From the Indian Fair to the Galleries: the 1970s Turquoise Boom
In early September 1922 the first Southwest Indian Fair opened in Santa Fe, narrowly ahead of Gallup's first Inter-Tribal Ceremonial; in 1962 it became Indian Market, where jewelry grew into the predominant category. [2] In the Christmas season of 1972, newspaper ads for turquoise set in Indian-made jewelry ran for the first time, from Saks Fifth Avenue in New York to the May Company in Los Angeles. [2] By the 1980s, Jacka wrote, the galleries had taken over much of the trading post's old role. [1]
KEY POINTS
- Santa Fe's Southwest Indian Fair opened in early September 1922, just ahead of Gallup's Inter-Tribal Ceremonial, which gave it the claim to the oldest Native American art fair. [2]
- The fair took its own August weekend in 1962 as Indian Market, and jewelry became its predominant category. [2]
- One marker of the 1970s boom's start: a Saks Fifth Avenue fashion show of Native American jewelry in Phoenix, in late 1971. [2]
- In the 1980s, Jacka wrote, gallery owners were expected to supply metal and stones, as the old-time traders had. [1]
- In the 1970s, Barb Chaney recalled, the interstate highway system opened things up for small regional traders. [2]
From the 1922 fairs to Indian Market
Regional rodeos had already brought tribal members together to trade and compete. In the early 1920s the Gallup Chamber of Commerce and the Kiwanis Club appointed Mike Kirk president of the first Inter-Tribal Ceremonial, held in September 1922, which Ryan and Chambless call the first effort to bring the different tribes together to attract the tourist market. [2]
Santa Fe got there first, narrowly. Edgar L. Hewett, then director of the Museum of New Mexico, and Kenneth Chapman pushed to bring Pueblo and other tribes into the first annual Southwest Indian Fair and Arts and Crafts Exhibition, part of the Santa Fe Fiesta, which opened in early September 1922. Pottery dominated at first, followed by baskets and weavings, though Navajo silver was included. [2]
In 1962 the fair moved to its own August weekend and became known as Indian Market. Over time jewelry became its predominant category, which affected the turquoise market. In 1965 the dealers Al Packard and Rex Arrowsmith moved the market out from under the portal of the Palace of the Governors and set up the first booths around the Plaza. As of 2020, Ryan and Chambless called it the world's largest juried show of Native American arts and crafts. [2] For the Plaza as it looks now, see the Santa Fe Indian Market in a 360° tour.
Shops and galleries
The anthropologist Art Rodgers started The Wooden Indian in 1947, on the Taos highway (Los Alamos followed in 1951), and worked with noted artists including Mark Chee. [2] Bill Faust recalled that his great-aunt, Lovena Ohl, turned the Heard Museum gift shop from tourist trinkets into a serious museum store before leaving about 1969. In 1977 she started her own gallery and brought Charles Loloma with her. [2]
Writing in 1995, Jacka saw the galleries of the 1980s step into the traders' place: “Gallery owners found themselves replacing the trading posts in many respects. Like the old-time traders, they were expected to supply metal and stones, even advance money on jewelry to be delivered upon completion.” [1]
The 1970s boom
Ryan and Chambless mark one start of the boom with a fashion show of Native American jewelry that Saks Fifth Avenue held in Phoenix in the second half of 1971. Through the decade, Arizona Highways under editor Joseph Stacey ran a series of issues on Native jewelry. [2] The turquoise expert David L. Neumann, as they quote him, noted that the Christmas season of 1972 brought newspaper advertising of turquoise set in Indian-made jewelry for the first time, from Saks Fifth Avenue in New York through Marshall Field in Chicago to the May Company in Los Angeles. [2]
Many of the boom's artists settled in Scottsdale, Arizona. Scottsdale became a retail and wholesale center in its own right, a rival to the older markets of Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Gallup. [2]
The last regional posts
Some traders opened posts in the middle of it. John Hartman recalled opening the Canyon Collectors trading post in 1978, four miles west of Durango, selling Navajo jewelry, rough and cut turquoise, and supplies for Navajo jewelers. [2] John Chaney recalled that Charles Eagle Plume ran what had been Perkins Trading Post in Colorado, which its owners left to him. Barb Chaney credited Eagle Plume with giving them the courage to buy the best. [2]
John Chaney recalled one side of their dealings in 1973–74: “We never sold. We only traded.” [2] Barb Chaney named what changed for posts like theirs: “In the 70s, the interstate highway system made a huge impact because if you could get from your little place to an interstate, then you pretty much could go anywhere and that opened things up for people like us.” [2]
For the Gallup houses that supplied the posts, see Gallup and the Wholesale Houses. For the pawn side of the trade, see Pawn and Dead Pawn. For the posts themselves, see Shops, Trading Posts & Guilds of Southwest Jewelry.
Field Notes by Mateo James
What “we only traded” covers. John Chaney's “We never sold. We only traded.” (Ryan & Chambless 2020, p. 223) is easy to read as a whole business run on barter. On the same page it is about the turquoise the Chaneys brought to the jewelers waiting for them, and he also says, “We only sold wholesale.” So we quote it for the trade with the jewelers, not for how the Chaneys sold. Jacka's 1980s galleries “replacing the trading posts in many respects” (1995) is a different decade and a different claim; neither source cancels the other.
Two firsts in one September. Ryan & Chambless (2020) give Santa Fe's 1922 fair the title of oldest Native American art fair, narrowly, and call Gallup's Ceremonial of the same month the first effort to bring the different tribes together to attract the tourist market. These are different claims. We keep both and rank the two fairs no further than the book does.
