Indigenous designers at forefront of folk festival

Carrie Moran McCleary, who lives on the Crow Reservation in Montana but is Little Shell Chippewa, is a designer of Indigenous fashions. The traditional arts of Native Americans provide a window into their experiences as human beings, she said.  

“Art is going to tell stories,” Moran McCleary said. “For me, the story is always going to be: ‘We are still here.’”

That prevailing and rallying message will take center stage July 13 during the Montana Folk Festival in Uptown Butte. The work of Moran McCleary and four other Indigenous fashion designers will be featured during the First Peoples’ Native Fashion Show. The one-hour show will begin at 5 p.m. at the Original Mineyard main stage.

The First Peoples’ fashion show has been held in years past during the folk festival. But this will be its first year occupying the high-visibility, high-octane venue at the Original Mineyard.

The move to the festival’s main stage coincides with the national and international embrace of Indigenous fashions, Moran McCleary said. The momentum gained strength in 2020, she said, when the U.S. began to pay more attention to the riches of diversity.

Some Indigenous designers gained a foothold in the larger fashion industry by collaborating with luxury brands, “big upscale brands,” Moran McCleary said.

Film and TV series also played a role, she said, with the emergence of shows like “Reservation Dogs” and the prominence of actor Lily Gladstone, raised on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, and model and actress Quannah Chasinghorse, a member of the Han Gwich’in and Oglala Lakota tribes.

The internet allows Indigenous designers to display and sell fashions without having to maintain a large inventory, Moran McCleary said.

Each of the five Indigenous designers highlighted during the Montana Folk Festival will have a presence also during the weekend at the First Peoples’ Market.

The designers are: Moran McCleary, Little Shell Chippewa; Della Bighair-Stump, Apsaalooke (Crow Tribe); Rebekah Jarvey, Chippewa Cree; Joanne Brings Thunder, Eastern Shoshone; and Yolanda OldDwarf, Apsaalooke (Crow Tribe).

OldDwarf, who grew up in Pryor, savors the Indigenous fashion event at the Montana Folk Festival.

“This is one of my favorite shows because the crowd is so excited,” she said. “I feel like it’s been so welcoming for our Indigenous fashions and Indigenous point of view. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Indigenous fashions often honor traditional techniques and tribal patterns, such as bold geometric designs.

OldDwarf said her late father, Nathan OldDwarf, taught her non-native mother, Julie Kreitzberg, how to bead and sew, skills Kreitzberg has passed on.

In 2018, OldDwarf, who describes herself as an entrepreneur, launched Sweet Sage Woman.

Jarvey, whose work is rooted in four generations of beadwork and sewing, has collaborated with Nike for its N7 Indigenous traditions collection and has presented collections in Cannes, France, and during the New York Fashion Week.

An August 2022 article featured in “Vogue,” included Jarvey among “15 Indigenous artists to know from this year’s Santa Fe Indian Market.”

Bighair-Stump emphasizes that her designs — beadwork, floral appliques and more — reflect Crow traditions.

“I don’t do other tribal designs,” Bighair-Stump has written. “I respect all tribal heritages and designs. Designs are respected, only created rightfully, by your own tribal members and teachings from elders.”

Bighair-Stump is the owner and designer of Designs by Della.

She attended the Paris Fashion Week in 2019 and has had dresses displayed at the Smithsonian.

Brings Thunder describes the earth as sacred, part of a “web of creation.” She has said her art results from the direct influences of her family and the Shoshone culture.

She started learning traditional arts at age 5 from her maternal grandmother, respected beadwork artist Eva McAdams. As an adult, she attended the Colorado Institute of Art and received an undergraduate degree in Interior Design. She later received a graduate degree in architecture.

In 2012, according to an article on the “First Peoples Fund” website, Brings Thunder observed, “Prior to contact with European explorers, traders and settlers, Shoshone lived in harmony with their natural environment. Their practices were based on acute awareness, and knowledge of ecology, the need for sustainability, climate and earth science. This knowledge has, through thousands of years, been shared with subsequent generations, allowing us to love and demonstrate environmental responsibility by respecting the ideas of sustainability and continuous relationships.” 

No generalization can capture the richness, power and diversity of Indigenous fashion. But Moran McCleary’s observation about her own work might come close.

“My work is centered in the union of contemporary style and traditional designs,” she has said.

The annual Montana Folk Festival will be July 12-14 in Uptown Butte. This year, the First Peoples’ Native Fashion Show will begin at 5 p.m. on July 13 at the Original Mineyard stage. Admission to the Montana Folk Festival is free.