Packard's Chaparral Trading Post, Santa Fe: History & UITA 12

Packard's Chaparral Trading Post was a Santa Fe store. By 1948 it stood "on Water Street and Shelby". It later moved to the Santa Fe Plaza as Packards Indian Trading Co, and it "closed in 2013" (Hougart 2022, p. 366). "Many Native American silversmiths made items for Packards," Bille Hougart writes, "including Mark Chee in the late 1940s" (Hougart 2022, p. 366). Its marks were PACKARDS and UITA 12 (Hougart 2022, p. 366). Both are seller's marks. They tell you the piece went through Packard's. They don't tell you who made it.

Founding

Hougart's entry, drawn from Al Packard's 1998 correspondence with the curator of manuscripts and archives at Northern Arizona University (Hougart 2022, p. 366), reads: "In 1948, Packards' Chaparral Trading Post was located on Water Street and Shelby, Santa Fe, NM. … The shop's name was later changed to Packards Indian Trading Co and relocated to the Santa Fe Plaza. Packards closed in 2013." (Hougart 2022, p. 366).

The Santa Fe New Mexican's 2013 report of the closing calls the store "known since 1944", and says "Al Packard … inherited the store from his parents, Frank and Marie Packard". In 1979, "after a phone call and meeting with Al Packard that lasted only an hour", Richard and Carolyn Canon "bought Packard's on a handshake" (Santa Fe New Mexican, June 17, 2013).

The earliest date comes from Hougart's history of trader labels: "At least two UITA members (C. G. Wallace and Packards) were using paper labels for years before UITA's appeal to the IACB", an appeal dated December 1939 and March 1940 (Hougart 2022, p. 13). So the Packards were labeling goods before 1944, but our sources don't record where or under what name. We give the dates as the sources give them: labels before 1939, the store "known since 1944", and at Water Street and Shelby by 1948. Our sources don't record when the store moved to the Plaza or changed its name.

People

Al Packard. Marsha Mayer Lund thanks him as a "widely known trader and authority on Indian arts" who "shared his opinions and experiences, many of which are included in the text" (Lund 1976, acknowledgments). One of them: "Al Packard can remember the days when a Santo Domingo man would actually 'run' to the Navajo reservation to trade a few beads or turquoise stones for whatever he could." (Lund 1976, p. 79).

Hougart names three smiths who worked for the store. Our sources don't give the years each one spent there, except as noted.

  • Mark Chee (Navajo) worked "for Packard's Chaparral Trading Post in the late 1940s" (Hougart 2022, p. 87). His 2020 entry says "beginning in the 1950s" (Hougart 2020, p. 21). We give both.
  • Julian Lovato (Kewa). His work "May be stamped for Packard's shop in Santa Fe, NM, where he worked before returning to the Kewa Pueblo." (Hougart 2022, p. 199; also Hougart 2020, p. 54).
  • Joe H. Quintana (Cochiti). Packard's is one of the shops in his long career, alongside Seligman's, Maisel's and Manny Goodman's Covered Wagon (Hougart 2022, p. 260; Hougart 2020, p. 76).

By 2000 the store was also a gallery for contemporary jewelers. Paula A. Baxter lists "Packard's, Santa Fe, New Mexico" among the galleries for Phillip Loretto (Jemez), Jesse Monongye (Navajo/Hopi) and Verma Nequatewa (Hopi) (Baxter 2000, pp. 102, 110, 120).

Marks and what to look for

  • PACKARDS and UITA 12 are the store's marks (Hougart 2022, p. 366). The United Indian Traders Association was a traders' group. "The UITA was formed in 1931. The UITA's hallmarking program began in 1946," and use of its stamps "probably ended in the late 1950s-early 1960s" (Hougart 2022, p. 372). A UITA number identifies a trader. It is not a government certification, and it doesn't name the maker. Hougart warns that the association's records were "lost in a fire", so "It is unlikely that a complete roster of UITA stamp users, and their assigned numbers, will be reconstructed" (Hougart 2020, p. 138).
  • A maker's mark beside the store's is what names the smith. Hougart records a copper dish marked M. CHEE together with the UITA 12 stamp. He dates that mark to "about 1946-48 when Chee had resumed work after WWII; the UITA stamp program was implemented mid-1946" (Hougart 2022, p. 87). A piece with only PACKARDS or UITA 12 can't be credited to Chee, Lovato or any other smith.
  • Paper labels. Hougart illustrates a "Paper label: Packard's Chaparral Trading Post" in his UITA entry (Hougart 2022, p. 372).

Many Native smiths made work for Packard's (Hougart 2022, p. 366). Our sources don't say what else the store sold, so a Packard's mark alone doesn't show that a piece was Native-made.

Legacy

Packard's ran in Santa Fe from at least the 1940s until 2013. Hougart names it as one of two traders using paper labels before 1939 (Hougart 2022, p. 13). The Heard Museum's library keeps a "Packards" heading and links it to True West, a Santa Fe store "Opened by former Packards staff" (Heard Museum Library & Archives 2024). For other Santa Fe shops, see the Thunderbird Shop, where Julian Lovato began working in 1952 (Hougart 2020, p. 54). For the other early label user, see C. G. Wallace. For the wider story, see our history of trading posts.

Sources

  1. Baxter, Paula A., with Allison Bird-Romero. Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry. 2000. pp. 102, 110, 120.
  2. Heard Museum Library & Archives. Native American Artists Resource Collection: General Files (subject list). August 30, 2024. Headings "Packards" and "True West."
  3. Hougart, Bille. 100 Collectible Native American Silversmiths and Their Hallmarks. 2020. pp. 21, 54, 76, 138.
  4. Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks. 5th ed., 2022. pp. 13, 87, 199, 260, 366, 372.
  5. Lund, Marsha Mayer. Indian Jewelry: Fact and Fantasy. 1976. Acknowledgments; p. 79.
  6. "Longtime Plaza retailer Packard's set to close." Santa Fe New Mexican, June 17, 2013. santafenewmexican.com, accessed 2026-09-28.

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