Three Indigenous artists have won the 2026 Inspired Natives Emerging Artist Award from Eighth Generation, earning cash prizes and opportunities to bring their designs to market.
Hopi and Diné artist Autry Lomahongva won the $15,000 grand prize, followed by Hassanamisco Nipmuc artist Brittney Walley, who received $10,000, and Saint Regis Mohawk artist Lexis Jacobs, who took third place with $5,000. Lomahongva’s design will appear on a wool blanket sold by Eighth Generation, while the company hasn’t yet announced which textile products will feature Walley’s and Jacobs’s designs.
According to Eighth Generation, the contest drew nearly 150 submissions from Native artists nationwide. The award combines financial support with opportunities for emerging artists to reach new audiences through a Native-owned brand.
Autry Lomahongva wins grand prize.
Lomahongva, from Kayenta, Arizona, is a Hopi and Diné artist whose work focuses on designs from both communities. He’s developed his artistic skills since high school and creates each piece by hand, using pen and paper instead of digital tools.
Through his Etsy shop, he sells stickers and prints featuring traditional Hopi and Navajo pottery designs. His approach favors detailed, hand-drawn compositions, aiming to create work as complex and beautiful as art made by Hopi and Diné ancestors.
The grand prize gives Lomahongva additional exposure and a chance to reach customers through Eighth Generation’s retail catalog.
Brittney Walley draws on art and history.
Walley, a Hassanamisco Nipmuc artist and historian from Medway, Massachusetts, brings together weaving, Indigenous history and cultural revitalization in her work.
She co-curated Chemacheg Menuhki: Paddle Strong, a permanent installation at the Concord Museum, and her work has appeared in museums in New England and elsewhere. Walley also serves as a project assistant at the Institute for New England Native American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
She holds a master’s degree in Critical Ethnic and Community Studies and a certificate in historical archaeology.
Lexis Jacobs works across mediums.
Jacobs, an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and illustrator from the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe in Akwesasne, New York, received third prize.
Her work includes realistic charcoal drawings and Kwá and Friends, a coloring-book series drawing on Native culture and traditions. The award offers another opportunity to introduce her art to a wider audience.
Expanding opportunities for Native artists
Four Eighth Generation artist partners judged the competition: Bethany Fackrell, Snoqualmie; Giizh Agaton Howes, Anishinaabe-Ojibwe; Michelle Lowden, Acoma Pueblo; and John Isaiah Pepion, Piikani and Blackfeet.
Launched in 2017 as the Inspired Natives Wool Blanket Design Contest, the program was created to help Indigenous artists build careers and sell their work.
Unlike companies that sell “Native-inspired” products created without involving Native artists, Eighth Generation works directly with Indigenous artists to bring their designs to market. The arrangement lets artists earn money from their work while reaching customers through the company’s products.
For Lomahongva, Walley and Jacobs, the awards offer financial support and a new opportunity to connect their work with audiences beyond their existing projects. Their selection also continues Eighth Generation’s effort to expand the commercial reach of Indigenous art while keeping Native artists at the center of the process.
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