Seven native-owned businesses to support

One of the best ways to support Indigenous culture is to support the Native-owned brands that give it a voice. Indigenous clothing, art, food and beauty businesses are prospering in North America, from Los Angeles to Canada. The businesses listed below are just a sampling of this thriving creative scene, accessible both in person and online.

X’Tiosu Kitchen

Brothers Felipe and Ignacio Santiago grew up in San Felipe Guila, a small town in Oaxaca, Mexico. Throughout their childhood, they spoke only Zapotec, one of the 50 dialects of an Indigenous language family native to the city.

In 2017, the pair opened X’tiosu Kitchen, an unassuming, outdoorseating-only restaurant. By 2019, it was named one of the 101 best restaurants in L.A. by the Los Angeles Times. 

The tiny eatery is located in a Boyle Heights strip mall, about a 15-minute drive from USC. X’tiosu, which means “thank you” in Zapotec, specializes in Oaxacan-Lebanese fusion dishes ranging from chicken shawarma tacos to tabbouleh with cactus. 

The brothers have amassed a loyal local fanbase as well as national attention. Last year, X’tiosu Kitchen was featured in season two of the hit Netflix series “Ugly Delicious,” which spotlights chefs who aim to use food to overcome stereotypes and share their culture.

NSRGNTS

Art collective and clothing brand NSRGNTS was founded in 2000 by Votan Ik and his partner Leah “Povi” Marie as a way of connecting with their culture and encouraging the spread of Indigenous philosophy. Ik is of Nahuan and Mayan descent and Marie is of Dine, Hopi and Pueblo descent.

NSRGNTS’s moniker is derived from a rebel group in Mexico who protested the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.

The brand initially hosted powwows, festivals and feasts to bring the community together using handmade clothing, beadwork, pottery and crafts. It then transitioned its activities to an L.A. based brick-and-mortar store, and now, it is online.

Séka Hills Olive Oil

“Séka” means blue in Patwin, a tribal language native to the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation. Séka Hills, an estate-grown wine and olive oil brand, commemorates its Native ancestors that tended to the blue hills that surround Northern California’s Capay Valley. 

“As we strive to preserve our language and the legacy of our ancestors, we continue to grow as a people and tend this fertile valley that is home to our culture, history and tradition,” the Séka Hills website reads. “We maintain the bond our ancestors formed with this land through continued efforts to preserve and protect it for future generations.”

Séka Hills ranked No. 9 in the 2013 Food & Wine magazine Editors’ Top Ten list, which raved about “a buttery small-batch California olive oil that’s remarkably affordable.” The brand has been featured in numerous publications from the New York Times to PBS and earned a 2014 Good Food Awards finalist nod for its Premium Arbequina Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Séka Hills farms more than 16 crops on its roughly 24,000 acres of land and is one of the few Indigenous groups in California increasing its agricultural production.

According to its website, Séka Hills places an emphasis on sustainability and conservation, with more than 1,200 acres of its land in conservation easement. It aims to imbue future generations with respect for the land.

Urban Native Era

Urban Native Era (UNE) is an L.A. based streetwear brand, spotlighted in both Vogue and Cosmopolitan. Founded by Joey Montoya (Lipan Apache) in 2012, the brand began as a Facebook account to document protests but quickly garnered attention for its use of apparel and design as tools to advocate for Indigenous rights.

“Our daily operations prioritize a better life for Indigenous people around the world,” the UNE website reads. “We seek out spaces where Indigenous people are not traditionally seen, we value the earth and use the most sustainable practices that we can afford, we create a collective community where people can come together as one all while creating fashionable clothing for everyone to wear.”

Indigo Arrows

Indigo Arrows is a contemporary, online-only, home merchandise business based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Founded by Anishinaabe interior designer Destiny Seymour in 2016, Indigo Arrows offers a selection of pillows, masks, quilts and blankets.

Seymour initially struggled to locate materials she could incorporate into designs but found inspiration in the ancient clay embellishments of local Manitoba Indigenous pottery collections.

All of Seymour’s products are named in Anishinaabemowin, her ancestral language. She aspires to showcase her culture and expand native representation, especially among Indigenous youth. Hence, a portion of Indigo Arrow’s proceeds go to a local after school program championing preteen Indigenous girls.

“I think the world needs more than exhibition — we need these patterns in our homes provoking thought; we need them bridging gaps; and, we need them inspiring our loved ones,” wrote Seymour on the Indigo Arrows website. “The Indigo Arrows line picks up where my ancestors left off.”

B. Yellowtail

Founded by designer and activist Bethany Yellowtail in 2014, the eponymously named B. Yellowtail is an L.A. based sustainable apparel brand and retailer. With the tagline “Indigenously designed for all,” B. Yellowtail’s mission is to help Indigenous businesses thrive and give a platform to authentic native design. The brand sells clothing, art and beauty products and has earned a lot of prominence in just a few years. 

Yellowtail, the founder of the company, is part of the Northern Cheyenne Nation. After extensive experience working in the corporate fashion world, she melded her activist and designer passions to form B. Yellowtail. The apparel brand operated out of an L.A. studio before the pandemic. Now it is stocked in retail stores nationwide following a collaboration with sustainable fashion label Faherty, which is selectively available online.

Chippewar

Vivid colors, pop art inspired designs and uncompromisingly direct social activism are only some of what describes Canadian artist Jay Soule’s art. The Indigenous designer, also known as Chippewar, aims to draw attention to the violent erasure of Indigenous culture across North America. 

Soule’s business and artist name Chippewar is an allusion to both the “traditional warrior role” of Indigenous cultures and the “hostile relationship that Canada’s native people have with the relationship of the land,” according to his website. 

Chippewar sells prints and clothing both online and at a physical retail store in Toronto. His art is simultaneously compelling, clever and sobering, ranging from subversive references like shirts emblazoned with “Buffy the Colonizer Slayer” to his new collection “Built on Genocide.” 

Most recently, Chippewar has stirred discussion with his latest art installation at Ontario Square, visible until Oct. 24, according to NOW Magazine. Consisting of a pile of more than 1,250 bison skull replicas, the art piece aims to educate viewers on the decimation of buffaloes by Canadian colonizers in service of Indigenous genocide.

Correction: This article was updated with the name of the correct photographer. The photo was taken by Jessica Wild. The Daily Trojan regrets this error.