"Tis the season for buying presents. As you peruse your local mall, you might find yourself drawn to beautiful geometric patterns in vibrant colors, long associated with Navajo rugs, Pendleton “Indian trade” blankets, and Southwest Native American pottery. They’ll be everywhere you look, on sneakers, pricey handbags, home decor, and high-fashion skirts, coats, and jackets.

But many Native Americans are less than thrilled that this so-called “native look” is trendy right now. The company that’s stirred up the most controversy so far is Urban Outfitters, which offered a “Navajo” line this fall (items included the “Navajo Hipster Panty” and “Navajo Print Fabric Wrapped Flask”) before the Navajo Nation sent the company a cease and desist order that forced it to rename its products. Forever 21 and designer Isabel Marant also missed the memo that the tribe has a trademark on its name; thanks to the Federal Indian Arts and Crafts act of 1990, it’s illegal to claim a product is made by a Native American when it is not.

“The problem,” says Jessica R. Metcalfe, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa and doctor of Native American studies who teaches at Arizona State University and blogs about Native American fashion designers at Beyond Buckskin, “is that they’re putting it out there as ‘This is the native,’ or ‘This is native-inspired’. So now you have non-native people representing us in mainstream culture. That, of course, gets tiring, because this has been happening since the good old days of the Hollywood Western in the 1930s and ’40s, where they hired non-native actors and dressed them up essentially in redface."

Get the Story:
Lisa Hix: Why the ‘Native’ Fashion Trend Is Pissing Off Real Native Americans (Collector's Weekly 12/1)

Related Stories:
Native Sun News: Navajo Nation stands up for its trademarks (11/17)
Blog: Forever 21 also offering string of 'Navajo' products (11/04)
Blog: Forever 21 sells necklace with 'Native American' girl (11/01)
Fronteras: Who should benefit from Native inspired items (10/26)
Editorial: Navajo goods should be made by Navajo artists (10/24)
Colorlines: Corporations pimping other cultures for profits (10/21)
Navajo Nation hails action by Urban Outfitters on products (10/20)
ICT: Urban Outfitters erases 'Navajo' name from products (10/19)
Sasha Houston Brown: Corporations rip off tribal property (10/18)
Navajo Nation sent trademark letter to Urban Outfitters in June (10/17)
Opinion: Urban Outfitters is obsessed with 'Navajo' fashions (10/11)
Living: Asking Navajos about the neo-Navajo trend in fashion (9/26)