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A surge in Native fashion is ramping up runway events at Santa Fe Indian Market, with more than a dozen Indigenous designers participating this year in some of the storied market’s biggest events.
Santa Fe Indian Market has already become ground zero for the convergence of fashion design, art, artists, actors and musicians, who play off each other’s talents during the weeklong event, which attracts more than 100,000 people.
This year’s market follows a recent announcement by the Southwestern Association for American Indian Arts that a first-ever SWAIA Native Fashion Week in the U.S. will launch in Spring 2024, and on an Instagram channel at @swaianativefashion.
After 10 years of producing and curating Indigenous fashion shows and exhibitions for SWAIA and multiple international institutions, curator and art historian Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, Siksika Nation, said launching the Indigenous showcase is a fashion dream come true.
“SWAIA’s Indigenous Fashion Show began in 2014 with no budget, a U-Haul to transport models to the outside runway location and a DJ with a microphone,” Bear Robe told ICT. READ MORE — Sandra Hale Schulman, Special to ICT
Forbes Magazine compiled a list of women over the age of 50 to celebrate women who are entrepreneurs, artists, investors and inventors. Forbes partnered with Mika Brzezinski, co-host of Morning Joe and founder of Know Your Value as well as 12 expert judges that included entrepreneurs Bobbi Brown and Miyoko Schinner, financiers Suzanne Shank and Anne Finucane and Spelman president Helene Gayle, to make the final list.
Four Indigenous women were featured in three categories: investment, lifestyle and impact.
Cynthia Chavez Lamar, director of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, was named in the lifestyle section. The San Felipe Pueblo citizen became the first Native American woman to lead a Smithsonian Institution museum in 2022. Chavez Lamar’s profile is here.
Ramona Bennett, activist, was named in the impact section. Bennett is a Puyallup Tribe citizen and was Puyallup tribal chairwoman from 1971 to 1978. She is a longtime advocate for social and healthcare services and tribal fishing rights. Bennett’s profile is here.
Stephine Poston, Pueblo of Sandia, was named in the investment section. Poston is a founder of several institutions and organizations such as Native Women Lead, an organization she helped establish to invest in and provide loans to Native women founding and running businesses, Poston & Associates, a full-service communications firm specializing in serving the Native American population and Creative Fund that provides loans with low interest rates for Native women artists, makers, crafters and creatives in the Indigenous communities. Poston’s profile is here.
Joy Harjo, Creek, was named in the lifestyle section. Harjo is a multiple-awarded performer and writer and an artist in residence at the Bob Dylan Center. She was the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, serving for three terms from 2019 to 2022. She received the Leadership Award from the Academy of American Poets, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle in 2022 and Yale’s 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry. Harjo’s profile is here.
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The annual Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak this weekend, sending bright trails of light streaking across the night sky.
With only a sliver of moon in the sky, conditions this year will be ideal for seeing lots of meteors.
“If you’ve got nice clear weather and a good dark sky, you go out just before dawn and you’ll see a Perseid per minute or so,” said NASA meteor scientist Bill Cooke. “That’s a pretty good show.”
Here’s how to watch the meteor shower. READ MORE — Associated Press
At last Friday’s meeting of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, not an empty seat could be found. Citizens of tribes in Oregon, Washington and Idaho filled the 150 chairs set out at the department headquarters in Salem. Dozens more crowded around the edges of the room.
The item at hand was a proposed agreement allowing the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde to issue its own hunting and fishing licenses to tribal members for subsistence and ceremonial harvest only – an agreement similar to those the state agency has already approved with four other tribes in Oregon.
The seven-hour meeting included testimony from dozens of members of five tribal nations. The commission, which has no Indigenous members, voted four-to-three to approve Grand Ronde’s historic agreement.
One side of the room erupted in celebration. For Grand Ronde, the decision was a step toward righting a major historical wrong.
“This agreement, I believe, is an important step forward, beyond some of the dark history the state of Oregon holds,” said Kathleen George, a member of Grand Ronde’s tribal council. READ MORE — Nika Bartoo-Smith and Karina Brown, ICT and Underscore
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Law enforcement raided a tobacco store on the White Earth reservation on Wednesday evening for suspicion of selling marijuana without a license, in violation of state and tribal law.
The store, Asema Tobacco and Pipe, is owned by a White Earth band member and advertised on Facebook that it had cannabis beginning Aug. 1, when it became legal to possess across the state. The White Earth Nation’s tribal council voted to legalize recreational marijuana last Friday.
The raid was conducted by White Earth tribal police and Mahnomen County sheriff’s deputies along with members of the Paul Bunyan Task Force. They seized cannabis, but no one was arrested, according to Task Force Commander Dave Hart. Charges will be determined by the Mahnomen County attorney, Hart said.
“The Band is committed to supporting businesses engaged in the legal sale of cannabis and cannabis products. Unauthorized sales of cannabis will be investigated in accordance with all applicable laws. The Band would caution everyone to use common sense when it comes to cannabis,” the statement said. READ MORE. — Minnesota Reformer
- Neighboring islands unite to help during Maui fires: A number of nonprofit organizations and neighbors are offering assistance to people evacuated or displaced by the wildfires in Lahaina
- Indigenous rocker Robbie Robertson dies at 80: Robertson was from the Six Nations of the Grand River in Canada and a fixture in the rock industry for decades, playing alongside other rock legends
- Fires burn across Montana’s Flathead reservation: Fire teams, including Hotshot crews, have the three fires partially contained, but continue to watch weather patterns as they work to extinguish the flames
- Barbie gets a Navajo makeover: Award-winning weaver Barbara Teller Ornelas draws accolades for her custom Diné dolls
- How indigenous conservation protects Canada’s environment
- NAU program aims to help build pipeline of Indigenous educators in Arizona
- After decades, a tribe’s vision for a new marine sanctuary could be coming true
We want your tips, but we also want your feedback. What should we be covering that we’re not? What are we getting wrong? Please let us know. dalton@ictnews.org.
