Ojibwe Craft Markets of Today
In more recent times, crafting has been a valuable way of generating income for many Ojibwe artists. While artists today have gained much more power and control over the sale of their items, they are still being undermined by inauthentic crafted items, disrespectful collectors markets, and misrepresentations withing cultural appropriations.
The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 made it illegal to sell inauthentic crafted objects as real. While this was very helpful, there is still a market for these illegally produced objects and only federally recognized tribes are under its protection, leaving many tribes still unprotected from the production and sale of counterfeit crafts (Parsely).
While there has been an increase in native owned businesses for the sale of crafts, some of the market remains under the control of collectors. Oftentimes, these collectors are ignorant to the true importance and meaning behind what they are collecting and place value in different aspects of the objects than the artists do(Klain).
Another market competing for profits that truly belong to Ojibwe craft makers, is the mass production of culturally appropriated objects, most commonly dream catchers, that have strayed very far and only loosely resemble their traditional Ojibwe roots. Dreams are very culturally significant within the Ojibwe worldview, and large importance is placed in the meanings of dreams. Many Ojibwe people dont mind outsider acquisition of dreamcatchers as long as there is respect for its meaning and origins(Glasker), which with non-native creations, is not the case. Today representations of dream catchers are widley used and profited off of by many non native corporations.
https://nativeharvest.com/collections/jewelry
Here is an online store run by the White Earth Indian Reservation that offers authentic Ojibwe made products.