokee painter Kay WalkingStick, who has three pieces in the show. In the audio guide she talks about her mindset while making art in the 1970s.

“I was searching for meaning in 1975,” WalkingStick said, “searching for a way to address my thoughts and feelings about being an Indian, and about being a woman in a male-dominated art world. I was also looking for a way to paint that was uniquely mine yet still alluding to the contemporary art scene. I was trying to bring everything together.”

Marr: The piece she’s talking about in the audio clip is “Personal Icon,” which features an ink-stained canvas with a gridded encaustic — or pigmented wax — layer on top of it. So she’s beginning to explore a tension between the organic, on the one hand — through the ink-stained canvas, which is very visceral and beautiful in a natural way — and the encaustic. That was a very loaded material in New York, where WalkingStick was active in the 1970s, because of its relationship to revolutionary figures like Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.

She was taking all these sources and thinking about her own identity in a new way as well.

Goodwin: One thing this exhibition reminds us is that there’s no such thing as one-way cultural influence. It’s always moving in multiple directions at once. For one thing, Jackson Pollock was heavily influenced by Navajo sand painting.

Marr: Absolutely, and for those who don’t know, sand painting is a ceremonial practice, and it is created by dropping bits of sand onto the ground. And so there are artists in the exhibition, especially in the audio guide, who speak about Pollock and his debt to Dine sand painting.

More broadly though, western — as in European and American — abstract modernism owes quite a bit to indigenous art from around the world. And that’s something that the artists in this exhibition acknowledge.

Goodwin: I love that there’s a moment in the exhibition when an artist, Mike Medicine Horse Zillioux, responds to Pollock with a piece called “The Day Jackson Pollock Became a Christian.” At first glance, it looks like Zillioux used a drip technique, but he explains in the audio guide that he painted it carefully by hand and included small “shadow people” in the image — plus a Bible made from buckskin that he says he included “for Native Americans.”

Marr: They were using art of the past as the basis for expanding what was possible.

Since parodying Jason Aldean’s controversial “Try That In A Small Town,” Knoxville native Adeem the Artist has experienced firsthand “two sides of a coin” as the lyrics go.

“Two sides of a coin implies there ain’t no better side,” they sing on “Heritage of Arrogance,” a fan-favorite track from their 2022 album “White Trash Revelry” still garnering critical acclaim. “It says racism and justice are equally justified.”

On one hand, Adeem the Artist’s social media has been flooded with hate toward the singer-songwriter and their identity, which includes using they/them pronouns. On the other hand, fans have stood alongside the queer country artist, just as a full band will support them during a hometown show this weekend.

But before Adeem the Artist − whose real name is Adeem Bingham − takes the Barley’s Taproom & Pizzeria stage July 28, you can hear their new single “I C U” on major streaming platforms.

Adeem the Artist single ‘I C U’ now streaming

The song itself explores two sides of a coin − or, rather, two sides of country music (truth be told, there are many more).

Aldean’s song tells the story of “good ol’ boys” taking matters in their own hands in response to actions that include cussing out cops or stomping on the American flag − both expressions of free speech, Bingham noted, and certainly not acts that should be punishable by violence.

Before Aldean’s song came out, Adeem’s “I C U” was telling a different kind of story − one of identity, acceptance and reminding those who are struggling that “you’re not alone.” It’s Bingham’s first studio release since their critically acclaimed album “White Trash Revelry” came out late last year.

“Now I’m alonе with thoughts of you, and there’s not a lot I can do. But I can sing a song for you if it makes you feel bеtter,” Bingham sings. “Like a magic spell in melody, or all the kids like you and me, who don’t know what they’re supposed to be: You are loved. You are treasured.”

In a January conversation on “The Scruffy Stuff” podcast, Bingham spoke with Knox News about the importance of accepting others’ identities.

