The Rise of the Indigenous Model

Quannah ChasingHorse caught the fashion industry’s attention in an unexpected way.

In 2020, a Calvin Klein scouting director saw photographs of her work to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling. They immediately recruited ChasingHorse, whose heritage is of Hän Gwich’in from Eagle Village, Alaska and Oglala Lakota from Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, for a campaign, changing her life. She went on to grace the covers of Vogue Mexico and Vogue Japan and walk in shows for Chanel and Gucci.

While not the first Indigenous model to be featured in a cover shoot or walk in a high-profile show, ChasingHorse is widely credited with bringing authentic representation to fashion’s biggest stages in new ways. She’s used her platform to advocate for hiring Native models, and for the industry to respect Indigenous aesthetics, including long, natural hair, tattoos and septum piercings.

“I, as a model, have taken this work very seriously. As I do [it], I make sure I am representing my people. Every single campaign I’ve done, that brand has given back [to Indigenous communities],” said ChasingHorse.

Few would disagree that something needed to change. Native representation in fashion has been rife with stereotypes and tokenism. Brands often hired models who appeared Indigenous without verifying heritage, exploited what they saw as the “exotic” – and commodifiable – elements of Indigenous people, and ignoring the rich cultural distinctiveness of 574 federally recognised tribes.

ChasingHorse’s ascent helped touch off a deluge of Native talent in the modelling world. Between 2020 and 2024, nearly two dozen fresh Indigenous models clinched contracts with luxury brands like Bottega Veneta and Chloé, and while signing with agencies such as Society Management, and IMG. Among them were Valentine Alvarez who debuted for Marc Jacobs in 2021, and Denali White Elk (Oglala Lakota) who walked for Gucci, Kylie Van Arsdale, a Diné model recently appeared on a billboard for Ice magazine.

This marks a pivotal moment for Indigenous representation, though the road remains uneven.

“The stronger you are and the more space you take up in the room the more people look up to you and want to hear from and see you,” said ChasingHorse.

Partially Forgiven, Not Forgotten

Luxury brands, mass retailers and media conglomerates have long traded on a haphazard image of Native American culture, with plenty of references to tribes, pilgrims and cowboys. Attempts at a more positive portrayal could be just as damaging, romanticising a noble and pure-hearted image that “imagines all Indigenous people as living in harmony with nature,” said Brown University anthropology professor Shepard Krech.

“The idea seems flattering, but it overlooks the concept of environmentalism and misconstrues Native peoples’ actual relationships with their homelands,” he said.

The industry’s mindset toward Indigenous peoples shifted in the 2010s, amid a wider push for diversity on the runway and behind the scenes. Tribes also sought greater control over how their name and imagery were used in fashion, with the Navajo Nation settling a trademark dispute with Urban Outfitters in 2016 that saw the retailer cease using the Navajo name without permission.

This case prompted discussions about respecting Native American intellectual property, and cultural sensitivities when using tribal designs and names in commercial products. Former Brown University American Studies professor Adrienne Keene’s blog Native Appropriations and advocacy around such cases also garnered national and international attention for contemporary Indigenous issues, especially cultural appropriation in fashion.

Some brands have adjusted their approach. Ralph Lauren’s interest in Native style dates back 40 years, to the American designer’s 1981 “Santa Fe” line featuring “Indian patterned” sweaters and blanket jackets without any direct collaboration, credit, nor use of Native designers or models. As recently as 2014, Lauren was slammed by digital newspaper Indian Country Today and federal Indian lawyer Robert Williams Jr. calling for a boycott of Ralph Lauren and characterising him as a “serial cultural appropriator” after a holiday campaign’s use of historical photos of Native Americans dressed in Western clothing from the “assimilation era.” This period between 1887 and 1934 saw thousands of Native American children sent to boarding schools and forced to eschew their languages and cultures.

However, in 2023, the label cast a slate of nine Indigenous models in a campaign for their new artist in residency programme featuring lauded textile artist Naiomi Glasses. Lauren executives also created an external Native advisory group, including ChasingHorse’s mother Jody Potts, for guidance on this and any future Native partnerships.

“When I started in 2019 with Polo Ralph Lauren, there weren’t any Indigenous models my age and generation,” Comanche model Phillip Bread said. “But when Quannah and Heather [Diamond Strongarm] became models, they also became my idols. They embody authenticity.”

Three Steps Forward, One Step Back

The mutual respect and instant bond felt between Indigenous models behind the scenes that Bread identified has begun to reverse the impacts of “Native omission,” which a Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues policy review defines as the systematic erasure of the presence, experience, and views of Native peoples.

Having more seats at the table helps too.

“On sets and shoots many people are curious. I take my time to answer people’s questions and dispel the air of mystery,” said Phillip Bread. “People don’t have a lot of education.”

