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00:00We need more indigenous women in the fashion industry, beauty industry, especially in my area.
00:05There's not many, so I'm always that go-to person, and I'm so busy that I wish there were more,
00:11and I encourage people to get educated and get their license.
00:14So I need a team, and I need more indigenous women and men.
00:18Do you feel a different connection when you're working on a model that's indigenous?
00:24I do, because we can relate. You just look at each other, you just have that look,
00:29that instant connection. It just feels like sisters.
00:59We can relate.
01:09We can relate.
01:15We can relate.
01:25Today I'm driving to the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation,
01:28the home of Abishanabe, Ojibwe, Dakota, Sioux Tribes.
01:34I'm here at the Lower Sioux Art Center
01:37to meet with the curator, Grace Coltooth.
01:40She's creating a space for tribal members
01:42to come and carry on the traditions,
01:45but I also hear there's a lot of people
01:48pushing things into the future, so let's go check it out.
01:51Tell me a little bit about this center.
01:53Yeah, so the original building was built
01:56in the late 90s, early 2000s,
02:00and we knew immediately when we built the space
02:03that we outgrew it.
02:05So we had this large growth of our population
02:09that needed not only space, but also the cultural knowledge
02:13to be passed down to the next generation.
02:23Most of the tribal members have grown up
02:37on the Lower Sioux Reservation,
02:39but tribal member Autumn Cavender has stepped out of the res
02:43to explore technology, creating art in a digital space.
02:48How I came to digital artwork is that I'm actually
02:54a traditionally trained Dakota quill worker.
02:56You know, for me, one of the main drivers of, you know,
03:00my passion behind it comes from this idea
03:03of this very old creation story about the origin of the universe.
03:07And so for us, the fabric of the universe is quilled.
03:10But eventually, we kind of came up with this process
03:13that, you know, we've come to call generative quill work.
03:15What I do with this piece is I actually feed audio files
03:20into the program, and then it creates these kind of
03:23more base origin pieces, these bands.
03:26So when we're talking about, like, projections
03:29and moving forward, we have something very ancient,
03:31something a little bit more contemporary,
03:33and something that promises us a future as a people.
03:36This is my favorite piece talking about that,
03:39coincidentally enough.
03:40This one was actually a part of an online gallery exhibit
03:44on the art of gender and sexuality by Playboy X7s.
03:48And so this is a merging of actually three separate audio
03:50recordings of a traditional love courting song,
03:55again, from those 19th century wax cylinders,
03:58Come and Get Your Love by the band Redbone.
04:00And actually audio of sexual intercourse.
04:04Well, you know, natives were known for getting busy.
04:07I know, this is true.
04:10And to have those things linked back to our audio recordings
04:13with our language and our individual people,
04:15it's really fantastic.
04:16Yeah, I mean, you're kind of blowing my mind here,
04:18because you're doing something that I've never even thought about.
04:23And as we move these things forward,
04:25how do we, again, like, encode ourselves into digital space?
04:30And particularly when it comes to blockchain technology,
04:32like, those things are permanent.
04:33You know, as long as there are computers to run,
04:35that blockchain will continue.
04:37And so what does it mean for us as native people,
04:39then, to more or less etch digital pictographs, right,
04:42of ourselves and of our people on something permanent?
04:45Who knew you could take sounds of romance and other things
04:50and put it into a digital space
04:52and make something that is going to last forever?
04:55It just goes to show that native people are not stuck in the past.
05:07Meet Chef Bruce, a native man who grew up on the reservation,
05:11lived in the city, and then moved back to serve the elders.
05:15He has a talent for cooking.
05:17And when he's not in the kitchen,
05:19he's teaching classes on indigenous plant gathering
05:23and how to further the native tradition of food sovereignty.
05:30What do you think are the foods that are the most traditional for this region?
05:34Would have been bison or buffalo,
05:37but venison and gathering,
05:41and a little fishing in the rivers for this tribe.
05:44When you go further up north, you get more fishing in there
05:48and moose and other stuff.
05:50Spring's here now,
05:51so we're going to be getting some morel mushrooms.
05:54We get the wild onions, which are called the ramps.
05:58And I do a...
06:00My kids love it because I'll take the ramps
06:02and I'll do a tempura batter,
06:03and it's just like an onion ring, but it's a wild ramp.
06:07Where are those?
06:07They're not here yet.
06:09I'm looking around your kitchen right now.
06:11About a month, they'll be around.
06:13So let me get this straight.
06:14If word gets out on the res, that it's a good meal.
06:17Yes.
06:18You got a lot more people coming.
06:19Yes.
06:20All right.
