On the Eve of Indian Market

We are in Santa Fe for the annual Indian Market weekend and will be reporting on our

experiences, including winners of the artist competition.

Tonight is the annual Wheelwright Museum silent auction. Always lots of fun and occasionally we actually win pieces at good prices. We'll let you know.

If you sign up for the RSS feed of TribalArtery, you will be notified the each time we post updates.

Just click on the RSS icon and select reader - Google Reader is a good choice.

A Review of Jonathan Batkin's new book

Jonathan Batkin is the Director of the Wheelwright Museum of Indian Art in Santa Fe, NM. He has written a book that explores the role of traders and curio dealers in the growth and development of Native American silversmithing. The book, published by the Wheelwright, is titled The Native American Curio Trade in New Mexico.

An enlightening review of the book has been published by the Santa Fe New Mexican's Pasatiempo Section. It may be accessed at this link: http://www.SantaFeNewMexican.com/Pasatiempo/Curios-didn-t-kill-this-cat

Those interested in, or collectors of, Native American silver jewelry will find the review interesting.

You may also find a visit to Native-JewelryLink worthwhile. This site has a wide selection of Native American contemporary silver jewelry for sale.

Summer is Native Art Season Check these shows

Yes, Summer is coming and with it comes the season of Native American Indian and other Tribal Art Shows and Auctions. Here are a few we know of. Save the dates.

33^rd Annual Benefit Auction at the Wheelwright Museum, Santa Fe, NM

Thursday, August 21

Silent Auction and Live Auction Preview - 4 PM – 6 PM

Friday August 22

The Collector’s Table - 9 AM 10:30 AM

The Native “Art for Wear” Designer’s Showcase - 10:30 AM – 1:00 PM

The Live Auction Preview - 11 AM – 1 PM, Auction starts 1:00 PM

More information at Wheelwright.org

Whitehawk 30^th Annual Invitational Antique Indian Art Show El Museo Cultural, Santa Fe, NM

Monday August 18 - Gala Preview - 6PM- 9PM

Tuesday, August 19 & Thursday August 20 - Show - 10 AM – 5 PM

More information at WhitehawkShows.com

Bonhams & Butterfields Native American and Pre-Columbian Art Auction, San Francisco, CA

Friday June 6 – Monday June 9 - Preview

Monday June 9 - Auction - 12 PM

Timeless Beauty : Pueblo Women Artists of the 20^th Century Show,
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Albuquerque, NM

Continues through June 14

More information at IndianPueblo.org

Sothebys, The James Ecónomos Collection of Northwest Coast American Indian & Eskimo Works of Art, Paris France

June 11 - Auction

More information at Sothebys.com

Box of Treasures Anniversary Exhibition Douglas Reynolds Gallery, Vancouver, BC, CA

Saturday June 7 - Opens - 5 PM

More information at DouglasReynoldsGallery.com

41^st Red Cloud Indian Art Show, The Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School,
Pine Ridge, SD

June 1 – August 10

More information at RedCloudSchool.org

Glass Arts of Native America Show, Quintana Gallery, Portland Oregon

June 5 – July 31

More information at QuintanaGalleries.com

Mid-West Auction of Historic American Indian Arts, Lone Jack, MO

May 17

More information at DirkSoulisAuctions.com

22^nd Annual Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival, Cox Convention Center, Oklahoma City

June 6, 7 & 8

More information at RedEarth.org

Making Wood Talk, Bill Henderson solo exhibition, Inuit Gallery of Vancouver

June 7 – 27

More information at Inuit.com

Brian Lebel’s 19^th Annual Cody Old West Show & Auction, Cody, WY

June 26, 27, 28

More information at CodyOldWest.com

Allard’s "Best of Santa Fe" Auction, La Fonda Hotel, Santa Fe, NM

August 16-17

More information at AllardAuctions.com

Seventh Annual Historic Indian & World Tribal Arts Show, Santa Fe, NM

August 14-17

More information at TribalAntiqueShow.com

If you are in the vicinity of any of these cities at these times, we encourage you to visit these shows and auctions. If you are not, may we suggest a visit to one of our web sites for a sampling of the same subject matter. ZuniLink features quality hand-carved Zuni fetishes and other tribal carvings. Native-JewelryLink is a treat of sparkling Native American jewelry in silver and gold, turquoise, coral and other beautiful stones. Native-PotteryLink is home to wide array of authentic, hand-coiled, traditionally fired Native American Pueblo Pottery. TribalWorks is an amalgamation of tribal art objects from Africa, Australia, Native America and the Arctic.