But errant interactions on set — “you don’t look Native American,” one model recalls having heard — belies a systemic need for greater self-awareness and understanding of Indigenous history, and micro- and macro-aggressions. Without these guardrails, non-Native colleagues become unwitting perpetrators of an asymmetrical power relationship through stereotypic ideas with tangible mental and material health outcomes for Native models.

“Many fashion labels and casting agents maintain an outdated mental picture of Native people,” said Crystal EchoHawk, founder of Indigenous media firm IllumiNative.

“95 percent of Google searches for “Native American” yield 19th century photographs of Native peoples,” she noted.

Models’ experience can vary widely depending on where they’re working. Salteaux-Cree model Heather Diamond Strongarm, 19, noted indigeneity means something different in Canada, where her rounder face is typical, the US, where she doesn’t match America’s high cheekboned motif, and in Europe where a near nonexistent Native population results in her being confused with Asian communities.

“People in Europe assume I am Asian, and I get called Asian slurs,” she said.

“Take three steps forward and one step back,” she added. “I get comments about Pocahontas a lot.”

Native models of mixed ethnicity face compounded biases finding modelling work. Black and Chippewa model Kita Updike is frequently overlooked in Indigenous casting calls, a consequence of a racial purity complex in American culture regarding Native Americans.

“Native is a lot of things. It does not have one colour, or phenotype. From Canada to South America and Polynesia, those first peoples who were there … We are all Indigenous people,” she said.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go

Native models face a unique dilemma: pursuing fashion careers often means choosing between maintaining deep cultural-territorial connections or risking disconnection from their communities and ancestral lands, where identity is intrinsically linked to place through traditional practices and values.

“I was scared of the idea of being a sellout in Sante Fe. You had to leave the rez (reservation) to model [in the city],” said Diné model Ty Metteba, who prefers working with Indigenous publications and designers, gracing the cover of Native American Art in April 2024 and walking for Orlando Dugi and 4Kinship’s Spring 2024 collections. “But urban Natives have always been a thing. Native people have lived in highly populated areas, in settled Southwest mesas maintaining a sense of nature and sustainable luxury.”

Many Native models report feeling more empowered to set professional boundaries that honour their spirituality, cultural values and community ties, even if this means potentially declining certain opportunities. Their approach often reflects distinct cultural perspectives on work-life balance and personal fulfilment that may differ from mainstream industry expectations.

“At first my agency at the time would say, ‘Can you just come? Can’t you just push it back a day,’” ChasingHorse recalled of a time-off request to do “protector” work – short for “land protector,” it gestures to inexorable relationships to homeland – and spiritually realign alongside her Han Gwich’in community in Alaska.

“No, I can’t push back Sun Dance just for me. I am not just going on vacation, I am going back to reconnect and do work,” she said. One of seven major rites, called “Wiwáŋyaŋg Wačípi” in Lakota a critical time of renewal for Sioux people.

Disproportionate trauma within Native communities compounds the degree of consideration and empathy required from employers to earn trust from Indigenous models. A 2014 collection of research suggests that social marginalisation causes three times greater engagement in suicidal behaviours among Native youth compared to whites.

“Schools and employers should be more open to Native people getting more time off because there’s more death and trauma in our families,” said ChasingHorse. According to a National Institutes of Health study, American Indians and Alaska Natives experience PTSD at a 50 percent higher rate than other Americans.

Attitudes toward Indigenous stressors, however, have rapidly become more empathetic.

“People are now being good allies and showing up for each other,” ChasingHorse said, adding that “It doesn’t have to be negative — my management allows me time off to attend powwows, other ceremonies, and for hunting and fishing.”

“Halfway through Paris Fashion Week 2024, I had to return to Canada because a few relatives and a close friend passed. I had to attend a ceremony for personal healing. I also attended a powwow,” echoed Strongarm. “And it was very healing. All my agents were really supportive.”

Indigenous models occupy a far more disruptive and exciting position today compared to past generations. And there will continue to be “firsts” and head-to-head battles with bias. But solidarity and tools to remain grounded are critical in these vulnerable moments

“I say the morning prayer when I’m feeling nervous or alone,” Strongarm recommends.

Many Native elders prescribe hermetically sealing tradition and culture to avoid abuse, becoming arcane, or relegated to archives as much is regarding Native people and history. Instead, Metteba subscribes to “alive culture,” honouring Indigenous people in the present and placing the responsibility of prayer, protocol, and good representation in the care of these exceptional rising Indigenous models.

“Fashion [is increasingly] not just some fetishised, tokenised Indian encased in glass,” Metteba said. “Alive culture is knowing that we’re intensely funny. Laughing is a part of a culture and not just the romanticised stoic Native depicted in Hollywood.”