“My actualization is totally unimpeded by people’s thoughts about my gender,” they told Knox News. “But these kids who, like me, don’t have language for their own identity … are going to hear that stuff. And it’s the kind of stuff that − you can lose your relationships with your kids. And that’s it. That’s what we got. That’s our legacy.”

Since the release of “I C U,” Bingham has shared a music video for a fresh version of “Fervent For The Hunger.” The track originally appeared on their 2021 album “Cast Iron Pansexual.”

Rolling Stone: ‘Country Music Has Never Been More Gay’

Last month, before the Aldean parody, Rolling Stone featured Bingham in an article titled, “Country Music Has Never Been More Gay.” The story details some of the historical hostility spewed toward LGBTQ artists in Nashville’s scene.

“When I ruminated on coming out and then came out, especially when I changed my pronouns, I remember thinking, ‘There’s no way I’m going to get any press whatsoever now. I think I just tanked my career,’” Bingham told Rolling Stone. “And then I experienced this wealth of support, perhaps at the risk of some tokenization, that catapulted me forward.” 

Bingham’s trailblazing efforts recently earned them a spot on the Grand Ole Opry stage amidst all the acclaim. They also have been invited to open for the likes of Jason Isbell, Josh Ritter, American Aquarium and the Mountain Goats.

Want to see Adeem the Artist in Knoxville this weekend?

This fall, Adeem the Artist will embark on their headlining “White Trash Revelry” tour.

But first, they will perform a hometown show at Barley’s Taproom & Pizzeria in the Old City on July 28. The concert, sponsored by WUTK, will feature fellow queer singer-songwriter Jessye DeSilva as the opener.

The show starts at 9 p.m., and tickets are available for $15 in advance. The price increases to $20 the day of the show.

In March, Bingham performed two hometown solo sets during Big Ears Festival. The Barley’s show, however, will feature a full band: Adeem & the Means, they told Knox News.

Ryan Wilusz is a downtown growth and development reporter. Phone 865-317-5138. Email ryan.wilusz@knoxnews.com. Instagram @knoxscruff. 

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Michael Arden won a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in June. The award winner spoke on how his start with MCT has impacted the work he has done.

Redwood City’s Courthouse Square plays host each summer to a robust schedule of outdoor summer entertainment that regularly offers live music and movie screenings — and on select Fridays, art.

The plaza in front of the San Mateo County courthouse plays host to Art on the Square, a festival on July 28 featuring almost three dozen Bay Area artisans who create jewelry, photography, glass, fiber art, ceramics, painting and other artworks. Art on the Square’s final event of the summer will take place on Aug. 25.

Art on the Square is held at the same time as Redwood City’s weekly Music on the Square series, so visitors can shop for art and enjoy music at the same time. Visitors to the July 28 event can catch a performance by reggae band Native Elements.

Art on the Square takes place July 28, 5-8:30 p.m. at Courthouse Square, 2200 Broadway, Redwood City. artonthesquarerwc.com.

Traffic accidents haven’t increased in Aspen

The pace of automobile accidents in Aspen is tracking about even with last year.

“We usually have between one and five crashes a day depending on the season; for instance, we have had 47 crashes for the month of June but only 22 in May,” said Aspen Police Sgt. Mike Tracey.

The difference between months appears linked the number of people in town during a given time and the season’s activities. 

“The city of Aspen’s leading causes for crashes are impaired driving and distracted driving,” he said. “We suggest avoidance of those problem behaviors along with the general practice of defensive driving.  Simply put: Don’t drink and drive — and pay attention.”

He suggested using public transportation system, cycling and to and from town are great options and help ease the number of vehicles on the roadways.  

“As a community, we strive for extremely safe streets and bicycle/pedestrian byways,” he said. “That community goal is strengthened by this department’s active patrolling and education efforts every day.”

— Julie Bielenberg

David Frederick Riley show at Aspen Grove Fine Art

Aspen Grove Fine Art will host one of their most popular and most collected artists, David Frederick Riley — a Western, wildlife and Native American portrait artist — on Thursday and Friday from 4-8 p.m.

