American Legend was formed in 1986 as a merger of the Great Lakes Mink Association (GLMA) and the Mutation Mink Breeders Association (EMBA).
The name "Blackglama" is a play on the word "glamor" and the initialism "GLMA".
The Mutation Mink Breeders Association (MMBA) was formed in 1942 by mink ranchers specializing in clear bright fur colors, to which they gave distinctive trade names: Autumn Haze (brown), Desert Gold (light brown), Argenta (grey), Cerulean (blue), Lutetia (gunmetal), Azurene (pale grey), Jasmine (white), Tourmaline (pale beige), Arcturus (lavender beige), Diadem (pale brown), Aeolian (grey taupe).
[4] Membership in the American Legend Cooperative was open to active mink farmers in the United States or Canada who had sold over 1200 mink pelts at American Legend auctions within the previous year and who were approved by the cooperative's Board of Directors.
[5] ALC is a founding member of the North American Fur Industry Communications group (NAFIC),[6] established in 2013 as a cooperative public educational program for the fur industry in Canada and the USA.