By Nika Bartoo-Smith | + As lights flashed and music filled the Oregon Convention Center on July 2, Native models strutted down a runway with confidence and attitude. Thousands of youth sat in the audience, dressed in traditional clothes from their nations and their finest attire, and cheered for their peers onstage. Youth from Native nations all across Turtle Island gathered in Portland, Oregon the first week of July for this year’s UNITY conference.
United National Indian Tribal Youth, is one of the largest Native youth leadership gatherings across the country meant to inspire and empower the next generations of Native leaders. This year, over 2,800 youth attended the gathering, making it the biggest one to date. Over a dozen young Native models in the fashion show showcased different designs from award winning Native Fashion designer, .
Norma Baker-Flying Horse, an enrolled member of the Hidatsa tribe and a member of the Dakota Sioux and Assiniboine tribes as well as an adopted member of the Crow Nation, creates pieces that honor her Native culture. “These designers, they tell stories about things through their designs,” said 20-year-old Feather Rakestraw, Yurok and Oglala Lakota. She modeled an orange skirt during the fashion show by Red Berry Woman.
Prior to the pre-gala fashion show at the , Rakestraw wore a floral ribbon skirt with ribbons the color of the sunset and beaded earrings, each of which she made herself. Rakestraw learned to sew and bead from her mothe.
