SEATTLE — Colleen Echohawk remembers the day well. She woke up at 6:30 a.m., her phone pinging with alerts and texts after British Vogue featured "Killers of the Flower Moon" stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone, draped in the Seattle-based company's blanket on its front page of the magazine.
Echohawk, the CEO of Eighth Generation, knew the international magazine was going to feature a product in its magazine months in advance, but she didn't know it would adorn the front page alongside the two stars of director Martin Scorcese's sweeping adaptation of David Grann's novel, which was published in 2017.
"Oh my God," Echohawk said. "It was emotional. I was in bed at 6:30 a.m. and started getting pings. We knew it was on there, but we didn't know (the blanket would be on the cover). A good quarter of the magazine was that blanket. I was just - chills. It brought tears to my eyes. To think about the importance of seeing (Native) American art and design displayed in such a beautiful and international publication. Stunning. How did this happen?"
On the magazine's cover, Gladstone, playing Mollie Burkhart in the film releasing on Friday, has Eighth Generation's Coast Salish Pattern Wool Blanket draped along her body.
Gladstone, a rising Hollywood star, was a graduate of Mountlake Terrace High School.
"That Coast Salish pattern is one of the most iconic American designs you can actually buy in a retail store or online," Echohawk said. "It is an absolutely classic blanket. It's black and grey and wool. It has this wonderful feel to it, but it's also iconic in that American art and design is shaped by Native art and design. Real American art and design is Native American art and design so we think this blanket is so popular with so many people is that it gives off that vibe of authenticity of a Native product that people can put into their home."
The blanket's design was created by Louie Gong (Nooksack) after he researched traditional Coast Salish weaving techniques. He referred to the pattern as a "collaboration with the ancestors."
Gong created and founded Eighth Generation in 2008, before paving the way for Echohawk to take over as CEO in 2022.
Echohawk said the geometric shapes in the blanket's pattern and its flow give off a feeling of elegance. She said Eighth Generation uses the same pattern in the blanket on tote bags, hip bags and used to offer the design on tumblers.
"As someone who lives in Seattle, it's important for me to have a Coast Salish design as part of my life and part of the way I'm going to decorate my home," Echohawk said. "There's just not a lot of Coast Salish designs that are so readily available. And it's just so beautiful. It's a beautiful pattern. It's one of the design patterns that works on everything."
British Vogue also featured Eighth Generation's Butterfly Dreams Throw Blanket, designed by John Isaiah Pepion (Blackfeet), in its cover story for the upcoming film. The issue was released in Europe on Sept. 26 and in the United States in October.
"It felt like this full circle moment of this incredible Seattle story being featured and a Coast Salish story," Echohawk said. "And a Native story being featured in such an incredible international publication. I think it's time for that. The Native community has gone through so many hard things. I feel very lucky that my ancestors survived so I could be here. Now we are seeing this incredible recognition of how beautiful Native art and design is. I was emotional when it all happened."
"Killers of the Flower Moon" is set in the 1920s when the members of the Osage Native American tribe of Osage County, Oklahoma were murdered after oil was found on their land.
The Native tribe members immediately became among the richest people in the world because of the amount of oil deposits found on their land. When young and healthy people started dying under suspicious circumstances, the American government created an agency called the Federal Bureau of Investigation, also known as the FBI, to investigate the mounting deaths in the area.
"(The film) is really elevating some of the historical harm that has happened to Native people because of the way people thought about Native folks," Echohawk said. "We were thought of less than and dispensable. They were killing people. We were talked about as savages, as animals and not human. I think having these stories out there where we are saying to the larger community, 'No this terrible atrocity happened.' Now we are on the other side of it. We are leading the community. We are business leaders. We are showing the rest of the community how to respond to the climate crisis. We're acting next to Leonard DiCaprio. That's where we are heading as a Native American community."
Echohawk, who is from the Pawnee tribe in Oklahom and a member of the Upper Athabascan people of Mentasta Lake, said her dad and other relatives were involved as extras in the blockbuster film, which is widely regarded as one of the leading contenders in the 2024 Oscars.
"I'm hoping to see my dad and other relatives as extras," Echohawk said. "It's really exciting."
Before collaborating with British Vogue, Eighth Generation made blankets for the 2022 Marvel film "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." The film, which grossed over $850 million worldwide, won the Oscar for Best Costume Design in March.
"It has been a huge win for us to be on the cover of British Vogue and to be able to make the blankets and to really merge our business in the mainstream," Echohawk said. "We want to de-colonize these spaces, work with these big businesses while we help them understand how to (de-colonize) in a better way."
Over a decade after its founding, Echohawk said Eighth Generation is the first Native-owned company to ever produce wool blankets. The company has a 30,000-square-foot warehouse in Georgetown and a store near Pike Place Market, as it looks to broaden from its Pacific Northwest roots and across the globe.
But it's Eighth Generation's ethos that inspired Echohawk, who spent decades as an advocate for the Native community, to take a leadership role in the company.
Echohawk said the company's mission is to reclaim Native art after it was "co-opted" for decades by companies profiting off their work. That's why Eighth Generation vets its prospective artists to ensure they are members of a tribe before collaborating.
"We want people to know that these are products made and designed by Native people and they are for everyone," Echohawk said. "We believe that every home in America should have Native art and design in it because we live in a Native country. We invite everyone to think about it, hear the stories we are telling and be a part of this really exciting moment in history where Native art is being profiled and people are excited about it. We believe real American art and design is Native art and design."