Ribbon Skirts | Clothing, Strength, and Sacredness

"When you put your skirt on, you're showing Mother Earth who you are." - Myra Laramee (Fisher River Cree Nation)

Last fall, when the Water Protectors stood in solidarity with Standing Rock, I was fortunate to visit the camps on multiple occasions. In preparation for my first visit, I was advised to wear a long skirt because the grounds are sacred and ceremonies were being conducted constantly. The frontline warriors and their supporters needed constant prayers and sacred protection for this dangerous yet important fight.

The Power of Earning and Gifting Feathers

Whenever I get an interview inquiry from the press, I usually - inevitably - end up discussing and explaining the power and sacredness of the Plains Indian headdress. This is mainly due to pop culture's current obsession with, and appropriation of, this striking object. I take the opportunity to share a bit about the value systems that are at the core of these meaningful items of adornment.

Native American headdresses are significant for many reasons, and one of them is because they are comprised of eagle feathers.

Video | Journeying Into Form

Journeying Into Form: The Mountain Goat Wool Project featured the work of Kwakwaka’wakw-Haida textile artist Meghann O’Brien in her first solo exhibition, which was displayed at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art this past summer. Mountain goat wool was the original fiber used on the Northwest Coast. It was regarded as a sacred material and used in the weaving of Yeil Koowu (Ravenstail) and Naxxiin (Chilkat) ceremonial garments.

Columbus Day?: Chickasaws Celebrate Piomingo Day

Many Native Nations (and even states) have already taken measures to change the name of the Columbus Day holiday. One example is South Dakota, where this day is referred to as Native American Day, and coincides with the large He Sapa Wacipi Powwow celebrations.

Another example is the Chickasaw Nation's celebration of their historic war chief and diplomat, Piomingo. Piomingo established a friendship with George Washington and the new federal government, and paved a way for cooperative living. President Washington had believed that the republic would not only honor Indian boundaries, but protect them. Sadly, future presidents didn’t share Washington’s belief.

The Cutest Indian Baby in All of... Yosemite

Yosemite postcard, ca. 1910s-1920s.

Today I'd like to share a special post about baby shows at Yosemite National Park during the first half of the 20th Century. In this guest post by Mary Klann (exclusive for Beyond Buckskin), we learn how Baby Contests in the past were used simultaneously as assimilation and preservation techniques. On the one hand, the US government issued campaigns to ensure children were being raised 'properly' according to popular American concepts of hygiene. On the other hand, Native mothers used these events as opportunities to continue artistic practices and perpetuate cultural ideas associated with valuing children in the community.

Interestingly, the cradleboard would take center stage as an item that could disqualify a baby in one contest, or send him home with a big first place prize in another.

Chippewow Blossoms | BBB x Mea B'Fly Collab

I have a really cool job. I get to work with Native American fashion designers and artists on a daily basis. I'm hardly an artist, but their creativity inspires me more than they'll ever know.

A couple weeks ago, I was on the phone with one of the artists represented on the Beyond Buckskin Boutique site. Her name is MaRia and she heads up the super fresh Native-centered small jewelry business known as Mea B'Fly. She had an idea to do a collaboration with Beyond Buckskin for an exclusive earring design.

August Poll Results: More History

I really like doing these polls with you guys - it helps me to understand my readership a bit more and to improve this site and my writing.

When I asked you to tell me what you want to see more of on this blog, even though this is a space for contemporary Native American fashion, the overwhelming response was that you wanted to see more posts on Historical/Traditional Clothing .

I have one whole section on this blog dedicated to "Some History," and, listening to your feedback, I'll continue to add to that section.

I always try to infuse my history posts with a distinctive contemporary twist, to emphasize how important historical, traditional, and/or customary clothing and regalia is to our contemporary existence. I also always try to give 'history' a fresh new perspective. So, stay tuned for more history posts on Beyond Buckskin:)

Flashback Friday | Indian Lore, Not Really

Two years ago I came across this little ditty from Sociological Images: Vintage Levi’s Brochure Provides a “Round-Up of Western Indian Lore.”

It is a crazy mash up of wild stereotypes and Native appropriations. I actually like to use this post in some of my classes, because the overt racism and ignorance is really obvious.  It is a fantastic example of the skeletons in our (American) closet. And, this brochure was published only 58 years ago.

Some History | Independence Day

During the Reservation Era, Native people incorporated their cultural practices into US holidays, such as Independence Day, as a way to continue their then-outlawed dances and ceremonial life.

It was actually 'illegal' to do 'Indian things' like dance or continue ceremonies, so participating in holidays like Independence Day was actually a subversive way to continue traditions and keep the US government at bay at the same time.

Mirroring

This tiny beaded bag - which accompanies a 'doll', or, more accurately, a small 'soft sculpture' - is decorated with double cones that symbolizes the concept of mirroring: what is above is below. 

Award-winning Assiniboine-Sioux artist Juanita Growing Thunder explains, "The reflected doubles symbolize the earth world and the spirit world." Mirrored images often reference the meeting of the sky world (or the spiritual) and the earth world (or the daily) and the intermixing of these two worlds.

Growing Thunder stated that these images are "a reminder that you are supposed to live within both."

