In collaboration with the First Peoples’ Market, the festival will again offer a Native Fashion Show featuring Montana Indigenous Designers.
The First Peoples Fashion Show has quickly become a highlight of the Montana Folk Festival since starting in 2022 on a small stage with an incredible turnout that reflected the community’s enthusiasm and support. By 2023, the show had outgrown its original space and moved to a larger stage, and in 2024, it proudly made its debut on the festival’s main stage. This powerful evolution is rooted in the vision of the late mother of Donovan Hawk, coordinator of the First Peoples Market, whose dream of showcasing Indigenous fashion lives on through this vibrant event. Returning for their fourth year are Plains Soul, Sweet Sage Woman, and Rebekah Jarvey, with Designs by Della marking her third year. This year also welcomes a new voice in Indigenous fashion, Devonté Designs, continuing the tradition of honoring culture, creativity, and legacy on the runway.
You are invited to embrace Native American culture and contemporary designs at the 2025 Montana Folk Festival on Saturday, July 12 from 5 – 6 PM at the Original Mineyard Main Stage. The artists will have many of the modeled works and more available for sale throughout the weekend at the First Peoples Market. Models will grace the Original Stage wearing the fashions designed by the following designers.
Della BigHair-Stump, an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe from Crow Agency, Montana, is the visionary force behind Designs by Della. Her Apsáalooke name, Latter Day Achiever, reflects the strength and resilience woven throughout her work. She is of the Whistling Water Clan and a child of the Big Lodge. …
An enrolled member of the Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation, her Crow name, Sweet Sage Woman, was given to her by her paternal grandmother, Francis Gardner OldDwarf, through a vision during the Crow Sundance. Yolanda was raised on the Crow Reservation by her parents, the late Nathan OldDwarf and Julie Kreitzberg. Yolanda …
Rebekah Jarvey is an esteemed international fashion designer, artisan, model, and Fashion Show Director. She is an enrolled member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe and also represents her Cree and Blackfeet heritage. Rebekah is part of a four-generation legacy of beadwork and sewing, which she now continues with her son—making …
Corey D. Whiteman is a 19-year-old fashion designer from the Crow (Apsáalooke) and Assiniboine/Nakota tribes. He’s a member of the Greasy Mouth clan and child of the Whistling Water clan, raised on the Crow Reservation in Pryor, Montana. Corey’s Apsáalooke name, given to him by his uncle Del Laverdure, reflects …
