Google Has Made it Easier to Shop Indigenous

This Native American Heritage Month, search engine Google launched its "Indigenous-owned attribute", which is an icon that Native and Indigenous-owned businesses can add to their business profile. This lets customers see at-a-glance that a business is owned by Indigenous people, making it easier for you to support Native-owned through Search and Maps! 

The Indigenous-owned attribute seen on Eighth Generation's Google Business Profile

From Google's blog post announcing the icon: "Throughout the process of creating this attribute, we worked in partnership with the National Congress of American Indians and members of GAIN. This new offering joins the available Asian-owned, Black-owned, disabled-owned, Latino-owned, LGBTQ+ owned, veteran-owned and women-owned business attributes."

Support Native-Owned Businesses This Native American Heritage Month (and EVERY Month!)

To roll out the icon for Native American Heritage Month, Google partnered with Eighth Generation's founder, Louie Gong (Nooksack), to talk about the importance of Native identity and Native-owned businesses. Watch the beautiful video below.

Google's Indigenous-owned icon would not exist without Louie's decades of activism and Eighth Generation's groundbreaking (and rule-breaking) success. "We couldn't have dreamed of an Indigenous-owned icon on Google fifteen years ago," shares Louie. "Back then, we had to tell people each day how we were different from non-Native businesses using fake Native art. Now there's a push from the public to see authenticity in the cultural art they interact with."

The work Louie has done as an artist and activist has paved the way for countless other authentic Native artists to go into business for themselves, sharing their cultural art with an audience that cares about appreciation, not appropriation. Eighth Generation's Native artist-and-art-centric business model is a roadmap for other cultural artists. "Eighth Generation is one of the most influential developments for Native-owned businesses in the last 50 years," says Louie. "The Native-owned icon has the potential one of the most influential developments for Native-owned businesses in the next 50 years." 

How Your Native-Owned Business Can Get the Icon

Eighth Generation was thrilled to be one of the first Native-owned businesses to have the Indigenous-owned attribute on our Google Business Profile! If you're a Native-owned business with a Google Business Profile, you can add the icon following these steps.

How to Support Native-Owned Businesses

You can support Native-owned businesses and Native artists year-round, and Native American Heritage Month is a great time to start! This November, we challenge you to: 

• Research about the tribe or tribes who originally lived in your area. Learning about the original custodians of the land you live on is a respectful and often eye-opening way to connect to where you live!
• Find one new Native-owned business or artist to support when you're holiday shopping this season. Using the Google Indigenous-owned icon, or look at our past holiday gift guide blog posts (2022) for some inspiration.
• Follow at least one of Native artists on their social media profiles to get real-time updates on their work! Bonus points if you share their work on your stories!

Thank you for supporting Eighth Generation and our authentic Native artists—this and every month!