NTVS T-Shirt - Resist

A very deep, emotional design by Steven Paul Judd. T-Shirt created by The NTVS, a Native-owned clothing and accessory company. Fabric is 90% cotton / 10% polyester.

"1978 is one of those dates we should all have memorized. That's the date that Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. It was created to protect and preserve the traditional religious rights and cultural practices of Indigenous peoples of the Lower 48, Alaska and our brothers and sisters in the Hawaiian Islands.

The men in the picture are Kiowa and what you can't see in this picture is they are holding their gourds. Beginning in 1890 the United States government began to actively enforce bans on cultural ceremonials. The Gourd Dance was out of normal practice by the late 1930s. However, my ancestors, your ancestors, held onto our ceremonies and today we can practice them when we want.

To put 1978 in to better perspective… the movie Star Wars? It premiered BEFORE the American Indian Religious Freedom Act was passed. Please remember that date AND our ancestry that didn't let our cultural ceremonies fade away."

-The NTVS

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