Sunday, 8-3, in Santa Fe, New Mexico

The day began late, with an appointment to meet a customer, who lives in Santa Fe, to deliver a lovely small pot by Alice Cling, Navajo. (You can see more of her fine pottery here. Click on Navajo pottery.)

The customer purchased on line just before we left for New Mexico. We offered to hand-deliver it at no cost since we knew we were going to be in Santa Fe within a week (not much longer than postal delivery time anyway). We arranged to meet in front of Hagen Daz on the plaza. Everyone knows where to find Hagen Daz. (Incidentally, we also offer personal delivery of any purchase of more than $200 value within 25 miles of our home base.)


A personal delivery and an ice cream cone later, we strolled through the plaza. A craft show was underway, featuring various local artists. We found some Christmas gifts of the non-Native variety. One for Bill, which he is using already. The rest of you will have to wait until December.


We did the portico walk at the Governor’s Palace. It was a little disappointing this day in terms of the number and quality of Native artists displaying, perhaps because of the craft show competition.


Next was a visit to Keshi, one of our favorite Santa Fe shops offering Native American artwork. Salvador Romero’s friend Susan McDuffy, who is also a novelist, works there part time. They also carry Salvador’s work, one of very few galleries other than ZuniLink that does so. We always like to stop in and look around.

While dealing in Native American art is highly competitive, we have felt from our beginning that the most important objective is to help customers find what they they are looking for. If that means collaborating with potential competitors and identifying an alternative source, we prefer to make it an operation that we know and trust.


From there we wander up Don Gaspar Street past the Monroe Gallery of Photography, which catches our eyes for its remarkable exhibit, “Speaking Truth to Power”. It is not tribal in subject matter, at least, not as we would define it, but but speaks to the human tribe through photographs by Alfred Eisenstadt, Gordon Parks, Eric Smith, and others. The images cover everything from Selma, Martin Luther King, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Nelson Mandela and funeral services for Americans who died in Iraq and were memorialized by the Patriot Riders in services in small Michigan towns. It is a very moving experience, about which we will blog separately.


A short stroll further up Don Gaspar, at the corner of San Francisco, is Andrea Fisher’s gallery. In our opinion, this is one of the most important collections of contemporary Native American pottery in the country. It is a crash course in the genre with some of the best pots by some of the most noteworthy potters of the pueblos, Navajo nation and Hopiland, plus an extensive showing of fine work from the Mexican Village of Mata Ortiz.

We noted work by many of the same potters who are represented at our online pottery site, Native-PotteryLink.


After that we drove up to Museum Hill to visit the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian and its Case Trading Post. One of the reasons we enjoy the Wheelwright is its very manageable size. Everything is historical and is displayed in a single room with a side gallery. The room is divided by partitions so that the focus is on an individual piece or group of pieces at any place in the room.

The Wheelwright tends to lean toward textiles in its items on display, although other historical pottery, carving and jewelry items are included.


The Case Trading Post also offers for sale authentic artwork by Native American artists, both the well-known and the budding. We always enjoy seeing the latest additions to their inventory and visiting with Rob, the manager, who has helped us many times when we were looking for a specific piece or information.

We look forward to the weekend of Indian market, when the Case will host several of these artists. We will report more then.


Finally, we stopped for an early supper at the French Café just off the lobby of the La Fonda de Santa Fe hotel. This is a pleasant little space offering its own French bread, dinner and desert crepes, sandwiches, coffee and, of course, French Onion Soup. Susanne ordered the latter with a house salad and I went for the chicken mushroom dinner crepe. All was more than satisfactory, and very affordable at less than $20 for the two of us, exclusive of wine, which is not offered.

We invite you to return to the blog often as we report on doings in Santa Fe during august and Indian Market.

William Ernest Waites is a free lance writer and a reporter in the field of Native American arts while also co-managing with his wife Susanne Waites, the online galleries at TribalWorks.com and Native-JewelryLIink.com