His work takes on a modern look, often in very large scale format, creating in a fresh approach to classic and timeless subject matter, according to the gallery. In this show, he adds musical icons such as Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash.

Telecommunications tower approved for road near Sunlight

Garfield County has approved a limited impact land use change permit allowing construction of a new telecommunications tower off Forest Service Road 300, roughly 1.5 miles west of Sunlight Mountain Ski Resort.

The proposed 70-foot-tall tower provides expanded cellular service into the Four Mile Park area and complies with all Federal Communications Commission regulations, according to the application filed by Vertical Bridge Development LLC. 

T-Mobile is anticipated to be the primary carrier on the tower, according to Garfield County Community Development Principal Planner Glenn Hartmann. The applicant also noted that the tower will accommodate co-location with other telecommunications carriers. 

Hartmann added that the applicant can help ensure that the tower matches the natural surroundings to alleviate any visual impacts.

“There are some opportunities for them to do some painting or making sure the finish of the tower blends in well with the native vegetation and the surrounding area,” he said. 

A 540-foot driveway, which features a steep 15 percent grade in some spots, is being constructed to access the small facility on the 35-foot by 50-foot leased site on a larger residential property. No lighting is anticipated unless it is required by the Federal Aviation Administration. 

Mike Bieniek, zoning director for LCC Telecom Services of Rosemont, Ill., who was speaking on behalf of the applicant, told the Board of County Commissioners that the tower is made from galvanized metal and is nonreflective.

“This should cover the desire to make it blend in. Plus, it’s only 70 feet tall and the surrounding trees are 50 to 70 feet tall,” he said. “It’s not going to be visible.”

Construction is anticipated to begin “as soon as possible,” Bieniek added. The change permit was approved unanimously.

Artists talk about climate change at Anderson Ranch Arts Center

Anderson Ranch Arts Center will present “Critical Dialogue — Art and the Environment: Considering Climate Change” on Monday, July 31, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Artists Alan Michelson and Mary Mattingly will share their journey of confronting climate change in their art with Climate Museum Director Miranda Massie. The round-table format of this program seeks to engage the community in a dialogue about how artists are addressing current challenges in our culture.

Alan Michelson has been a practitioner of a socially engaged, critically aware, site-specific art grounded in local context and informed by the retrieval of repressed histories. Mary Mattingly combines photography, performance, portable architecture and sculptural ecosystems into poetic visions of adaptation and survival, offering specific solutions and architectural prototypes to build upon in pursuit of a better life. Miranda Massie, founder of the Brooklyn-based Climate Museum, a dedicated home for interdisciplinary arts-based climate programming, leads this discussion.

The Critical Dialogue Program at Anderson Ranch seeks to engage the community in discussion about contemporary art and art making. Critical Dialogue programs are open to the public. The $100 fee includes lunch immediately following the program and scholarships are awarded on a space-available basis. Registration is required.

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The City of Norman is calling out artists to paint an inside hallway of its Development Center.

The contract is worth $15,000 to paint a 9-foot-by-55-foot mural.

The Development Center, which previously housed the Norman Central Library before it was moved north of Andrew’s Park, now houses different municipal entities, according to Erinn Gavaghan, executive director of the Norman Arts Council.

“This is a mural that the NAC and the city have collaborated on,” Gavaghan said.

As part of the renovation, she said the city built a long white hallway which leads to a reception desk, and that locals have been confused because they don’t feel like they are in the right place.

“The city wanted to make sure that the public understood that this is a space for them,” she said. “When you enter the building, you have to go down this 60-foot-long white clinical-looking hallway, and you may ask yourself whether you are even supposed to be there.”

To make the hallway more welcoming, the city decided to commission a mural on one side, and it will commission rotating framed works of art on the other side of the hallway, which will be announced at a later date.

