The NDN Girls Book Club and Eighth Generation are bringing together Indigenous art, storytelling and literacy through a new blanket collaboration designed to celebrate Native communities and support Indigenous youth.
The “Stories Woven in Bloom” blanket was created by artist Jenabah Yazzie in collaboration with the NDN Girls Book Club and Eighth Generation. The 100% wool blanket features artwork inspired by Kiowa and Diné motifs and centers on themes of storytelling, kinship and coming together. The blanket will officially launch online September 10, 2026, with a portion of sales supporting the NDN Girls Book Club’s literacy initiatives and Yazzie’s continued artistic work.
This collaboration is part of a broader effort to support literacy and representation by increasing access to Indigenous stories, art and literature for Native youth and communities. It also creates an opportunity to celebrate Indigenous voices and encourage young people to see themselves and their communities reflected in the stories and artwork around them.
When it comes to blankets, our communities have often been taken advantage of, with blankets sold to tourists for high prices while our communities don’t see that money. Eighth Generation is doing something incredible by making sure the money goes directly to Native people and that the designs come from Native artists. – Kinsale Drake, NDN Girls Book Club
In an interview with Cultivating Culture, Michelle Brown (Diné), chief product officer and creative director at Eighth Generation; Mia Weber, senior marketing manager at Eighth Generation; and Kinsale Drake, director of the NDN Girls Book Club, discussed the collaboration, the importance of Indigenous representation and what they hope the project will inspire in Native youth.
Cultivating Culture: There is a blanket launch on Sept. 10. What is being launched?
Michelle Brown: We’re one of the largest lifestyle brands that is tribally owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe, and this was a huge opportunity to work with the NDN Girls Book Club and potentially reach a different audience of younger Indigenous people. Their work around literacy has been incredible over the past few years. We wanted to reach out to them and have them source a young Indigenous artist who could create the artwork for the collaboration. They chose Jenabah Yazzie to work on the “Stories Woven in Bloom” blanket.
We’re producing units that will be available for sale this month. What’s really incredible is that proceeds from the sale will benefit both the artist and the NDN Girls Book Club.
Mia Weber: Another really special thing the organization does is organize free writing and editing workshops to introduce different layers of literacy and the literary world to people interested in the Indigenous community. They also host literary talks, so they approach literacy from a number of different angles.
CC: What prompted the launch to be created?
Kinsale Drake: Lily Painter is my co-founder. She’s Kiowa and Winnebago, and I’m Navajo. We had been talking about collaborating with the Eighth Generation for a long time.
In our communities and families, one of the ways we celebrate milestones is by gifting blankets or making items out of blankets, like graduation stoles. When I graduated from Yale, our Native Cultural Center sponsored stoles made from blankets. It’s a very special step because higher education can be particularly challenging for Native students. Our students have some of the highest rates of being pushed out of institutions because those institutions weren’t created for us. Lily and I were thinking about what a dream collaboration would look like to show up for Native students. We knew Jenabah’s art, and the idea just aligned. We got on a call with Michelle, told her our idea and she got really excited. It snowballed from there. We’re not just selling a product. The money is going back into our community work, supporting artists and supporting the Eighth Generation because they’re tribally owned.
We have long histories in the U.S. of non-Native companies capitalizing on our designs, aesthetics and products. When it comes to blankets, our communities have often been taken advantage of, with blankets sold to tourists for high prices while our communities don’t see that money. Eighth Generation is doing something incredible by making sure the money goes directly to Native people and that the designs come from Native artists. It’s not just designs inspired by Native people. Native people are actually creating the art.
Michelle Brown: For a long time, the NDN Girls Book Club was on my list of organizations that I felt would align with the Eighth Generation and our mission. I’m really proud of the ownership involved in this process. Eighth Generation licenses artwork from the artist, but the artist maintains 100% ownership. Artists dictate how we move forward with their art, and there are multiple steps of approval throughout the production process. When the contract ends, the artist can choose whether to renew it or take a step back, and the artwork completely goes back to them.
We’re investing in these artists and giving them an opportunity to have their designs commercially made on a global scale. This gives artists an opportunity that many may not be able to pursue independently due to limited funding or a lack of access to business and professional training. Artists also receive royalties from the products featuring their work. For each product sold, a percentage goes back to the artist and, in turn, supports their community. For example, Jenabah Yazzie, the artist behind this blanket, will receive royalty payments twice a year for her design, providing direct support to both her and her community. We’re really proud of that. Through this collaboration, a portion of the proceeds will also go to the NDN Girls Book Club to further its literacy work. We’re proud to frame the collaboration around a model of reciprocity that isn’t typically seen across many businesses.
Eighth Generation licenses artwork from the artist, but the artist maintains 100% ownership. Artists dictate how we move forward with their art, and there are multiple steps of approval throughout the production process. When the contract ends, the artist can choose whether to renew it or take a step back, and the artwork completely goes back to them. Michelle Brown, Eighth Generation
CC: What do you hope the launch accomplishes for Indigenous youth?
Kinsale Drake: From a book club perspective, we want our children to know that if they choose to go to college or pursue higher education, they have a support system. They have people with open arms waiting for them to return to their communities if they have to leave home to pursue their education. That’s a really difficult decision for our youth, especially considering what has followed forced assimilation. The struggles our students face, including their mental health, aren’t highlighted enough. But those experiences are represented in stories and in accounts from students who have gone through university and graduated. We want our youth to know that we’re here to support them and make them feel loved. With censorship, book banning, and violence against queer and trans Native youth, many young people feel scared. We want to represent people who look like them and people doing work they might see themselves doing in the future. It’s really about expanding the horizon of possibilities for our students.
