"When many people envision a Native blanket, they see a "Southwestern" style rather than blankets like the ones my family-who is Lakota and Dakota from Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribe-made from buffalo hides. Those heirlooms were vibrant and varied, embellished with figures and animals, glass beads, porcupine quills, shells, bone, and seeds, all stitched into decorative designs and full-out tableaux."
""As an Indigenous person, [woven blankets] are really a vehicle for storytelling for our nations," says Michelle Brown, Creative Director of Eighth Generation. In 2015, Louie Gong (Nooksack) founded Eighth Generation, the first Native-owned blanket company in the US or Canada, now owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe in Seattle, "as a reclamation...it exists as a response to Pendleton," says Brown. The company's goal is to educate consumers about the diversity of Native craftsmanship."
"After centuries of, as Brown says, "having our cultural histories extracted from us for profit," the company makes sure to license art for use, ensuring that the designer retains the rights to what they created. "The ownership of the artwork is definitely a big point of difference," says Jane Cho, CEO of Eighth Generation. "At the end of the contract, the art goes back to them.""
Many people picture Native blankets as Southwestern-style striped woolens rather than buffalo-hide heirlooms made by Lakota and Dakota families. Heirlooms feature vibrant tableaux stitched with figures, animals, glass beads, porcupine quills, shells, bone, and seeds. Mass-produced woolens from companies like Pendleton combine motifs from hundreds of tribes and separate designs from their meanings. Eighth Generation, founded by Louie Gong in 2015 and now owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe, works to reclaim and educate about diverse Native craftsmanship. The company licenses artwork, ensures designers retain rights, returns art at contract end, and centers Indigenous ownership.
Read at Architectural Digest
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