When most people think of Native American art, they often picture feathers and beads. Northland Visions, located on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis, is proof that there is so much more to celebrate. Showcasing contemporary jewelry, paintings, and sculpture as well as offering a huge selection of glass beads, the store is a hybrid of gallery and native art supplies.
“Customers are amazed at the kinds of bead work; it’s pretty complicated, intricate weaving,” says Greg Bellanger, whose father Ken started the business 20 years ago. Now that Ken has passed, Greg and his mother, Marilynn, continue the tradition.
Greg’s father was Native American and a United States Marine who dreamed of owning his own business. The original store, located on Franklin Avenue, started as a home-based, mail-order business which focused on birch bark gift baskets and canoes filled with native foods, wild berry jellies, syrups and wild rice. The rice was and still is hand harvested from natural rice beds. It is hand parched using wood, not gas, to preserve the aroma and natural color. The Franklin Avenue store started with one jewelry counter, six tables of products, and a very small amount of Native American art.
“We were setting up at powwows on the weekend [where the Native American community would gather], just to let people know there was a Native art and gift shop in the area,” says Greg. “It was also a way for us to find artists to buy art from.”
Two years ago, Northland Visions moved into its new location in Northeast off of East Hennepin Avenue and is now located in the Miller Textile building which housed the Miller Bag Company for a 100 years. It’s twice as big as the Franklin store and many of the original items plus much more are available at the store today.
“I designed the showroom to have more space,” says Greg. “I wanted an old building because it has so much natural material built in it. I found industrial lighting from old factories, so it just gives it that old time feel and helps the art just pop.”
Although he has used refurbished items and kept some of the original materials of the former factory, the store itself has been renovated and updated. With walls made of beautiful river stone, ceilings crisscrossed with rough-hewn timbers, and floors of wood plank, the store embodies nature, which is heightened by the scent of sweetgrass in the air. You might even expect to hear birds singing overhead. Walking through the store is a peaceful and calming experience.
“There are no straight lines and angles,” says Greg. “It’s kind of a meandering layout like you are walking through the woods.”
However, with the abundance of paintings and sculptures and other artwork, it also has a gallery-type feel. There’s plenty of room to wander and he created small pockets of native products for customers to explore. Many of these are displayed on old, refurbished and retrofitted factory nutting carts and wood toolboxes.
Greg is proud of the diversity of the products he chooses and is glad to be able to show so many different kinds of Native American art in one space, much of which people never even realized existed. With the added room, customers can really step back and enjoy the experience.
“Customers will find contemporary pieces, traditional art, sculpture, paintings and intricate and authentic Native American works,” he says.
Northland Visions focuses on tribes from the Midwest region which, in addition to Minnesota, includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan. It’s the culmination of the Northern Plains and Woodland tribes.
“Minnesota is unique because it’s one of the few states that has two major tribal groups together - two very different tribal groups [the Ojibwe and Dakota tribes],” says Greg. “A lot of states may have two or three tribes in them, but they’re from similar tribal groups like Plains, or Southwestern etc.”
Many of the art, beads and food products found in Northland Visions are from local artists. Greg may occasionally have to source outside of Minnesota to try and find similar art, but the pieces are always unique. He prides himself on choosing items that will not be found in any other stores in the area.
“We’re just such a unique store,” he says. “There’s no store like us within a few hundred miles and there’s not a store that carries Woodland style art.”
Northland Visions is also a huge supplier to Native American artists who work with beads. There is a very large bead counter filled with high quality products from which to choose, including Czech beads, Japanese beads, metallic and vintage beads.
Overall, he is happy with where the store is, but looks forward to growing. Greg’s goals for next year include getting more of the Native American art online and expanding the e-commerce side of the business. The store already ships products all over the United States, and with his plan to add more Native American art to his inventory customers will have a bigger opportunity to find extraordinary pieces for their collection.
To find out more, go to https://northlandvisions.com/.