Surviving the Santa Fe Indian Market
And why it’s the “Indian Artist Oscars.”
Categories: Featured Travel Stories
By: Johnny D. Boggs 05/01/2008
11:32 a.m. Sunday: I wish Pig Boy Willy were hawking his carne adovada burritos, but I’ll settle for a Navajo taco. Now, which line has fewer than 14 people?
Indian dancers perform in the food court. From the main stage to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, dancers are as popular as roasted corn ears. Youngsters perform too, and youngsters watch.
Another reason the market’s successful.
SWAIA provides funds for emerging artists—Assiniboine Sioux Jessica Growing Thunder won the youth Best of Classification in 2006 for a stunning cradleboard, which I didn’t buy. Young and old get their due at Indian Market.
12:34 p.m. Sunday: Forget that piece of San Ildefonso Pueblo pottery. I’m targeting the ice-cream stand.
Santa Fe’s first Indian Market, back in 1922, was created by Edgar L. Hewitt, the director of the Museum of New Mexico who selected the prize winners and prohibited artists—who had to wear feather bonnets to make tourists happy—from selling their work. Luckily, rules began changing in the 1930s. This is a juried Indian art show, the largest and most successful of its kind in the world.
3:17 p.m. Sunday: I estimate 3.17 million people at Burgess’s booth. They must know Nocona is the great-great grandson of Quanah Parker. Or they love his acrylics-on-canvas. Or maybe they’ve stopped to watch the Indian dances going on in front of Nocona’s booth.
The dancers leave, the crowd starts moving and I stick my head in to say hello to Nocona. It has been quite the show.
4:30 p.m. Sunday: A half-hour to go, and things are winding down. Maybe now I can chat with Ute/Navajo sculptor Oreland C. Joe. What luck! The crowd’s not too big, so I ask him what brings him to Santa Fe.
“I just got tired of the other circuit, the auctions,” he says. “I wanted to get in contact with the buyer.”
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The Indian Market in Santa Fe is truly a unique experience in a unique place. But there is an equally good show just a few day before Indian Market in Santa Fe called the Antique Indian Art Show. Produced by Whitehawk, this show is in it's 31st year of bringing together the country's, actually the world's, top dealers of antique art from tribes across America. Over 125 booths of top quality baskets, pot, beaded items, jewelry, tools, weapons and so much much more, in a fun and lively setting. In 2009 the shows will be at the beautiful new Santa Fe Community Convention Center. For more information visit www.whitehawkshows.com