“When people walk through the door, we want them to feel welcomed by the mural, then they’ll understand that they are supposed to be there, and it is the right place,” she said.

She said artists must be from Oklahoma, and preference will be given to Norman and Native American artists, and at $15,000 for the nearly 500 square feet, she said the ticket is competitive with the standard rate of mural artists in the state.

“The nice thing about it is that being an interior space the artists won’t require scaffolding. It has air conditioning inside, so it will be a comfortable project all-around,” she said.

The recently renovated building is equipped with meeting space and new technology. It holds different city boards and commissions, as well as Parks and Recreation, Utilities, and Public Works departments.

“The building will hold entities that have to do with the physical development of Norman,” Gavaghan said.

The city has also earmarked $150,000 to jumpstart a mural program in Norman. Gavaghan said the arts council is working on a rotating mural exhibit at the Gray Street Parking Lot, 219 E. Gray St.

“One of the things that we’re going to do with those funds is do a rotating mural program,” she said. “The installation is temporary, so the murals will only be up for about a year, and then they’ll be painted over and new murals will go up in their place.”

She said the rotating murals will go on the alley side of Gray Street Parking lot, and that the first mural should go up by next spring.

Matt Peacock of Ward 8 said art is an important element that reflects the culture of a city.

“Murals can promote a sense of civic pride, celebrate history and culture, raise community visibility and help activate a successful place. Murals are a low-impact way to bring life to any space, and can oftentimes take on a life of their own,” he said.

He said VisitNorman sells merchandise with the downtown Financial Center mural on it because the mural has become so ingrained with Norman’s identity.

“That it is now a marketable part of this city. This is the power and effect of murals,” he said.

For information, visit https://normanarts.org/.

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Roger Catlin

Museums Correspondent

Artist Robert Houle sold his first painting to a national museum in 1971, when he was still a student at Montreal’s McGill University. A crimson abstract that picked up on Western art trends even as it reflected his Saulteaux Anishinaabe roots, the canvas would, more than half a century later, lend its name as the title of his first major career retrospective in the United States.

“Robert Houle: Red Is Beautiful” is now on exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., after its debut at the Art Gallery of Ontario two years ago.

Reconnecting with more than 100 of his works spanning five decades is “refreshing, rewarding,” Houle, now 76, says in a phone interview from Toronto. “It’s a pleasure to be able to see them all together.”

Pieces by the artist, who is a member of the Sandy Bay First Nation, range from oil abstractions that incorporate symbols of First Nations—porcupine quills, feathers, and rawhide bags called parfleche—to somber, figurative artworks on such subjects as the forced relocation of Indigenous children to abusive residential schools. The exhibition includes spiritual reflections of the earth’s riches, pieces centered on Indigenous land battles still waged in the 20th century and a full-scale installation noting the clash of Native cultures in the parlors of 19th-century France—all sprung from his first success, that modestly sized painting he made in college.

When Red Is Beautiful, measuring just 18 by 24 inches, was sold to the National Museum of Man (now known as the Canadian Museum of History) in Quebec, “it kind of marked the beginning of his career as a professional artist,” says Wanda Nanibush, the Art Gallery of Ontario curator who organized the retrospective. “He sold it for, like, $90.”

Inspired in part by the geometric abstractions of the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian and the Abstract Expressionism of the American Barnett Newman, the Winnipeg-born artist found a way to connect the ancient designs of First Nations people with contemporary abstraction.

“I was just beginning to articulate what I wanted to do and who I wanted to exhibit with and how my work should be seen or how it can be discussed,” Houle says.

Houle earned a degree in art history from the University of Manitoba in 1972, studied art at the Salzburg International Summer Academy and received a degree in art education from McGill University in 1975. His work has been exhibited widely in Canada, as well as at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia; the Canadian Cultural Center in Paris; and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The artist has also been influential as a curator, teacher and critic, organizing the groundbreaking exhibition “Land, Spirit, Power: First Nations at the National Gallery of Canada” in 1992.

