Visual Communications Company offers ‘identity by design’SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – An Anishinaabek-owned company, NDNSkins.com, strives to provide visual communications from an American Indian perspective. Owner Nathan Wright said his company’s philosophy is “identity by design,” providing visual communications through clothing; Web site design, development and maintenance; and video production.
NDNSkins began in 2005 when Wright ran across an old logo of a thunderbird his father had created. He had the logo screen printed on a T-shirt and has now expanded to four designs with his T-shirts being sold at local pow wows and by distributors, including Kewadin Casino gift shops throughout Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. His previous merchandising experience dates back to the mid-’90s, when he sold rock and roll posters, T-shirts and other memorabilia.
Wright traces his Anishinaabek ancestry to the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Grand Island, Lac Courte Oreilles, Michilmackinong, Manitoulin Island, Grand River, Michipicoten and Batchewana First Nations. His father, Mike Wright, was an American Indian activist who participated in the BIA takeover in Washington, D.C., in the early 1970s; and his great-great-grandfather was Chief Gogiosh, who resided on Whitefish Island in St. Marys River until his forced removal in the early 1900s.
“I focus a lot of attention on American Indian people and culture because that is who I am,” he said. “We are visual people; we communicate visually. My company aims to provide businesses, tribal governments and individuals with a media production company that communicates who we are as American Indians.
”In addition to T-shirts, NDNSkins will soon be offering other unique products, such as herbal teas and salves made with traditional American Indian ingredients, on its Web site at www.NDNSkins.com. Wright can be contacted at (888) 245-5887.
By Brenda Austin, Today correspondent
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