Style was on full display.
Taking over the streets of downtown Santa Fe with white tents and technical clothing, the Santa Fe Indian Market celebrated its 100th anniversary this past weekend—and the event was packed with stunning displays of indigenous art, fashion, and culture.
The New Mexican event featured nearly 1,000 indigenous artists from more than 200 nations and communities across the United States and Canada, many of them first-timers and others whose families have been part of the Pueblo tradition for generations. It also attracted indigenous and non-indigenous visitors from around the world.
Here were some of our favorite moments from the centennial of the Santa Fe Indian Market:
Indigenous fashion on display
The two major fashion events, the Southwest Indian Arts Association (SWAIA) gala and fashion show, featured dozens of talented Indigenous designers on the runway, including several Canadian dignitaries: Lesley Hampton, Jason Baerg, Himikalas Pamela Baker, Yolanda Skelton, Show Show. Esquiro, Skawennati and Dorothy Grant.
The sold-out event also featured celebrity models Jessica Matten, Kiowa Gordon, D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tie and Quannah Chasinghorse — the one and only protector of the earth who recently made waves at the 2021 Met Gala.
Street Market and Juried Art
As a judged market, every piece sold among the hundreds of white tents lining downtown streets had to go through a rigorous approval process to ensure authenticity.
Jaymie Campbell of White Otter Designs—who is Anishnaabe from Curve Lake First Nation in Ontario—creates trillium beaded earrings and flip necklaces for the market. She says the intensive application process ensures the validity and quality of the artists’ work. “It also allows you to really get paid what the parts are worth because people understand the value of the work and that was a difference I haven’t experienced before.”
Attendance at the market was “as high as anything I’ve ever attended,” says Campbell, who now lives in British Columbia. She drove down with a handful of other art market participants from the province, including custom moccasin maker Jamie Gentry). Campbell and her booth mate Niio Perkins of the Akwesasne Mohawk First Nation in New York State sold both their lots within the first hours of the market.
Other market participants included Elias Jade Not Afraid, an Apsaalooké bead artist from Montana, who sold large geometric beaded bags with dentalium shells and deer ivory, and a bag with a beaded blue rose on smoked deerskin .
Juneau, Ala., beadwork artist Jill Kaasteen, who is Lingit, Chookanashaa and Xunaa Kaawudax, was also there for the first time, displaying the two iconic lockets she made for the TV series. Reserve dogs. The phallic-shaped necklaces, one shaped like a pickle and the other a microphone, were a major joke in an episode of the first season, and Kaasteen says the delight of market-goers was the best part of the weekend. “It’s so fun to see the reactions of people who know him, and these are the right parts.”
Acquaintance with celebrities in “Indigenous Hollywood”
This year’s event was also a magnet for celebrity guests, including prey star Amber Midthunder, reserved dogs Living-A-Te, The Dark Winds’ Jessica Matten, Kiowa Gordon and Zahn McClarnon, and Rutherford Falls’ Jana Schmieding and Sierra Teller Ornelas. Many of the stars were participating in panel discussions on the future of indigenous innovation, while others were found walking the runway and shopping at the market.
