Amelia Schafer
ICT
Every piece of regalia Sharona Crane creates is infused with her Anishinaabe culture.
Her designs for jingle dresses, ribbon skirts, jackets, appliques and other items reflect a modern take on historical woodland motifs and designs using elements such as shimmering floral jacquard satin and colorful velveteen. Her items are authentically Anishinaabe and made for the Anishinaabe people.
The last few months, however, Crane’s business has hit a bump in the road as the Trump administration tariffs kicked in, sometimes doubling the price of materials she uses for her work and increasing the costs for shipping.
She’s had to increase prices more than 10 percent on some items to accommodate her increased production costs.
“I had a rough summer, financially, because with those kinds of prices there’s even fewer people that can afford them,” said Crane, Naongashiing First Nation Ojibwe. “I do understand that I do charge more than a lot of other people, and I do feel bad, but there’s nothing that I can do. I’ve got to keep my lights on, too.”
The tariffs are impacting other artisans and businesses in Indian Country, as well. The majority of items that go into making regalia – jingle cones, beads, wool, fabric and store-bought leather – are largely imported from overseas. So when tariffs are introduced for overseas products, the cost of making regalia becomes even higher than it already was.
“This situation with the tariffs has been exceptionally challenging,” said Beth Simmons, owner of Shipwreck Beads in Lacey, Washington, a major resource for beaders on the West Coast that had been a frequent vendor at the annual Black Hills Powwow.
Simmons said Shipwreck Beads primarily imports from the Czech Republic, China and India as a main source for beads, though it does work with some U.S. manufacturers. All three of those countries have been the recipients of new tariffs.
“We’re trying to make [the price increases] as little as possible, but we still have to be able to pay for the beads and pay all of our employees,” Simmons told ICT. “We’re hopeful that the situation is resolved sometime in the next year and that it won’t be a thing moving forward, but we have to keep the lights on between now and then.”
‘No one is immune’
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has rolled out various new tariffs on imported goods, including broad tariffs on products from Taiwan, China and India, and the removal of the “de minimis” exemption on shipments from Canada into the United States. He also launched a 50 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports and derivatives in June.
The tariffs are part of Trump’s plan to boost domestic production and manufacturing. But that’s easier said than done, according to experts.
Any migration of manufacturing back to the U.S. would take two to four years to actually happen, leaving small businesses to deal with tariffs on imported goods in the meantime, Francisco Sánchez, the former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for Trade under President Barack Obama, told a gathering of journalists at the National Press Foundation in Washington, D.C., in September.
“You can’t turn that on a dime,” Sanchez said. “So it’s going to be challenging in terms of supply chain, it’s going to be challenging in terms of costs, and it affects across-the-board, whether it’s construction, whether it’s retail, hospitality, restaurants. No one is immune.”
A recognizable brand
Crane got serious about her regalia business in 2020, making it her full-time career.
An Ojibwe brand from the heart of Anishinaabe country, her business, Zazegaakwe, which means “prosperous woman” in Ojibwemowin, is known for its unique jingle dresses and woodland regalia with bright floral applique and eyecatching embellishments.
It’s a recognizable brand at powwows across Canada and into the United States.
Crane is based in Lake of the Woods in Ontario, Canada, and ships regularly to the United States, she told ICT.
“Lake of the Woods, this is like the home of the jingle dress, where the stories and the creation, everything came out of,” Crane said. “So making jingle dresses here is essential for my business. It is literally, I would say, 75 percent of everything that I make.”
But it’s becoming more costly since the Trump administration ordered in June the 50 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports and derivatives. The tariff directly impacts all jingle cone producers, since no jingle cones are manufactured in the United States.
For Crane, that means the price of a bag of 100 cones has more than doubled, from about $25 Canadian to about $56 Canadian, or about $40 in U.S. dollars. Previously, she had been able to buy in bulk, but new shipping tariffs made that impossible.