CC: With many Native communities continuing to face barriers to literacy and educational resources, what specific gaps is the launch working to address?
Kinsale Drake: For us, the main concern is access. There are so many beautiful books being published by Native people, but many of our communities are located in what are called book deserts. We don’t have libraries on a lot of our tribal nations, and tribal libraries are severely underfunded.
The second concern is representation. We want to give educators the tools to ensure Native students are being taught truthful history and exposed to a variety of voices, but most importantly, healthy Native representation through literature. Representation can happen on every level. It could even be photo shoots of young women having fun and connecting over books that reflect them. We don’t get that representation as a normal part of everyday life. Posters of people reading Native books aren’t a reality for many of us. The book club is trying to make that future possible. Healthy representation is key to so many of our youth’s mental health and self-image, and that impacts the long-term success of our communities and how we thrive.
Michelle Brown: As it relates to education, we work with artists, but our artists are also entrepreneurs. Access to education for entrepreneurial endeavors wasn’t always something our communities were granted. I’m proud that we’re able to mentor Indigenous people so they can not only sell their art but become successful doing it. For myself, I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and my family is from Two Hills, New Mexico. My father never went to college; he joined the military and was able to build a successful career that way. Growing up on the reservation, I experienced firsthand the educational limitations that existed in my community, including being homeschooled for part of my childhood. I never imagined I would pursue fashion design or design in general because I didn’t see those possibilities reflected in my community. It took a certain level of rebelliousness and going against my family’s wishes to pursue a creative path. But now, it’s incredibly inspiring to see our community in full force.
We sat down with Jenabah and talked about her aspirations, how to set up her own website and how to create a dedicated social media page for her art. That’s what it means to be a business person, too. Of having that visibility and therefore amounts to more sales. I didn’t have anyone I could look up to when I was a young designer to show me how to make money or make a living from art and creativity. Being able to guide young artists into these spaces and create space for them to sit powerfully in is something we’re really proud of.
Mia Weber: Another thing that’s important to us is fully telling the stories of the products we sell and the artists we work with. Kinsale, Lily and Jenabah were generous in sharing their thoughts and the process behind the blanket’s design. It’s a beautiful story deeply connected to personal history, place and nature. It’s not just something beautiful to look at. There’s real soul and history behind every piece.
CC: Why is it important to provide Indigenous youth with books and art created by Indigenous people that reflect their cultures and communities, and what impact do you hope access to these books and art will have on literacy, cultural connection, and their relationship with reading and the arts?
Kinsale Drake: At the book club, the best thing we can do is read as much as we can and listen to each other deeply and thoughtfully. Books are portals. They open up new worlds, and they can also be mirrors. They’re collections and tools that can be passed down through families, just as teachings are passed down. For our communities, getting books into the hands of our kids encourages reading between generations. It keeps people connected to their families and reinforces kinship. Healthy representation also does wonders for mental health and for building confidence in our students as leaders, culture bearers, language learners and artists. We learn what’s possible through listening, learning and experiencing things for ourselves. Books are a beautiful way to do that.
I think now more than ever, people are realizing just how important books are. A lot of what has been happening in the political sphere, particularly around climate change, should be sounding the alarm that people need to listen to Native peoples, especially Native women and elders. Who knows better how to care for the Earth, its people and the complex relationships we hold with one another than those who have been caring for these lands since time immemorial?
Quite literally, one of the easiest and most helpful things we can do is make sure people are reading and listening to the voices of the lands on which they live. That includes listening to our communities. That’s why we have an open invitation to everyone. We believe this is vital, necessary and urgent, but for our youth, it’s especially important. I think the blankets the Eighth Generation creates is similar. They’re tapestries, living weavings that are more than something static. They allow for dynamic interaction, joy and beauty. For us at the book club, it’s about constantly getting people excited about these things and understanding how necessary they are to ensure that we live beautiful, long and harmonious lives. That’s the ultimate goal because this organization was founded on principles from our communities.
Michelle Brown: I love what Kinsale said about the blankets because they really are visual storytelling. That’s what good art should do. It should tell a story. For young people to be inspired by this blanket, this art and this collaboration between two organizations, I think it could change the trajectory of someone who sees it. Inspiration through art can be one of the most powerful things you can do for a young person. It can help them dream bigger, choose their own path and imagine what’s possible.
CC: What are you most excited to see come from the blanket’s launch?
Michelle Brown: I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen once the launch happens.
Mia Weber: Everything that the NDN Girls Book Club organization have been putting out there to generate buzz for this launch on social media and beyond has been really wonderful, inspiring and positive. Our whole team is uplifted because we’re seeing the anticipation building and the impact already spreading, even though the project hasn’t officially launched. We’re extremely excited about it.
Kinsale Drake: I’m most excited about how materially inspiring the blanket is going to be because it’s beautiful and meaningful, and in so many ways, it will bring people joy. I’m also incredibly excited for artists we know and love to receive the blanket and make things from it. Blankets aren’t just used as blankets in our communities. They’re turned into anything — a horse saddle, a jacket, a bag or other items. There are so many things the blanket can be used for and upcycled into. Being thrifty and creative is one of the most Native things you can do. I’m excited to see this blanket at a flea market in New Mexico the next time I go. I’m excited to pull up in the bookmobile once it’s ready and start handing out stoles and blankets. One day, the dream is that we pull up to a community and get to hand out blankets and books. We’re excited to see how other people take this collaboration and create their own creative dreams from it.