06:20So word still spreads.
06:22Yeah.
06:23I love that.
06:24How do you feel about now serving the elders?
06:27That's got to feel amazing.
06:28Yes, it does.
06:29Getting back into it,
06:31I know the elders appreciated me coming back,
06:34and I really enjoy it, helping out my community like that.
06:37I love Chef Bruce because he's honoring our elders,
06:46and that's a really important thing for us as Native people.
06:49We have a saying, honor our elders,
06:51because our elders are the wisdom keepers from the past,
06:55and they point us to the future.
06:56The Lower Sioux Art Center has rooms and rooms of creativity.
07:03I check out the pottery room where the smell of red clay
07:07is in the air, and my instructor, Rochelle,
07:10is so kind to give me a lesson at the potter's wheel.
07:14So are you ready to teach me?
07:16Yeah.
07:18All right.
07:19Be kind.
07:20This could be really disastrous.
07:22So start with getting my hands wet, right?
07:25Okay, first, you want to have your legs wrapped around as much as possible.
07:29It's like riding a horse.
07:30Okay, here we go.
07:32I got my saddle.
07:33I got my reins.
07:34Okay.
07:35Oh, God.
07:36Speed is the thing, so we're going to start.
07:38Oh, Lord, have mercy.
07:40Okay.
07:41Put my hands around it like that.
07:44I watch ghosts a lot of times, so maybe it's going to help.
07:48Okay, you're on one hand to stay and hold the clay.
07:51Man, you made it look so easy.
07:54That's better when you're doing it.
08:01In Native culture, the mothers, daughters, and aunties
08:04stick pretty close together.
08:06Marilyn Histay and her daughter Priscilla are carrying on traditions
08:10and passing them down to the next generation.
08:13Is this your homeland here?
08:14Yes, Lower Sioux Indian community is where we're from.
08:18Okay, and did you grow up here?
08:20Yes.
08:20Mm-hmm.
08:21Okay.
08:22We call it Chanchayapi, where they paint the trees red.
08:27All right.
08:28That's what it's called, Chanchayapi.
08:30So you've got artists already if you're painting the trees red.
08:33Yeah.
08:34Right?
08:35I think I was born and raised an artist.
08:38So what was it like?
08:39We had our own experience with our own clay around the side the hills and stuff like that.
08:43Okay.
08:44And the different colors from nature that we mixed in with our clay.
08:48And this is one of my favorite pieces.
08:50It's like my masterpiece.
08:51Okay.
08:52So it's MMIW.
08:54What does that mean?
08:55It's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
08:57Okay.
08:58And it hits close to home because we do have people, relatives in our family that are missing
09:04right now.
09:05So...
09:06My work of art that I do is the scratch work.
09:10I never taught anybody else how to do the scratch work.
09:13So I'm the only one...
09:14Not even your daughter?
09:15No.
09:16Uh-oh.
09:17She's seen me do it.
09:19Maybe later.
09:20Yeah.
09:21I'm looking forward to it.
09:22Oh, that's so great.
09:23What would you like to see, I guess, in the future for younger Native women?
09:29So we're getting our cultural ways back by doing these things, showing the things that
09:34we do, you know, to teach them.
09:38These are our ways of life, by sewing and making pottery and different things like that.
09:55For the Plains Indians, quilt making has its roots in both ritual and practical replacements
10:00for the Indian buffalo robe.
10:03By the late 1800s, bison had grown very scarce as herds were hunted nearly to extinction in
10:10a campaign to once again remove the tribes.
10:15Missionary wives taught quilting techniques to Indian women who turned it into their own
10:20by utilizing traditional motifs and patterns like the star.
10:25Tribal elder Ruby Ann explains the intricacy of quilt making and the love that goes into
10:31each unique creation.
10:34This is a pretty fancy machine here, I'll tell you.
10:38I told them if they ever get rid of this one, I want it.
10:41How long have you been here on this reservation?
10:43All my life.
10:44I was born and raised here.
10:46Okay.
10:47So you've seen a few things.
10:48Oh, yes.
10:49I sew them at home.
10:50Okay.
10:51Everything at home except the quilting.
10:53I bring it here.
10:54When you make them, do you make them for family members?
10:57Oh, yes.
10:58My grandchildren.
10:59I don't know if I'll ever get them done because I got 30 great-grandchildren that I'm
11:05making these for.
11:06Wow.
11:0730 great-grandchildren?
11:08Yes.
11:09Oh, Lord have mercy.
11:10Three great are graduating this year.
11:13Your tribe just has so much talent and so much creativity.
11:17I know.
11:18I know they do.
11:19I'm not even going to attempt to do this.
