Three American Indians, including Miss Indian America and the curator of the Navajo Tribal Museum. will fly to Germany April 1 as part of the first European promotion of Indian-made merchandise.
They will take part in an "American Week" series being launched in several foreign countries by the Department of Commerce in cooperation with the State Department.
The promotion will test the European sales potential of American Indian merchandise. It is sponsored by two German department store chains, Klingenthal and Gebreuder-Lefferso
The sales effort was announced by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Robert L. Bennett, who termed it "a reversal of the policy established 300 years ago. Now it's the Indians' turn to trade with the European natives."
The Indian group will help with sales and public inquiries and will .demonstrate Indian dances. rug weaving, beadwork and silversmithing.
Heading the group is Martin Link, an anthropologist and curator of the Navajo Tribal Museum at Window Rock, Ariz. The Indians are: Wahleah Lujan, of Taos Pueblo, N.M., Miss Indian America XIII, and a sophomore at Fort Lewis College, Colo.; Katherine Lou Dahozy, a Navajo from Fort Defiance, Ariz., and a junior at Northern Arizona University; and Charles Chee Long, a Navajo silver craftsman from New Mexico and museum assistant at the Navajo Museum. Miss Lujan has paintings exhibited in several galleries and Miss Dahozy is a talented weaver.
Department stores in seven German cities will take part in the promotion. The display opens in Bremen April 1 and will also be seen in Paderborn, Minden, Herford, Salzkotten, and Cloppenburg before closing in Meppen on June 7. In addition to the Indian display, the exhibit will have an American space craft display, ship and aircraft models and a historical display.
More than $35.000 worth of American Indian work from across the Nation is being collected for the display by Arrow Inc., of Washington, D.C., a nonprofit Indian development group. Tribes of the Southwest will be represented by the Gallup Indian Trading Co., Gallup, N.M.; Plains Indians by the Northern Plains Indian Crafts Association of Billings, Mont.; Sioux by the Sioux Pottery Co., Rapid City, S.D.; Northern Indians by Chippewayan Authentics, Belcourt. N.D.; Seminoles through their Hollywood, Fla. Reservation; and Cherokees by "The Cherokees" of Cherokee, N.C.
