Join us for the first annual Santa Fe Indian Market at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta
Artists must obtain a $35 Albuquerque business registration license/permit. (more information will be sent to the placed artists’ email). Please note that the GRT and CRS are the same number. This is the number you provide to SWAIA for every market. This license must be on display in your booth during SFIM @ ABQ.
Booth sizes are all 10′ x 10′ with no side wall/backwall panels. You’ll need to bring your own table and chairs.
All sharers must be 2022 SWAIA juried artists. Fees for shared booths must be paid by a single, primary artist at the end of the below application.
Parking for artists will be provided. More information to follow.
Location
Glorieta Station, 573 Commercial Street NE, close to the Albuquerque Convention Center downtown
Date & Time
October 1st & 2nd from 9:00am to 5:00pm MST
Booth Fees
Large Booth Fee For Single, Adult Artist – $440.00
Large Booth Fee For Adult & 1 Minor – $450.00
Large Booth Fee For Adult & 2 Minors – $460.00
Large Booth Fee For Adult & 3 Minors – $470.00
Large Booth Fee For Artist Sharing With 1 Other Adult – $660.00
Large Booth Fee For Artist Sharing With 2 Other Adults – $ 825.00
Large Booth Fee For Artist Sharing With 3 Other Adults – $920.00
“The chief quartermaster will direct that a set of blacksmith tools complete, and some iron, be sent to Fort Sumner for the use of the Navajos. Tell them to go to work at once and make adobes to build the shop. You select the site near the post, and have the shop made long enough to have a forge in each end.” —Captain Ben Cutler, Fort Sumner, New Mexico, August 1864
It’s not clear when the forgeries began, but in early 1865, soldiers working in Fort Sumner’s commissary discovered that their ration tickets had been altered, allowing for more food than originally authorized. Other tickets simply disappeared from circulation.
“These tickets,” army surgeon George Gwyther recalled a few years later, “at first made of stout card-board, were so often willfully lost, or the writing on them so skillfully forged, that stamped metal slips were substituted.”
Of course, the same Diné headman who knew how to write like a Bilagáana also knew how to work metal. And now he had access to a complete set of blacksmith tools courtesy of the U.S. Army. Gwyther reported that “in short time it was found that their ingenuity had enabled them to make dies and forge the impressions successfully.”
So successfully, in fact, that no one could tell the difference. The soldiers didn’t know they’d been conned until they counted the tin tickets they’d collected and discovered they’d taken in more than they’d handed out. After one such tally in May 1865, Captain Henry Bristol reported to the post adjutant:
“In conclusion, I would state that the number of spurious tickets are increasing, and they are so handsomely executed as to be indistinguishable. Three hundred of these tickets are among the genuines and are so much alike and the same that Mr. Edgar is unable to throw them out.”
All told, the prisoners counterfeited more than three thousand ration tickets that year. They also successfully duplicated three hundred of Carleton’s military passports, which granted anyone who slipped out of Bosque Redondo safe passage through New Mexico.
One of the brass ration tokens the army made to prevent further counterfeiting, along with a silver peso favored by Diné smiths.
The fraudulent passports may explain how Barboncito, after he was captured in Canyon de Chelly, managed to escape from Bosque Redondo in July 1865 and elude Union soldiers for more than a year. He finally returned of his own accord in November 1866, bringing with him a few families on the edge of starvation.
Similarly, Manuelito not only managed to evade capture for three years but also surreptitiously visited Bosque Redondo at least once. The most wanted man in the territory proved impossible to catch. He finally gave himself up in September 1866, after he was shot in the forearm in a skirmish with Hopi warriors and his followers lost the will to fight.
The army eventually put an end to ration ticket counterfeiting by ordering brass tokens shipped in from a federal mint, each about the size of a half dollar—impossible to duplicate under the conditions of the camp. A photograph taken at Bosque Redondo shows more than a dozen Diné men, seated on the ground, apparently under guard. It’s captioned, “Navajo chiefs accused of counterfeiting ration tickets at Bosque Redondo, Fort Sumner, New Mexico.” Yet there’s no record of charges being filed.
Delgadito was the obvious suspect. Punishing him, however, was another matter. The general had turned Delgadito into the symbol of the supposed subjugation of the Navajo; how could Carleton admit that he’d been duped by his prisoner?