11:22I was looking at that.
11:23Even with that laser, I don't think so.
11:26That's a good arm workout, too.
11:34I had a fabulous time at the Lower Sioux Res, but now it's time to go back to the city
11:39for the one-of-the-kind Starlight Fashion Show.
11:47Fashion has always been a part of Native culture.
11:50Designs varied from tribe to tribe and were closely influenced by the environment and
11:54the spiritual beliefs of the tribe.
11:57Tonight has been set aside for the Native Starlight Fashion Show, the first of its kind
12:02in the Twin Cities.
12:04It's creating an opening for Native-Indigenous fashion designers, Native models, and Native
12:10talents behind the scenes, including Native hairdressers and Native-made artists.
12:15I've always done photo shoots with Indigenous artists and stylists, and I've also recently
12:27started doing pageantry a little over a year ago, so I'm used to being on stage and being
12:32in front of crowds and walking in heels, so yeah, I think I'm pretty confident with tonight.
12:38I was the only Native girl for a while until I started working with Norma Flying Horse,
12:44which is Red Berry Woman, and she helped me with some of my pageantry outfits.
12:49And how old are you?
12:50Seventeen.
12:51All right.
12:52So it's exciting to see ladies your age, you know, because when I was young, there was
12:57no Native representation.
12:59Really?
13:00Yeah.
13:01Pretty much not at all.
13:02How do you feel when you're working with Native models and an incredible Native fashion show?
13:08It's amazing.
13:09That's my favorite.
13:10That really warms my heart.
13:11I feel like I'm with my family.
13:13Even though we're all from different tribes, I mean, we all have the same roots.
13:16So being a stay-at-home mom and then getting to do something like this, that's really a lot.
13:22When you were a little girl, did you ever have a thought that you might be a fashion model?
13:27No.
13:28Absolutely not.
13:29And she's gone to my shows too, my five-year-old.
13:32Well, you're paving the way.
13:33Yeah.
13:34Mom's showing, you know, hey, Native women can do anything they want.
13:39The Native models, hairdressers, and makeup artists, they create a community of sisters.
13:55Although these ladies are having the chance to experience their dreams coming true, there's
14:00still difficulties in Indian country.
14:02And one of our major challenges is finding missing and murdered Indigenous women.
14:08These are our sisters who go missing and are murdered at disproportionate rates.
14:13I'm a really big activist for the missing and murdered.
14:16I stay on that.
14:18I'm one of the organizers.
14:19Currently, right now, my little cousin is missing.
14:21She's been missing for six months, so I'm really, like, into this.
14:24And doing this fashion show, it just brings me up and it just makes me feel alive and beautiful.
14:29And to be proud who I am, Indigenous, and I love that.
14:33And I'm going to embrace that until the end.
14:36You know, missing and murdered Indigenous women all the way, dude.
14:39We're going to bring them home no matter what.
14:40And I'm going to fight until the day I die.
14:42Well, and I think...
14:43And men.
14:44And you know what?
14:45And I think that doing things, even though it may seem detached, a fashion show, it's
14:50not.
14:51Because it's bringing more awareness to who we are as people.
14:54And we've been kind of hidden.
14:55Definitely.
14:56You know, I mean, we've been put on reservations for a reason, to not be out there in the mainstream,
15:02to not tell our stories.
15:03And so, the more people see something like you walking down that catwalk tonight...
15:08Yep.
15:09We're coming.
15:10We're coming.
15:11There are three fashion designers featured at tonight's show.
15:16Lauren Good Day is one of them.
15:18She is an award-winning artist who's taken space as a Native designer worldwide.
15:24What I love about Lauren is the fact that she wears so many hats.
15:29Like most of us as Native women, we're bringing home the bacon, frying it up in the pan.
15:34And in Lauren's case, she does it wearing awesome, inspiring fashion.
15:39So Lauren, tell me about this collection, because it looks really juicy.
15:44I love it.
15:45So this is my latest collection that I have going on here.
15:48It's actually a mix of collections that I have.
15:51So this is, you know, my early spring that I have.
15:54And this is actually an athleisure collection that I've been working on.
15:57I started as an artist.
15:58I did the professional jury of Native American shows for probably the first 10 years of my early career.
16:04Right out of high school, I started doing art shows.
16:07And, you know, I did the ledger art, beadwork, the more traditional dresses.
16:12But it was also, it was always a dream of mine as a child to be a fashion designer.
16:18And it's actually funny, I started during, I think I was 13 years old when I was the Denver March Pow Wow Princess.
16:25And in the bio I had written that I wanted to be a fashion designer.