“People saw his skill and his interesting take on the history of abstraction immediately, because the work itself is based in Anishinaabe weaving and beadwork design from a book he was studying at the time,” says Nanibush, who is Anishinaabe-kwe from Beausoleil First Nation.

The title of the 1970 painting referenced the Red Power movement of the 1960s and ’70s as it reflected Indigenous pride. “But he’s also an incredible colorist,” Nanibush says, “so it also hints at the way in which he’s concerned with spiritual and emotional meanings and symbolisms in color.”

Color is certainly central to his large pieces—the deep green and blue canvases on each side of his triptych The Pines, the vivid hues and placements of each element of Kanehsatake X, and the flutter of feathers between the rich black and maroon halves of In Memoriam.

Houle meditates, too, on Western art history, particularly in his reimagining of Benjamin West’s widely known The Death of General Wolfe from 1770, a painting that commemorated the 1759 Battle of Quebec at the moment of victory. Among its tableau of characters, real and imagined, is an Indigenous warrior, observing the events, deep in thought. In Houle’s 2017 O-ween du muh waun (We Were Told), West’s Native figure is alone in the same pose, the rich landscape behind him restored to trees, green fields and rolling rivers. In Kanata, a painting from 1992, Houle whitewashes everything in West’s scene except the Native’s clothing—and surrounds the scene with large monochromatic canvases of blue and red.

“The color has a symbolic meaning,” Nanibush says. “Even in the early work, he’s interested in the long history of abstraction that’s actually Indigenous.” Indigenous designs, she says, actually constitute what she calls “the longest history of abstraction in the Americas.”

Even so, instead of stripping out meaning and context, Indigenous abstractions often include representational items. In Houle’s elaborate acrylic series Parfleches for the Last Supper, he uses porcupine quills and paper to approximate 13 parfleche bags, each standing for Jesus or one of his 12 disciples.

Yet Houle is careful to use replications of eagle feathers rather than real ones in works like In Memoriam, “because, as he’s always said, there’s a difference between art and ceremony, and we should maintain that difference,” Nanibush says. “The eagle feather has its own power and should be used for what it’s intended to.”

Houle’s relatively new works reviewing the dark histories of residential schools, drawing on his own experience being forced to attend the school on the Sandy Bay reservation in southwest Manitoba, make for one of the most powerful parts of the exhibition. “He could see his house from one of the windows,” Nanibush says, “but he couldn’t go home.”

In a series from the late 1990s, Sandy Bay, he addressed some of the issues of forced removal from family, attempts to destroy Native language and the violence that pervaded from the 1870s to the 1990s when Indian residential schools operated in Canada. Then, in 2008, after Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a public apology on behalf of the Canadian government as part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, calling it “a sad chapter in our history” and recognizing “this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm and has no place in our country.” That political moment, Nanibush says, “brought up all these memories that [Houle] hadn’t dealt with in the early work—the physical and sexual abuse within the schools.”

“It’s a painful experience in terms of memory, but you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to articulate it,” Houle says. “It’s the only way you’re going to deal with that past, because it’s always going to be there. The past is not something you just absolutely forget. It continues to live.”

Nanibush singles out as “the one that gets me every time” a depiction of two beds floating in a blue space as part of the series Sandy Bay Indian Residential School II. “He’d talk about how sleep was not a time of rest, it was a time of fear,” she says. “You would never know who would come and get you in the nighttime.”

To offset those dark moments, the curator says, “I also include a lot of healing works nearby.” This includes a set of four works that celebrate shamans: Shaman Takes Away the Pain, Shaman Heals by Touching, Shaman Never Die and Shaman Dream in Color.

Color, Houle says, is the most important takeaway for visitors.

“I just want them to look at the colors, at the arrangement of colors and shapes and the titles that may signify a helping hand of what it is all about,” he says. “That’s all—just to enjoy that.”

