Minnetonka Moccasin apologizes to Native Americans for not acknowledging its reliance on them

Minnetonka Moccasin Co., the Minneapolis company that over 75 years popularized Native American-styled footwear across the country, issued a formal apology Monday for adopting Native American culture without acknowledgment.

The company, which dropped "moccasin" from its logo in 2008, has now removed the word from much of its corporate messaging and is calling itself simply Minnetonka.

"Minnetonka deeply and meaningfully apologizes for having benefited from selling Native-inspired designs without directly honoring Native culture or communities," the company said in a statement.

The company said it would work more closely with Native American artists and businesses and continue to contribute to Native American causes.

"While our history with appropriation has come from a place of ignorance and not maliciousness, the end result was the same — it is not OK," David Miller, the firm's chief executive, said in an e-mail response to submitted questions.

"Once you begin to understand that you've participated in appropriation, you cannot go back and therefore going forward in a better way is the only option," he wrote.

The company for several years has taken steps to reconcile its success as a white family-owned firm that made products largely from the ideas and traditions of Native Americans. Last year, Minnetonka hired Adrienne Benjamin, an Anishinaabe artist and member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, as a reconciliation advisor.

Benjamin is launching a limited-edition product with Minnetonka this winter.

The company timed the apology to coincide with Indigenous People's Day.

"With Minnetonka, they were having these conversations for a long time," said Wayne Ducheneaux, executive director of St. Paul-based Native Governance Center and a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

He added, "They are acknowledging that kernel of truth that what their company has done is cultural appropriation and they are moving forward with actions."

He started advising Miller and Jori Miller Sherer, the company's president, in spring 2020 about ways to acknowledge Native American culture.

"It was within the first 10 minutes of talking with David and Jori that I understood that what they inherited needed to be worked on," Ducheneaux said.

Minnetonka executives contemplated a public message last year. The police killing of George Floyd in May 2020 became a tipping point in its reckoning process. In fall 2020, it posted a statement called "Our Commitment to the Native American Community" on its website.

"In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, these issues had become front and center, not just locally, but nationally as well," Benjamin wrote on the company's website. "Many inquiries started to come into the company about their appropriation, whether or not their products were 'Native-Made,' and even questioning the validity of other partnerships that they had taken part in."

Floyd's death led to a broader reckoning of race-related injuries across American businesses and institutions. Among the actions that followed: the Washington, D.C., NFL team dropped its Redskins nickname, a move that Native Americans and other activists sought for decades.

"There's a new standard of what's OK," said Monica Marcel of Language and Culture Worldwide, a Chicago firm that advises large companies on bias and diversity matters.

Minnetonka executives declined to provide sales data. It produces a wide variety of shoes, boots and slippers. But the company has long stood out in shoe stores for its moccasins.

Its reconciliation actions come as consumers are paying more attention to the origins of products. Some are seeking out goods produced by Indigenous-owned businesses.

Minneapolis novelist Louise Erdrich highlighted contemporary Native fashion such as "comfy footwear, perfect for working at home" in an article for Vogue this year. She noted that, as she wrote, she was wearing moccasins from Manitobah Mukluks, an Indigenous-owned company based in Winnipeg.

"Our journey to honor and invest in the Native American community will forever be a part of our company actions going forward," Miller said.