My Un American Spirit necklace is a spoof on the “American Spirit” cigarette brand and packaging which actually depicts a stereotypical Native smoking a “peace pipe.” Yet they are selling little death dose cigarettes and none of the people who founded the company or are part of its current power structure have ever been Native American. So I have a pink-skinned warbonnet-wearing man with a black line over his eyes smoking a cigarette. There is nothing Native about cigarettes, inhaling tobacco or using tobacco recreationally; so I re-named this product, “Un-American Spirit.” The fringe hanging off the bottom of the pendant is meant to resemble little lit cigarettes and there are 20, the same as in a standard pack. Beaded “cancerous growths” cover the back of the pendant just like they secretly grow inside our bodies.