“Robert Houle: Red Is Beautiful” continues through June 2, 2024, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Details

Although it’s not November, which is a Native American heritage month, we strongly believe that we need to pay more attention to native-owned businesses all year round. Statistics say that Native American businesses contribute over $33 billion to the economy of our country. Let’s speak about Native American-owned businesses that deserve our interest and attention. Additionally, we’ll explore ways to get business financing that are available to American Indians.

The 10 Best Native-Owned Businesses We Love

Want to support Indigenous-owned businesses but don’t know where to start? Here are some well-known brands and hidden gems to consider.

1. B. Yellowtail

B. Yellowtail is a Native American-owned company founded by Bethany Yellowtail, who is an award-winning fashion designer and a member of the Northern Cheyenne Nation. The brand specializes in fashion and accessories. It allows individuals to touch wearable art that tells its unique story by reflecting Indigenous heritage.

The brand is proudly owned by Indigenous women. Its mission is to share its unique aesthetic with the like-minded. In a world of Indigenous misappropriation, B. Yellowtail is a sincere voice that stands for fair representation and empowerment through design.

2. Eighth Generation

Eighth Generation is a Native American brand owned by the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe that creates authentic Indigenous art. The company’s slogan is “Inspired Natives, not Native-inspired,” which greatly corresponds to what it does. Besides providing 100% Native American made and designed wool blankets, scarfs, fine art, apparel, and jewelry, the brand also contributes to promoting emerging Native American artists.

Each item created by Eighth Generation contains unique cultural elements and introduces us to spellbinding specifics peculiar to a Tribe and Nation. If you’re looking for an inspiring Native American art and lifestyle brand, give it a shot. You can shop through the Eighth Generation website or visit its store in Seattle.

3. Beyond Buckskin Boutique

Beyond Buckskin Boutique is a brand that specializes in Native American fashion, clothing, jewelry, and accessories. It works with more than 40 Native American artists and promotes their collections to make them more recognizable to the general public. All artists bring cultural stories to modern fashion by advancing traditional Native American practices and using ancient designs and natural materials.

The brand was launched in 2009 by Jessica R. Metcalfe, who is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Although it all started as an online platform that promotes the first Native original designers, in 2012, the website opened its own online boutique to sell their works and art too. Now its major goal is to share Native American culture with the world through authentic designs.

4. SheNative

SheNative is a leather handbags and accessories brand launched by Cree entrepreneur Devon Fiddler. The brand is aimed at helping women reveal their inner strength and confidence. It creates workplaces for Native people, mostly Indigenous women, helping them to express themselves and achieve their goals. The handbags created by SheNative have a modern look but, at the same time, contain unique cultural motifs, such as feather attachments and fringe tassels.

SheNative also believes that providing a more socially conscious fashion industry will help us change the world for the better by reducing the impacts of non-degradable waste. Thus, you can rest assured you deal with a brand that is committed to sustainability and responsible consumption when purchasing items created by SheNative.

5. NotAbove

NotAbove is a brand founded by Nanibaa Beck, who is a Navajo Nation representative. The brand took its name from the owner’s favorite mispronunciation of her name back in 2007. It creates handcrafted jewelry with a focus on Native indigenous languages.

6. Sḵwálwen Botanicals

Sḵwálwen is a luxury Indigenous brand founded by Leigh Joseph of Squamish First Nation. It creates botanical skin care products and uses traditional Squamish plant knowledge to ensure your skin will get only high-quality, sustainably harvested, and sourced ingredients. If you take a look at its products’ names, you will learn more about the place where this plant knowledge comes from.

7. Michelle Brown

Michelle Brown is a Salt Lake City-based brand named in honor of the Dine designer who launched it. The company sells a diverse selection of premium apparel, bags, and jewelry. Michelle’s creations reflect the extreme contrast between her childhood in the Two Gray Hills Navajo reservation in New Mexico and her career. Michelle is known for partnering with renowned designers like Ralph Lauren and Lane Bryant.

