There are 9.79 million Native American / Alaskan Natives that live in the United States as of 2020, yet this demographic has largely been left out of most marketing campaigns. In fact, according to the Founder of Native Oklahoma Magazine, Adam Proctor, he believes marketing to the Indigenous population is inauthentic and not coming from a genuine place; and only seems to be interested in profiting off the community.
Chuck Hoskin, Jr., Chief of the Cherokee Nation says that companies usually create campaigns with limited knowledge of different Indigenous cultures in the United States. He also says that because of this lack of knowledge, he finds that the Native imagery that gets used in marketing campaigns “fills a void” in an inauthentic way and actually does more harm to the many different Indigenous communities than good.
As such, most brands are creating a distance between their products and services and the Indigenous population. A lot of Native American consumers are reluctant to connect with most brands given past marketing campaigns demonstrated a lack of respect and lack of research on the nuances between the different Indigenous tribes and communities. If you would like your brand to connect more with this audience, you must consider not only the history of Native people, including how their culture has been suppressed and purged in the past, and consider how your brand can avoid this same plight by honoring Native cultures with intention, understanding, nuance, and respect.
Tip #1 Be informative, respectful, and genuine in your messaging and representations of Indigenous communities
There are 574 federally recognized Native American communities or tribes in the United States with 229 of those communities located in Alaska. These communities also speak a diverse set of languages and have unique cultural practices. It is important that your marketing team is aware of these differences to avoid potential misrepresentations and stereotypes.
Avoid using costumes, mascots, or logos that are incredibly stereotypical or oversimplify Indigenous people and their culture. Also avoid referring to Indigenous people in the past tense, reinforcing genocide, erasure, and forced assimilation. You may want to engage with Native American influencers, advocates, or Indigenous people on social media to see how they speak about their own culture, from where it was to where it is now. Examples include Jana, Quannah ChasingHorse, Naiomi Glasses, Goldie Tom, Lady Shug, Charlie Amáyá Scott, Prados Beauty, B.Yellowtail, Devery Jacobs, and Kinsale Drake. Connect with these advocates and learn from them. Share their perspective and their knowledge across your marketing platforms.
Also, consider how you approach this community either through product marketing vs. service marketing. Product marketing is where your company is aiming to fulfill a need whereas service marketing is about building trust with that particular customer base. Some Indigenous people do not mind product marketing and take pride in it. Whereas, some Native American consumers find it offensive.
It is important to have a clear understanding of your audience and understand them from a human perspective, rather than as a demographic you are only trying to connect to in order to advertise your business.
Tip #2 Words matter, so research culturally-sensitive terms that resonate
Following the suggestion of Chief Chuck Hoskins, your company should, “do their homework first and then engage substantively with the people you want to celebrate on something that’s important to their community before you even get into the larger idea of marketing that touches upon any of those subjects.” This starts with the words you use in your campaigns to refer to the Indigenous / Native American population.
Native Americans are not a monolith and each individual will have their own preferences on how to address their community, so it is important to pay attention to Native American leaders, influencers, and public figures. Even consult with particular tribal offices and leaders you wish to engage with to understand more of how their community identifies and wishes to be referred to.
More generally, the Smithsonian says American Indian, Indian, Native American, or Native are all acceptable and interchangeable terms to use to refer to this demographic in the United States. Indigenous is also widely accepted as a term to refer to the “global community.”
As well as tribe and nation are both interchangeable and used to describe the places in which they came or refer to their cultures. However, tribe and nation mean two different things to the American Indian people. Tribes have several names because once European occupation came in, the Europeans mispronounced the original tribe name and changed them to European names. Whereas nations refer to tribal groups in a particular region.
It is important to know these distinctions and do your research because your company becomes sensitive and understanding of the history and the cultural changes that occurred as a result of European colonization. As a result, your company can avoid causing more harm to the community to which you wish to connect to by not referring to them as the wrong or Eurocentric name; a name that would most certainly have accompanied a lot of pain and violence. It also adds a layer of respect to the Indigenous population and shows you have an awareness of their rich history and culture which predates Eurocentric, colonial influence.
Tip #3 Ask for permission to feature regalia, cultural practices, and tribal land
Following on from that, your company should also do its research and speak to tribal councils, elders, and leaders to understand whether it is appropriate to include tribal imagery, cultural practices, tribal land, and spiritual ceremonies in your marketing campaigns.
Some Indigenous people do not wish their practices and culture to be advertised as they are sacred and in doing so, they believe they would be exploited. Recording some ceremonies or traditional practices is also strictly prohibited as well. Your company must consider, before they create any marketing or advertising materials to consult with Indigenous individuals and communities to get informed consent.
This is especially the case if your company includes names, images, or voices of deceased Indigenous people in your marketing campaigns. Reach out to their loved ones to get informed consent. Some Indigenous people do not think it is appropriate to share photos or recordings outside of their community.
Land acknowledgments are also incredibly important practices within the Native American community. It is a traditional custom where Indigenous people will recognize the original stewards of the land in which they live on. Before your business decides to feature tribal land in advertisements or marketing materials, it may be a good opportunity to connect with Tribal elders and offices to get their guidance on how to make land acknowledgments that are authentic and aligned with how they wish the land to be recognized. When and where applicable, it may also be appropriate to ask for permission to use their land, if your business decides to use tribal land that is private and not open to the public.
It will help your business gain trust with this community given a big part of the harm done to that community is the constant Indigenous erasure that discounts and diminishes the existence of the Native American community’s connection and existence to and on the land across the United States.
Tip #4 Make the effort to engage with the Indigenous community where they feel safe congregating
It is important for brands to discover which online and in-person mediums the Indigenous community uses. There is a common stereotype that all Indigenous people live on Reservations and don’t have a lot or any access to media outlets. This stereotype is incredibly harmful because it creates an assumption that it’s difficult for brands to connect to this community and therefore they do not take the time to get to know who the Indigenous population truly are and the nuances of their identities.
The truth is that the vast majority of the Native American population does not live on Reservations and this demographic uses specific online, radio, print, outdoor, and event channels to reach their audience across the United States.
Your company should consider reaching out to Native American / Indigenous consumers on these mediums as well as connecting with the Indigenous community on social media. Support and collaborate with Indigenous-owned businesses and organizations and amplify Indigenous creatives, artists, and creators. They are already connecting to the Indigenous community and understand the diversity of their traditions, cultures, and languages. It is a great opportunity for your company to leverage this knowledge, learn and unlearn harmful stereotypes and assumptions, and build trust with this demographic.
Tip #5 Decolonize your marketing campaigns
It is important your marketing team and your organization more generally understand the historical and ongoing effects of colonization on the Indigenous population in the United States so that they can dismantle colonized terminology and references.
For example, prior to recent years, a lot of the big department stores or retailers continued to promote “Columbus Day” sales. This is completely dehumanizing to the Indigenous population because it continues to celebrate a colonial figure that has created mass genocide and discrimination against the Indigenous population in the Americas. Not only does this continue to further a genocidal agenda of historical erasure, but it can also cause psychological harm to Indigenous people.
This is equally the case if your marketing campaign tells Indigenous people’s stories rather than consults or even recruits Indigenous people to tell their own stories through your advertisements. It can come across that your brand is a “savior” to the Native American population, misrepresenting that Indigenous people are at some sense of disadvantage or lack, which continues to perpetuate a colonized narrative.
Instead, focus on representing Indigenous people in your marketing campaigns as having self-agency. Collaborate with Indigenous people to represent themselves and their cultures in a way that is true to their strength and resiliency.