Jingle cones, which were originally made from chewing tobacco can lids, are now factory-made using tinplated metal. There are three major producers of jingle cones in the United States — Missouri River, which is owned by Crazy Crow Trading Post; the McPherson brand, which is owned by Wandering Bull Trading Post; and Teton Trade Cloth LLC’s new brand of jingle cones.
All three source their products from overseas, with Teton’s cones coming from China, according to federal import records. From there, the companies outsource their cones to smaller businesses across the country, to be sold typically in bags typically of 100.
None of the companies responded to requests from ICT for comment on the impact of tariffs.
In June, Taiwan, a major producer of jingle cones, was hit with a separate 30 percent tariff on goods imported to the United States, prompting a boost in jingle cone prices in the U.S.
Singing Horse Trading Post, an Indigenous-owned small business on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, has seen the most change from tariffs on jingle cones and imported leather goods. One employee said the business has had to change an extra one to two dollars per bag for the cones.
At least some of the cost, inevitably, is transferred to the consumer. Because of her brand recognition, Crane’s designs were already sold a little higher than typical regalia, but with the increase in cost to produce, she’s had no choice but to raise prices even more.
Previously, she sold cotton-based jingle dresses without jingle cones attached for $750 Canadian. She’s now had to increase the prices to between $830-$850 Canadian because of her increased production costs.
Shipping costs go up as well
The impact on First Nations artisans in Canada has been even steeper since the end of shipping tariff exemptions by the United States and another Canada Post strike.
Starting on Aug. 29, the United States suspended all duty-free “de minimis” thresholds on shipping from all countries, even Canada. The de minimis threshold previously allowed small amounts of purchases of under $800 to be exempt from tariffs, with the threshold’s removal all foreign shipments are now eligible for tariffs. Additionally, the elimination of the threshold means that postal shipments to the U.S. from Canada require prepaid duties before the package crosses the border and sometimes even after.
Now, when using the U.S. Postal Service, customers in the U.S. who received packages from Canada will need to pay fees when the packages arrive at their doors. These import fees are charges that the United States government has applied to goods shipped (or imported) into the United States from other countries. These fees can come in three different forms: duties, taxes and tariffs. UPS refers to these as International Collect on Delivery, or ICOD. Often these fees can only be paid by check, unless the customer goes through a lengthy process to pay online. The fee money collected from the receiver is then paid to the federal government by the postal service.
For something like a $20 T-shirt, the American customer can expect to pay between $20 and $30 U.S. dollars in fees when the package arrives in addition to shipping costs already paid when ordering. If the customer doesn’t pay after the third delivery attempt, the package will be sent back to its place of origin.
Crane said she primarily buys Missouri River Jingle Cones, which are produced in Taiwan and shipped to the United States. Previously. she purchased from the Manitoba-based company, Anishinaabe Bimishimo, before the company went on hiatus, leaving a gap in the domestic market until it returns.
‘Astronomical’ increases
Regalia was already costly to make when factoring in labor, fabric and other expenses, but now the tariffs have made the cost of production even higher, and not just because of jingle cones. The fabric is also harder and more-expensive to come by.
Crane used to purchase directly from a retailer in the Los Angeles Fabric District, but that’s not possible anymore, she said. She also previously purchased trims, embellishments and branding tags from the United States, but with tariffs she’s had to change her sourcing for nearly all elements of design.
Even heat and bond, a material used for creating applique, is more expensive.
“They’re astronomical,” Crane said about the tariffs. “I completely had to stop that [purchasing]. It wasn’t worth it anymore.”
She now shops locally in Canada, but the options are limited. Crane lives more than two hours from Winnipeg, the closest major city.
Until the tariffs end, there’s not much that small businesses can do but wait for prices to go down, she said.
“I do feel I feel for my customers,” Crane said. “Those tariffs, for lack of a better word, they suck. But hopefully whatever’s going on with American politics, it gets settled and the prices stop rising so fast.”
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