8. Bedré Fine Chocolate

Bedré Fine Chocolate is a local staple that was once a small chocolatier selling its products at Homer Elementary School in Oklahoma. Now it’s a nationally-recognized brand owned by the Chickasaw Nation. It offers a variety of chocolate products, gifts, and receipts. Some of the most popular options include handcrafted chocolate barks, chocolate sauces, and premium dark chocolate coffee blends.

9. TPMOCS

TPMOCS is a brand launched by Maria Running Fisher Jones, who was raised on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Northwestern Montana by a single mother. Now Maria raises the question of poverty and helps residents of the Blackfeet community fight against it.

The brand specializes in handcrafted traditional moccasins for kids and babies. Although TPMOCS’s footwear has modern designs, the brand has a strong focus on preserving traditions. Additionally, it allows you to create your own design to better meet your needs. Thus, you can make moccasins look just like you want.

10. Cheekbone Beauty

Cheekbone Beauty is a well-known make-up brand created by Jenn Harper. The brand’s goal is to help Indigenous youth feel represented and seen in the beauty industry, as well as support them and create a safe space for творчества и созидания. And it’s not just words. By donating a portion of its earnings from each purchase, Cheekbone Beauty provides more educational opportunities for Indigenous youth. If you’re looking for sustainable cosmetics products and want to support a Native American-owned business, Cheekbone Beauty seems to be a suitable option.

Financing Options for Indigenous-Owned Businesses

Below are a few options for Native people who want to start a new business or invest in an existing Native American-owned business development.

Grants for a Native American Business Provided by Indian Affairs

Indian Affairs is a division of the US Department of the Interior that offers grants and programs that are aimed at supporting Native American entrepreneurs. Native Americans who want to start a new business or develop the existing one can consider the following options:

• Native American Business Development Institute (NABDI) Grant. This annual grant provides financial assistance to tribes and tribal organizations seeking business counseling. With its help, businesses can hire specialists who will help them conduct feasibility studies or business plans on the viability of a business.
• National Tribal Broadhead Grant (NTBG). This grant provides technical assistance to tribes and tribal organizations.
• Indian Loan Guarantee and Insurance Program (ILGP). ILGP is aimed at helping American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and individuals get loans at reasonable interest rates. It becomes possible due to financial backing from the federal government that reduces the risk to lenders.
• Tribal Energy Development Capacity Grant (TEDC). This grant helps tribes establish their energy business or enhance the energy capacity of their business.
• Indian Business Incubators Program (IBIP). The program supports Native entrepreneurs by providing them with the tools needed to grow their businesses and serve tribal communities more efficiently.
• Tribal Tourism Grant Program (TTGP). TTGP’s core goal is to support tribes by provisioning them with additional funding. The funds can be used toward developing tribal tourism businesses.

Options Offered by the Office of Native Americans Affair 

The US Small Business Administration’s Office of Native American Affairs (ONAA) provides several tools for Native American-owned businesses to help them expand and grow. The office specializes in technical assistance, which includes the following disciplines:

• Marketing;
• Opportunity development and capture;
• Contract management;
• Strategic and operational planning;
• Financial analysis;
• Compliance.

Native American Tribal Loans

Multiple lending companies support small businesses owned by Native Americans, no matter their credit backgrounds. Indigenous people can access guaranteed tribal loans for bad credit at competitive terms and with a few more benefits. For example, Native people usually don’t need to provide collateral or undergo a hard credit check. Additionally, such loans have flexible repayment terms, so you can repay them in affordable monthly installments. For approved applications, the funds can be deposited into an active bank account within one business day.

Additionally, there are options offered by traditional lenders. To access one, you need to meet their minimum credit score requirements. However, loan terms may be more favorable for those Native Americans with good or excellent credit.