When many people envision a Native blanket, they see a “Southwestern” style rather than blankets like the ones my family—who is Lakota and Dakota from Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribe—made from buffalo hides. Those heirlooms were vibrant and varied, embellished with figures and animals, glass beads, porcupine quills, shells, bone, and seeds, all stitched into decorative designs and full-out tableaux. Still, the so-called Native blankets in much of the American imagination are the striped and geometric woolens that places like Pendleton Woolen Mills has mass-produced for over a century. The hallmark designs combine motifs from across 577 federally recognized and unrecognized tribes, divorcing them of their complex underlying meaning.
“As an Indigenous person, [woven blankets] are really a vehicle for storytelling for our nations,” says Michelle Brown, Creative Director of Eighth Generation. In 2015, Louie Gong (Nooksack) founded Eighth Generation, the first Native-owned blanket company in the US or Canada, now owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe in Seattle, “as a reclamation…it exists as a response to Pendleton,” says Brown. The company’s goal is to educate consumers about the diversity of Native craftsmanship. Realistically, there is no definitive Native aesthetic—and how could there be, with over 600 tribes across the US?
But its larger aim is to empower Native artists. After centuries of, as Brown says, “having our cultural histories extracted from us for profit,” the company makes sure to license art for use, ensuring that the designer retains the rights to what they created. “The ownership of the artwork is definitely a big point of difference,” says Jane Cho, CEO of Eighth Generation. “At the end of the contract, the art goes back to them.”
With a focus on empowering Indigenous artists, Eighth Generation’s pithy mission is “Inspired Natives, not Native-inspired.” In other words, it aims to make sure that the people and cultures who created a design are the ones who profit from it. Designer Jamie Okuma, a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, sees such conscious consumerism as the solution to cultural appropriation, arguing, “The only way we can combat that is by supporting the people actually making the real thing.”
Supporting Native artists is now easier than ever, thanks to Eighth Generation and to non-Native brands making concerted efforts to work with and celebrate Indigenous artisans. Below, we’re spotlighting inspired Native artists—and their blankets, all of which are made domestically and perfect for cozying up on the couch, working-from-home, napping, or for a full night’s rest.
DY Begay
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DY Begay is a sixth-generation Diné weaver—her Black Mesa blanket is translated from her painterly weaving and knitted in a factory in Los Angeles from 100% Japanese wool in sumptuous red, orange, and brown tones. “Blankets and weavings are utilitarian, which reminds us of the original purpose of most Native art,” says Begay. “These are functional items. And, quite simply, it’s important to us to give credit where credit is due: to the artist…. For us, that’s true authenticity.”
Jamie Okuma
Produced in collaboration with Eighth Generation, Jamie Okuma’s ribbon skirt-inspired blanket, embellished with a bright pink, red, yellow, green, and baby blue abstract geometric motif, is made of Aotearoan (read: from New Zealand) felted wool; it evokes the ribbons traded by settlers for furs.
David Boxley
Master wood carver David Boxley’s design graces the Wolf Spirit blanket made in Eighth Generation’s Seattle headquarters from imported 100% merino yarn. It features a red, white, and black form line depiction of a wolf, typical of animal figurations of Native communities in the Pacific Northwest. The double-sided knit blanket’s graphic imagery and defined stitching make it a mesmerizing statement piece to drape on a couch, display on a wall, or use to keep warm.
Bethany Yellowtail
Covered in blush, pistachio green, yellow, and baby blue geometric sun symbols against a cream-colored backdrop, the Faith blanket by Bethany Yellowtail (Crow), created with Eighth Generation, is also 100% New Zealand felted wool and covered in a pattern that honors Apsáalooke (Crow) bead and quillwork techniques. “My aesthetic is informed by the designs of my ancestors and the teachings that are embedded in them,” says Yellowtail.
Naiomi and Tyler Glasses
Siblings Naiomi and Tyler Glasses’s Rena Bed Blanket is double-sided, one featuring cream, the other gradient browns from mushroom to cocoa, trisected by meaningful lines of crosses. “We always approach our work with intention,” says Tyler. “We were specific about including symbols like four-directional crosses, which signify the Earth’s four directions, and Spider Woman crosses, which reference the creator and protector of the weaving tradition in Navajo culture.” The blanket is part of the Artist-in-Residence collaboration with Ralph Lauren Home for the Fall 2025 Canyon Road collection. It's also a milestone for the Diné artists and an exciting step forward. “There is still a lot of education that needs to happen, and an understanding of what it means to the people who preserve heritage craft when their designs are used without acknowledgement.” Naiomi notes. “Ralph Lauren has made significant progress in creating a model built on mutually beneficial collaboration with Indigenous artisans like me.”
