POV

Commerce as culture: Indigenous entrepreneurs reclaim and reimagine their roots

February 5, 2025

by Shopify

Indigenous entrepreneurs come together at festivals like the Santa Fe Indian Market to bridge the past and present.

Entrepreneurship has long been a magnet for individuals aspiring to lead authentic lives. For Indigenous creatives, this path has evolved into a powerful means of reconnecting with their roots.

In making the courageous choice to start a business, they foster a broader appreciation and acceptance of not only their heritage, but of entrepreneurship itself. As a result, forging your own path becomes more common, and more creatives feel inspired to find success on their own terms. 

For Amy Denet Deal, the founder of sustainable fashion brand 4Kinship, commerce has become intertwined with community, each sale is a step towards collective uplift. At annual events like the Santa Fe Indian Market, which sees more than 150,000 attendees each year, she and other designers from tribes across the country showcase their work.

“I wanted to really bring something to the community that would just make them joyful,” says Amy.

Across North America, Indigenous-owned brands like 4Kinship, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Eighth Generation, Here’s 2 You, and so many more are sharing the richness of their history in the same lands marked by the footprints of their ancestors. And they’re doing it through commerce.

Kickflipping the script in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Born from the soil of displacement, Amy’s journey is one of returning to her roots. She was forcibly removed from her tribal home in Navajo Nation in the 1960s and adopted into another family in Indiana. Though she had a loving upbringing, she yearned to be connected to her Navajo, or Diné, heritage. 

“It was always that feeling of knowing there was something else out there. But there was no one there to guide me, to teach me about my culture.”

That planted the seeds of 4Kinship. This venture was more than a business—it was a homecoming. Nestled in the heart of Santa Fe, 4Kinship sells upcycled fashion and curated vintage. After a 30-year-long career working in sportswear design for brands like Puma and Reebook, she’s been able to bring all her experience and expertise to her own storefront. 

“My ancestors' DNA is in the ground that I stand on. The vibration I have from being here, the dreams I have now, they're completely different than any other time in my life,” says Amy. “I understand what my life's purpose is. I don't just create wealth at this shop. I want to create opportunities for all young people here.”

Despite a thriving storefront and online brand, Amy’s most profound impact lies in her commitment to local youth. Growing up as the only Native kid in her community, skateboarding was more than recreational, her passion for the sport got her through dark chapters. 

In Santa Fe, Amy made it her mission to make skateboarding accessible to Indigenous kids. From building a skate park with Tony Hawk to launching mentorship programs, her community projects paint a future brimming with hope. Known as “skate auntie” to locals, Amy founded the Diné Skate Garden Project, a skate park in a remote area of Navajo Nation in 2023. She’s also given away more than 5000 skateboards to Navajo kids. For both her 4Kinship store and the skate park, she wants them to be gathering places and sites of hope for Indigenous youth. 

“We're here. We're brilliant. We shine. It's just a matter of amplifying and elevating that. We're learning how to tell our own stories by ourselves.”

Beats and boutiques in Kitamaat, British Columbia

While 4Kinship brought together sports and fashion to channel Indigenous creativity, hip hop duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids marries music and fashion. Growing up in the Haisla Nation of Kitamaat, British Columbia, the two cousins used their lyrical talent and storytelling ability to create award-winning, chart-climbing hits. Tracks like “Boujee Natives,” “Savages,” and “Long Hair, Don’t Care” draw from their heritage.

As they created a name for themselves in trap music and got signed to Sony Music Canada, they also designed a popular line of streetwear merch using limited drops to build a following.

“I was always an entrepreneur. I always wanted to make music, make clothes, make money. This stuff just came second nature,” says Quinton "Yung Trybez" Nyce from the group. 

“It was a passion project at first. And it needs to be a passion project. You need to love what you do because if you’re in it for the money, the money doesn’t come right away.”

For Yung Trybez and his cousin Darren "Young D" Metz, their music was a way of reclaiming their identity. Even with the group’s name, they took back an insult that was hurled at them while growing up. As they expanded into a fashion brand, much of their ethos focuses on celebrating a rich past while crafting a vibrant future. The pair have used the term “Indigenous futurism” to describe their work. 

Their journey through commerce is as much about sustaining their heritage as it is about marking new paths, making them pioneers of a cultural renaissance. With Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Indigenous presence is not only seen and heard but felt.

“Snotty Nose Rez Kids is about showing where you’re from and taking your community with you wherever you go. We’ve been shamed for who we are and now we’re flipping the script and expressing ourselves the way we want,” says Yung Trybez.

Reviving legacies through commerce

The people native to these lands forged brilliant and beautiful cultures that inspire to this day—whether it’s in New Mexico or British Columbia, in the skatepark or the music studio. Entrepreneurs like Amy Denet Deal, the Snotty Nose Rez Kids and others are reclaiming these profound legacies. But their journeys are not just about personal or commercial success. They are acts of restoration and reinvention, embedding ancient traditions into contemporary canvases.

Through their artistry and their brands, they invite us to listen more deeply, engage more meaningfully, and appreciate the narratives embedded in Indigenous expression.

Says Yung Trybez, “We’re becoming the people we always wanted to be and creating the vision we want to see.”

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