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, Red Berry Woman. 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 2024 UNITY conference, 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 mother, and said she decided to model in the fashion show because she knew it would make her mom proud.
The gala at the Oregon Convention Center helped end the UNITY conference with a bang, following workshops, ceremony, keynote speakers, leadership training and Nike N7 day spent at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.
“What brought me to UNITY was just knowing that it would give us more opportunities to take back to our reservation,” said Shavaughn Titla, 22, Miss White Mountain Apache Queen title holder.
She traveled to UNITY with other youth from the White Mountain Apache Youth Council.
“I am so thankful for that,” Titla continued.
On July 2, the fourth day of the conference, youth were encouraged to wear their traditional skirts and shirts. Colorful ribbons, hand-stitched moccasins and beaded jewelry filled the Oregon Convention Center with color as thousands of youth represented their Native nations with pride.
“We can make our own clothes, we know how to sew,” said Michaiah Pease, 22, Crow Nation and Aaniiih, while watching the fashion show. “But when it comes to the mainstream, there’s not a lot of options for us. But it’s becoming a lot more inclusive.”
Pease, the Miss Crow Nation Crown holder, wore a Choke Cherry Creek dress by Indigenous designer Angela Howe-Parrish.
“It makes me feel empowered, that if they can do it, then I can do something as well with my life,” Pease said about Native fashion designers. “And that gives me hope that there’s going to be more options for me to be able to express myself as an Indigenous woman.”
