“Our ties are so strong to the land because of who we are as Native people,” says Ruth-Ann Thorn, a self-proclaimed “original local” from Vista and a tribal member of the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians. “Sooner or later, the ancestors call you back to start doing your role within this long legacy of people.”
In deference to that role, Thorn has made it her mission to support and uplift Indigenous people. She started a digital art registry to protect Native art from fraud and hosted a docuseries highlighting Indigenous community members. And now her next venture has arrived: Native Star, a luxury boutique dedicated to Indigenous creations. It opened on May 30 in the Gaslamp Quarter’s historic Yuma Building.
Photo Credit: Matt Furman Native Star vends products both innovative and traditional from tribal members all over the country.
The location carries a deep meaning for Thorn. “When this building was erected, at that time, the gaslamps had come up, [and] there were signs on the lamps that said ‘Indians Wanted, $25, Dead or Alive,’” she explains. When the structure became available for sale last year, Thorn took it as an opportunity to reclaim the space for the people that were once banned from it. She now owns the building.
“There should be a place where people can go in a modern-day way to experience the creations of Native [artists], and that’s how Native Star was born,” she says.
Photo Credit: Matt Furman Ruth-Ann Thorn opened Native Star on May 30, 2025.
The boutique is a smorgasbord of neon lights, cowhide, leather, and food products from tribes throughout the US. A map of Native nations greets you at the door. Inside, Thorn thumbs through a dizzying array of couture gowns and bedazzled ribbon skirts, noting the name and tribe of each creator as if they were family. She moves through the space like the curator of her own museum. Earrings hand-beaded by an 80-year-old Indigenous grandmother hang near dangling salmon skeleton jewelry. Photographs by Navajo artist Jeremy Salazar line the walls, each a vibrant portrait of Native land, sky, and spirit.
Native Star doesn’t stop at fashion and art. You can pick up a bottle of local, Rincon-made wine by Hunter & Mazzetti Vineyards; bags of Ramona Farms roasted pima corn; or smoked wild salmon from the Pacific Northwest. The hot-pink back wall displays N8iV Beauty, Thorn’s own line born from the glaring absence of Native American products in beauty stores. The star element is acorn oil—a sacred Rincon and California ingredient and medicine.
Photo Credit: Matt Furman
If you look a little harder at the décor, you’ll realize not everything is what it seems at first glance. Above the in-store coffee bar, a vintage Del Mar Racetrack wheel spins a different story. Its jockeys now don painted feather headdresses, a nod to the Indigenous roots of horsemanship in America. A Red Bull cooler gets a cheeky rebrand as “Red Buffalo,” and even American Gothic is reimagined on jackets, with the stoic farmers now Native figures with braided hair and facepaint. “I want people to come in and experience Native culture in a way that’s non-confrontational, where they can come in and look at the beauty, because everything in this store is art,” Thorn says. “Everything has a purpose and intention behind it.”
Photo Credit: Rose McFadden
Down in the basement, a speakeasy is taking shape, offering space for private events and Indigenous art exhibits. Thorn also plans to invite Native creators to the boutique to share their skills and stories—think cooking classes, painting sessions, and lectures.
“When people start to explore [Native culture], it pulls down the barriers and preconceived ideas of who we are as Native people,” she says. Plus, everything in the new, one-of-a-kind shop makes for a unique gift.
Lili Kim is a content coordinator and writer for San Diego Magazine, with experience highlighting local businesses and communities. When not writing or shooting film, she is likely brewing her seventh cup of tea of the day or strolling along Sunset Cliffs.
