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
7:30 a.m. Saturday: There’s a rumor that there’s a parking spot open on Alameda, but I know manure when I smell it. Parking? Get real.
“You don’t park,” Burgess says. “There’s no parking. The artists don’t even have a place to park.”
Santa Fe Indian Market opens at 7 a.m. Saturday, and collectors are already whipping out their wallets to buy prized items.
Some 600 canvas booths fill the plaza, all along San Francisco Street, across Palace Avenue, up Lincoln and Washington. Tents and people. People and tents. People and more people. This weekend, Santa Fe becomes, as my wife often says, Calcutta. No wonder many locals leave town this weekend. But I’m an adventurer.
Noon Saturday: The Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, the nonprofit that runs Indian Market, is presenting its awards on the main stage. Well, that’s what is written in the program anyway. It’s hard to see from here. I need to rescue my wife before she buys that Santa Clara Pueblo turquoise necklace we can’t afford. Then I want to see if Dallin Maybee, the Seneca and Northern Arapaho beadwork/quillwork specialist who won 2007 Best of Show honors, has anything left in his booth. Yeah, like that’ll happen.
From Arapaho to Zuni, Indian Market brings them all. “You can see trends, native cultures, all the different art that’s represented from all over the country,” Burgess says. “You don’t have to go all over to see Mohawk artists, artists from Alaska, Washington, Oklahoma. You get a good idea of what’s going on in the Indian art world.”
1:34 p.m. Saturday: A woman just walked by in a buckskin dress decorated with shells. Another dons a squash blossom necklace that costs more than my Ford Mustang.
Time to get out of here. Tomorrow’s my big day.
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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