"Native American" Jewellery?

[Ikooko Okurin]

If I may I have a question about your views on things like Native American jewellery. Isn't something like dreamcatcher earrings, appropriation? I do vouluteer work at a wolf rescue santuary and we have a gift shops for visitors. They never fail to have dream catcher earrings or necklaces. 

They are very beautiful and I sometimes find myself almost buying them for a female friend. Then I think about how irritiging it is seeing Dashikis/Dashiki designs or hair Locks worn by non-black people and reconsider lol.

Now, I at least know that they originated from the Ojibwe and it was a spiritual symbol. So, my guess is that a person wearing such things not even meant to be jewellery, would be distastful? What about people even just owning dream catchers, rattles, or medicine shields, etc? Thanks.

[Epiphany]

http://nativeappropriations.com/2011/02/miley-cyrus-enjoys-dream-catchers-apparently.html

Like I mentioned before, dream catchers are one of the most appropriated and commercialized Native images. They're originally Ojibwe, but have been adopted by tribes across the US and Canada, mostly as items created for sale to tourists and non-Natives. The problem is, in many Ojibwe communities, dream catchers are still a sacred, and their creation involves specific ceremonies and prayers. The plastic commercial keychains sold in rest stops are making a mockery of a sacred object. When people buy the dream catchers because they're "pretty" or to ward off bad dreams, and aren't aware of the power and history behind the objects, it dilutes them to a commercial object disconnected from their origins and community.
I'm not saying that dream catchers are off-limits to non-Natives. But if you do choose to buy a dream catcher, as always, buy it from a Native artisan. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act states that artists who are selling Native-style arts must be tribal members, and if they are not, they must identify themselves as such, so ask.
I used to think that dream catchers had lost a lot of power in Native communities due to their over-commercialization and association with new-agey non-Natives, but last summer at a program I'm involved with for Native youth, I changed my mind. A guest speaker passed around a dream catcher (handmade by an Ojibwe elder), and had each of us hold it and think about our hopes and dreams for the future. After we had all held it, he presented it to the director of the program to keep on her wall as a reminder of all the dreams created and realized through her program. If that's not reclaiming the dream catcher, I don't know what is.

Dr. Adrienne Keene's blog and other work is well worth reading.  http://nativeappropriations.com/ https://twitter.com/NativeApprops

[Epiphany]

The Indian Arts and Crafts Act

http://www.iacb.doi.gov/act.html

http://www.uanativenet.com/topicitem/Topics%20In%20Brief/368

[Ikooko Okurin]

Thank you Piff! This this is very informative and enlightening, lead me to many interesting blogs too.

[Defend the Sacred]

The dreadlocks tangent has been moved to: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=4725.0