Images and quotes from: Grand Procession: Contemporary Artistic Visions of American Indians. By Lois Sherr Dubin. Denver: Denver Museum of Art, 2010. 64 pp. Photographs, notes, bibliography, index. $19.95 cloth.

Some History | Slick Inuit Shades

Better known as snow goggles, these cool shades are a type of eyewear traditionally worn by the Inuit people of the Arctic to prevent snow blindness while hunting or traveling on spring ice.

And yes, we can credit the fabulous Inuit of the far north for the world's first sunglasses, which can be dated back 2000 years ago and are found in the west coast Alaska region.

Video | Maori Weavers Use Feathers to Autograph Their Work

This research is so cool - a New Zealand researcher (Hokimate Harwood) has been looking at Maori feather cloaks under the microscope, and she has discovered that weavers use feathers to autograph their work.

Over 20 different native birds (and 10 non-native species) were used to create the 120 cloaks in the museum collection.

Native Fashion and the Squaw Dress

Ok, this will be my last Lloyd Kiva New post for a while. This one is about LIFE Magazine's article on Squaw dresses (left). Now, the thing about Squaw dresses is.. well, the word 'squaw' is used to describe it.

I've brought up this topic once before (click here to read the post) when I discussed a video that spotlights Southwest fashion and the Squaw dress in the 1950s. The video is rather interesting, so definitely check it out if you have a spare minute.

My dissertation advisor, Dr. Nancy J. Parezo, has conducted research on the Squaw dress, and you can read her article on this fashion phenomenon here. Essentially, she states that the Squaw dress was a categorization label for regional-style dresses in the American Southwest in the late 1940s.

Frankie Welch, Politics, and that Cherokee Scarf

While working as a personal shopper for D.C.-area socialites, Frankie Welch (left) decided she’d rather have them shopping in her own store than sending them somewhere else.

Cabinet members' wives, White House staffers' wives and newswomen of the capital all had Welch shop in New York for them and coordinate their wardrobes. But in 1963, the Cherokee fashionista opened her first boutique and began selling her own designs and accessories.

Lloyd Kiva New and 1940s Stereotypes

In December 1948, Cherokee fashion designer Lloyd Kiva New was featured in The Desert Magazine (read the entire issue here).

In an article, author Christine MacKenzie described his studio, and noted Kiva to be one of the premiere artists operating in Scottsdale at this time.

His section of the issue is informative and rather well-written (considering that this was the 1940s). However, when this article was published, other articles were published in the same issue about Native people - highlighting current Indian realities, racism, and public perceptions of Native people.

The Return of the Red Man

In 1967, LIFE Magazine published a special issue on Native peoples. Dubbed "Return of the Red Man," this issue featured two major stories in a section titled, "Rediscovery of the Redman." These two stories were:

1. Bright Vignettes of a Lost World. Newly discovered journals of a brave Jesuit priest show how Indians lived in the northern Rockies in the 1840s.

2. 100 Years Later, A Double Rediscovery. Hippies play Indian as real Indians explore their heritage and renew it. Juxtaposing two articles, With Old Ritual and Modern Dance, A Heritage Comes to Life, and Happy Hippie Hunting Ground, the 'double rediscovery' becomes more clear.

Native Moderns: The White Hogan

At the same time that Lloyd Kiva New's fashion and accessories boutique was flourishing in downtown Scottsdale, the White Hogan was also gaining a reputation for innovative and superbly mastered jewelry designs, flatware, and hollow-ware.

The White Hogan Shop has its beginnings in Northern Arizona in the 1930s, and it officially opened its doors in Scottsdale in 1950.

"It's a Kiva Bag"

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee) worked with Charles Loloma (Hopi) to create couture handbags that they sold out of their boutiques in Scottsdale. These purses were so popular that in 1949 the phrase “It’s a Kiva bag,” was coined and printed in local and national newspapers.

Museum of Arts and Design Cites Beyond Buckskin

Cool news: The New York-based Museum of Arts and Design (aka MAD) used the online exhibit (that I curated for MoCNA on the history of Native fashion at the Institute of American Indian Arts) as part of their Teacher Resource Packet. They also used Beyond Buckskin as a source! Super cool.

The Packet focuses on their recent exhibit, Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design, and includes topics for discussion and activities intended to introduce the key themes and concepts of the exhibition.

The section where I'm cited focuses on the textile designs of Lloyd Kiva New (pictured left) - and it is great that they included this important Cherokee figure in their look at American modernism (significant Native artists are often omitted from American art history).

The Kiva Center: Now and Then

The other weekend I finally did something that I've been meaning to do since I moved here to Phoenix last August: I visited the Kiva Center located on 5th Avenue in Scottsdale.

The Kiva Center was established in the 1950s by Cherokee fashion designer Lloyd Kiva New as an arts, fashion, and jewelry center. It was a place where high-class travelers could go and purchase exquisite 'souvenirs' from the great Southwest.

The artists who occupied the shops at the Kiva Center were respected, talented individuals, noted for producing quality items right there in the shops themselves. Visitors could see the artists in action, and buy a little something from the artist as evidence of their travels and experiences.