From the Library
What 2 reference books say about Indian Market, the galleries and the 1970s turquoise boom, grouped by topic. Every passage names its book and page; full references are under Sources.
These are outside observers' records of the trade; the Navajo (Diné), Zuni and other nations are the authority on their own history.
From the 1922 fair to Indian Market3 passages · 1 book
How the Gallup and Santa Fe fairs began, and how Indian Market grew.
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 46), in the early 1920s the Gallup Chamber of Commerce, with the Kiwanis Club, appointed Mike Kirk president of the first Inter-Tribal Ceremonial, held in September 1922; regional rodeos had already brought tribal members together to trade and compete, but this was the first effort to bring the different tribes together to attract the tourist market. [2]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 46), Museum of New Mexico director Edgar L. Hewett and Kenneth Chapman are credited with bringing Pueblo and other tribes into the first annual Southwest Indian Fair and Arts and Crafts Exhibition, part of the Santa Fe Fiesta. It opened in early September 1922, just ahead of the Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial, which gave it the claim to the oldest Native American art fair. Pottery dominated at first, followed by baskets and weavings, though Navajo silver was included. [2]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 46), the fair moved to its own August weekend in 1962 and became known as Indian Market, and over time jewelry became its predominant category, which affected the turquoise market. In 1965 the Native American art dealers Al Packard and Rex Arrowsmith moved the market out from under the portal of the Palace of the Governors and created the first booths around the Plaza. As of 2020, the authors called Indian Market the largest juried show for Native American arts and crafts in the world. [2]
Shops and galleries take over3 passages · 2 books
The shops and galleries that took on the traders' role.
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 157), the anthropologist Art Rodgers opened The Wooden Indian on the Taos highway in 1947 and at Los Alamos in 1951, and worked with noted artists including Mark Chee. [2]
Bill Faust recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 172), that his great-aunt Lovena Ohl turned the Heard Museum gift shop from tourist trinkets into a serious museum store before leaving about 1969, and started her own gallery in 1977, bringing Charles Loloma with her. [2]
Jacka (1995) on the 1980s:
“Gallery owners found themselves replacing the trading posts in many respects. Like the old-time traders, they were expected to supply metal and stones, even advance money on jewelry to be delivered upon completion.”
Jacka (1995), p. 45 AS OF 1995 [1]
The 1970s boom3 passages · 1 book
Fashion shows, national advertising and Scottsdale.
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 169), one marker of the start of the 1970s boom was a fashion show that Saks Fifth Avenue in Phoenix held in the second half of 1971, featuring Native American jewelry, and Arizona Highways under editor Joseph Stacey ran a series of issues on Native jewelry through the decade. [2]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 170), quoting turquoise expert David L. Neumann, the Christmas season of 1972 saw newspaper advertising of turquoise set in Indian-made jewelry for the first time, from Saks Fifth Avenue in New York through Marshall Field in Chicago to the May Company in Los Angeles. [2]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 171), many of the artists of the boom settled in Scottsdale, Arizona, which had grown into a retail and wholesale market rivaling the old centers of Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Gallup. [2]
The last regional posts4 passages · 1 book
Traders who opened or kept posts through the boom, in their own words.
John Hartman recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 179), that he opened the Canyon Collectors trading post in 1978, four miles west of Durango, selling Navajo jewelry, rough and cut turquoise and supplies for Navajo jewelers. [2]
John Chaney recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 221), that Charles Eagle Plume ran what had been Perkins Trading Post in Colorado, which its owners left to him, and Barb Chaney credited him with giving them the courage to buy only the best work. [2]
John Chaney, on trading turquoise in 1973–74, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020):
“We never sold. We only traded.”
Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 223 AS OF 2020 [2]
Barb Chaney, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020), on what changed for the regional posts:
“In the 70s, the interstate highway system made a huge impact because if you could get from your little place to an interstate, then you pretty much could go anywhere and that opened things up for people like us.”
Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 224 AS OF 2020 [2]
Frequently asked questions
When did Indian Market begin?
As the first annual Southwest Indian Fair and Arts and Crafts Exhibition, which opened in Santa Fe in early September 1922 as part of the Santa Fe Fiesta. It moved to its own August weekend in 1962 and became known as Indian Market.
What was the 1970s turquoise boom?
Ryan and Chambless mark one start of it with a Saks Fifth Avenue fashion show of Native American jewelry in Phoenix in the second half of 1971. In the Christmas season of 1972, newspaper ads for turquoise set in Indian-made jewelry ran for the first time, from Saks in New York to the May Company in Los Angeles. Many of the boom's artists settled in Scottsdale, Arizona.
How did galleries take over from the trading posts?
Jacka (1995), on the galleries of the 1980s: “Gallery owners found themselves replacing the trading posts in many respects. Like the old-time traders, they were expected to supply metal and stones, even advance money on jewelry to be delivered upon completion.”
How did the interstate change the regional posts?
Barb Chaney recalled: “In the 70s, the interstate highway system made a huge impact because if you could get from your little place to an interstate, then you pretty much could go anywhere and that opened things up for people like us.”
A note on accuracy. We strive for accuracy, and this page is continuously updated with new information from the artists, their families, and the community. Corrections welcome.
Sources
- Jacka, Lois Essary. Navajo Jewelry: A Legacy of Silver and Stone. Photographs by Jerry Jacka. Flagstaff: Northland Publishing, 1995. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1995.
- Ryan, Mike, II, and Philip Chambless. Turquoise in America, Part Two: 1910–1990. Callais Press, 2020. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2020.