Indigenous New Media and Beyond Buckskin

New media, technology, the internet: these things have been vital to the expansion of Beyond Buckskin.

This project began in 2005 as a Master's Thesis to investigate the work of Native fashion. It led to my follow-up Doctoral Dissertation on Native American designers of high fashion. Through my research, I interviewed many individuals, and they told me stories, shared their experiences, both positive and negative, about creating clothing and art for the body.

Announcing the #GoNative Winners!

The #GoNative campaign has officially ended, but a lot of us will continue the #GoNative trend and wear Native American-made fashion everyday!

It's a way to stand out, be unique, and support artists. If you're Native American, it can mean more - it's a way to express pride in your heritage and continue a beautiful legacy.

Our top five winners racked up well over 200 Likes each, and some even over 300. Our winner, a surprise perhaps (?!), cashed in over 400 Likes on Facebook!

#GoNative and Win! (at life, of course)

It has been such a beautiful first 2 days of the #GoNative challenge to wear Native American-made fashion for a week! It was so great to see all the smiling faces on Instagram and Facebook - you can scroll down to see a quick round-up of some of our fave images. There were too many awesome ones to post, so I've decided to kick it up a notch, make it interesting, and throw in some prizes.

Beyond Buckskin will give away five $20 BBB Gift Certificates for the images with the most likes on Instagram, Facebook, or Tumblr.

Go Native 2014

It’s a new year, it’s a new day. Let’s launch a new trend. Let’s breathe energy into our current Native American renaissance. Let’s go Native.

The expression ‘to go Native’ has been around for a while, and roughly means (from a non-Indigenous settler perspective) to take on the lifestyle or outlook of the local inhabitants that is different from one’s own.

In the past, to ‘go Native’ has had some very negative connotations: according to dictionaries, it has meant “to adopt the lifestyle of the local population, especially when it appears less civilized” or “to imitate the behavior of a surrounding culture, especially behavior that seems simple or natural.” (We know this is incorrect; we know our Indigenous cultures are complex, beautiful, full of wisdom and civility). But what if we rethink this concept?

Add Vine to the List...

...of the many social media/networking sites where you can find Beyond Buckskin.

If you don't know what Vine is, that's ok. I didn't either up until recently. Essentially, Vine is a new app that allows you to shoot and share short looping videos. It's meant to be simple and fun, and the videos are a max of 7 seconds in length.

I've posted a whopping 2 videos thus far, I'm still trying to figure it out, but I'm kind of excited about it.

Subscribe to the Beyond Buckskin Newsletter!

As part of the growing mission of Beyond Buckskin, we are now also offering a cool Newsletter that will come directly to your email inbox twice a month.

We are going to make it easier for you to keep up with Native fashion information, featured artists, new boutique items, and future Beyond Buckskin projects. Just click these links:

- Subscribe to the BB Newsletter.
- Like us on Facebook.
- Follow on Twitter.
- Repin on Pinterest.
- Read about the new Boutique!