This week, Navajo Nation, based across Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, surpassed the highest rates of COVID-19 infections in the United States. As of Tuesday, the Native American territory reported a rate of 2,304.41 per 100,000 people had been infected, a staggering ratio for a population under 200,000 people. The situation is dire, and two local New Mexico businesses are stepping up to help. Santa Fe Vintage, known to fashion insiders and vintage junkies alike for its by-appointment showroom, donated its stock of 1970s-era red bandanas (a signature of the showroom) to the Albuquerque-based label Orenda Tribe that will embellish the kerchiefs and add them to its online auction benefiting the Navajo Reservation. Together with the sales of original artwork up for auction, 100% of the funds raised will go towards providing critical supplies to the Navajo Reservation.
Amy Yeung, founder of the upcycled label Orenda Tribe, commissioned Native American artist Alexandra Barton to create a special design that was printed on each of the bandanas. (The printed was done by another local business, Endemik Exchange.) The symbol reflects the “Dzil Asdzaan (Mountain Woman) Command Center,” a moniker used by Yeung and her team to denote their now-full time work providing financial aid to the Navajo communities. It “refers to our feminine energy mountain,” Yeung explains. “Rather than saying ‘moving mountains,’ this is the journey to and from the mountain. It’s a healing journey with the strength it takes to travel up a mountain and the restorative strength descending and feeling renewed.”
The bandanas can be purchased for $75 on the Orenda Tribe website, along with other donated items that are currently available in the charitable sale. In addition, Yeung and her team have set up a separate donation fund through the non-profit organization NDN Collective. Teo Griscom, who took over Santa Fe Vintage after its founder Scott Corey passed away in 2019, was eager to work with Yeung on this project. “We buy and sell vintage Native American art and jewelry and felt that it was important to give back,” Griscom says. “We wanted to work with Amy after admiring her work from afar, and we saw the immediate impact she was making in her community, auctioning off designs and work by artists that we know and love.” Though they hadn’t met before embarking on this initiative together, Yeung also says that she and her team have “been long time fans of Santa Fe Vintage.” She also notes that she is beyond grateful for their donation of the bandanas, especially because she believes that “things from the past have such beautiful energy.” Yeung adds too, as a whole, “at a time when our government has done so little, it’s so beautiful to see the aid coming from artists, makers, and creators who have fueled our project of love and light.”