16:29So it was, it's really neat to see how I went full circle with the art and then using the art within the fashion design to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine.
16:39I meet up with Osa Mukwasas, simply known as Osa, a fashion designer who's Plains Cree Diné, who drove all night from Alberta, Canada to participate in tonight's fashion show.
16:55As you can see, there's a lot more that goes on behind the scenes to create a fashion show than meets the eye.
17:02So, Osa, what are you working on here?
17:05Right now I'm just doing like my list for the runway.
17:08What tribe are you from?
17:10I am from Plains Cree, Pigeon Lake, Alberta, Memeosa Gaigan.
17:15And then I'm also half Tsutina.
17:18That's my grandmother's tribe.
17:20And I, I made a dress specifically for, um, like for, for her tribe to represent that, that part of my family.
17:30And I'm going to be showcasing it today with a traditional headdress.
17:34Oh, that's amazing.
17:36Like the elements that I use in like all my designs is like, um, like nature.
17:41That's pretty much what inspires me.
17:43Like as Indigenous people, it's important for me to include that in like all my designs.
17:48And like where I come from too, like the land.
17:50It's important to think of that because it's what governs us as Indigenous people.
18:03The powerhouse behind Native Starlight Fashion Show is the awe-inspiring Delina White.
18:11Representing her fashion line, I am Abishanabe, Delina does it all.
18:16She is the chief cook and bottle washer.
18:19Not only does she design the clothes, she also makes all the accessories.
18:24And teaches her models how to walk on the runway.
18:28You're in the heat of the moment here.
18:34Everything down to the jewelry is Native, Indigenous, thought and...
18:42Indigenous materials.
18:44I think this one is my favorite one, really.
18:47And it's actually two, but you can wear them together.
18:54So...
18:55So it's like amazing.
18:57I might wear it.
18:59You know, this is my love.
19:01It's all these like Indigenous materials is what I call them.
19:05So beautiful.
19:06And my husband helped me a lot.
19:08So I designed them and then he puts them together.
19:12You got a good man there.
19:14So it's a family affair then.
19:15Yeah!
19:19Being at this fashion show in Minnesota, it's like a dream come true.
19:23You've got models, fashion designers, hairdressers, makeup artists.
19:28And now I know why the artist formerly known as Prince, also Native American, made his home here.
19:40Meet Kiwana Rose Chasing Horse.
19:43A 19-year-old Native supermodel who has adorned the covers of Vogue, Elle and countless other fashion magazines.
19:52She is the next generation of Native women who are taking space in fashion.
19:57She's an activist and has broken the glass ceiling for Native women.
20:01You're killing it, girl!
20:03You really are.
20:04It's so great.
20:05So how do you feel?
20:06When I heard about the show and I got invited, you know, it was in the air because my schedule is all over the place.
20:12I told my agents, like, this is something that I really, really want to do and that I, like, make it happen.
20:18Honestly, I'm probably just as happy and excited to be here as everyone else.
20:21So I feel honored and I think, you know, representing my people is so important, especially, you know, with my platform.
20:29And so even me being here and just being able to inspire and also I'm inspired.
20:36I'll tell you, I've been following you and it's just so wonderful to see someone representing all the tribes, you know, on Turtle Island.
20:46And the fact that you have that humility that even though you've been on Vogue and I saw you, you're still, you know, humble enough to come in for a fashion show like this and be part of it.
21:01Like, you know, staying grounded in my culture, you know, being surrounded by my people helps me stay grounded, stay, you know, real and, you know, like true to who I am.
21:16Now it's showtime. The models are ready. Fashion designers are getting ready for their lineup and it's go time.
21:23You girls are smoking.
21:26You what's up? Shake it up. You what's up? Shake it up. You what's up? Shake it up. You what's up? Shake it up.
21:30You what's up? Shake it up. You what's up? Shake it up. You what's up? Shake it up. You what's up? Shake it up. You what's up? Shake it up. You what's up? Shake it up. You what's up? Shake it up.
21:43Spending time with the Native tribes in Minnesota has been one of the most incredible journeys filled with rich layers of art, technology, fashion, and culinary experiences.
22:05It's time for modern Native people living in modern times to make an impact.
22:10The truth is, Minnesota tribes are showing the world that not only are they still here, they're just getting warmed up.
22:40People are standing with the Native people living in modern times to make people enter into a company.
22:46For the Native voguers and the Indian people living in modern times to make a difference.
22:49The Native people living in modern times and to make a difference.
22:54If you are not there, you can see it in the world where you are.
22:56You're not there, or you're not there.
22:58I'm not there.
22:58You're not there.
22:59We live in the world where you live.
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