To celebrate the launch, we produced a video featuring Louie Gong, a Nooksack member and founder of Eighth Generation. The lifestyle brand was created with the goal of providing more opportunities for Indigenous artists. Today, Eighth Generation is owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe and collaborates with community-based Indigenous artists across the country to design, manufacture, and market wool blankets and gifts for a global audience. During the filming, Louie emphasized the importance of supporting Indigenous-owned businesses, stating, “The more authentic we are about our identity, the more consumers can make value-based decisions to support Native-owned businesses and strengthen the stewards of cultural art and stories they want to align with.”
We hope that this attribute will facilitate support for Indigenous-owned businesses like Eighth Generation by providing consumers with another way to champion a diverse range of businesses through Google’s products and platforms.
2. Providing digital skills training and expanding access to computer science education
Grow with Google and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) have teamed up to offer digital skills training led by the Indigenous Community Digital Coach, Jake Foreman. Jake hosts free digital skills workshops, provides hands-on coaching, and offers opportunities for Indigenous businesses to learn from one another year-round as part of the Digital Coaches program. Jake will conduct in-person workshops at the NCAI 80th Annual Convention to assist Indigenous entrepreneurs in growing their businesses with digital tools, including the Indigenous-owned attribute.