By the time the counterfeiting operation was uncovered, Carleton could not afford another scandal. His critics were growing by the month. The previous December, the Santa Fe Weekly New Mexican accused him of participating in the slave trade he’d forbidden. Under a headline declaring, “Carleton Gives Away One of His ‘Pets,’” the paper reported:
“Indian in his possession, but I have lately learned that General Carleton Everybody is aware and knows that no one is allowed to have a Navajo presented a little Navajoe girl to a sutler, 3 or 4 months ago.…I’ve not the slightest ill-feeling towards the sutler (who is a gentleman), but I could merely call the attention of the people of New Mexico to the fact that while many of them have been compelled to give up the Indians whom they had for many years, and who were perfectly contented with their situation, General Carleton, as a matter of economy, keeps them on hand for presents and gifts.”
In Washington, there were complaints about how much Bosque Redondo cost and questions about the treatment of prisoners. Carleton’s superiors received reports of one deprivation after another: not enough food, not enough water, not enough firewood, children dying from dysentery and smallpox…and where was all that fabled gold?
Patience, Carleton urged. The Navajo could still thrive at Bosque Redondo. “Through all the clouds that now seem to surround this important, and, to them, vital matter, I hope soon to see some encouraging light,” he wrote.
Time was running out. Outcry was growing over the treatment of America’s first nations, not just in New Mexico Territory but throughout the West. Newspaper reports of the Sand Creek Massacre, in which U.S. troops attacked Arapaho and Cheyenne families in their sleep, jolted readers across the country.
In March 1865, the Senate and House passed a joint resolution “directing an inquiry into the condition of the Indian tribes and their treatment by the civil and military authorities of the United States.” Within weeks, army commanders in New Mexico learned that the inquiry was coming to them. Representative Lewis Ross, an Illinois Democrat, was traveling to Bosque Redondo to hold Congressional field hearings. And Herrero Delgadito, the blacksmith turned counterfeiter, would be among those called to testify.
The Condition of the Indian Tribes
Captain Henry Bristol didn’t mention the counterfeiting operation. One month after finding another three hundred duplicates of the tin ration tickets, he appeared before a team of Congressional investigators at Fort Sumner and swore that the blacksmith’s shop was an example of how well things were going at Bosque Redondo.
“The young men and boys seem very anxious to learn, and show much aptitude for the work,” Bristol testified at the June 1865 field hearing. “They have some blacksmiths among them who make good bits; one presented, made by a Navajo, is in the Spanish style.”
Bristol did his best to counter the camp’s growing chorus of critics. He allowed that there had been some deaths—exactly how many, he couldn’t say—but he described the prisoners as a largely contented and industrious lot. “If nothing interferes to prevent the present crops from maturing, as they now promise well, I think we shall raise nearly enough to feed the Indians until next season,” Bristol said.
Congressman Lewis Ross invited the prisoners to furnish witnesses of their own. The Mescalero Apache leader Cadette spoke first, telling Ross that the prisoners wanted just one thing: to go home. They had tried to make a life for themselves at the Bosque, but the people were always hungry. Dysentery, smallpox and measles claimed new victims every week. “About six days ago, four died: an old man, middle-aged man, a boy, and a girl,” Cadette told Ross.
The Diné chose Delgadito to speak on their behalf. He confirmed everything Cadette had said—the deprivation, the disease. By then, Delgadito had lost five of his own children.172 A clerk wrote down Ross’s questions, followed by Delgadito’s answers, as translated by an interpreter:
Question: Is there plenty of wood on the reservation for fuel?
“There is plenty below here, but we have to go too far for it. Don’t know whether fuel could be floated down the river or not; knows of some floating down; could pack the wood if we had the burros. The water has alkali in it, and they are afraid it will make them sick; a good many have been sick and died; when they drank the water, they took sick and died; and others have got sick by carrying mesquite so far. Those that were attended by the doctor all died; do not know his name; he was physician at the hospital. There is a hospital here for us; but all who go in never come out. We have physicians among ourselves, but they can’t cure all; some must die. They commenced to get sick about last October, and since then every day some of them have died; so many of them dying they are getting frightened; a good many of his children and grandchildren have died; three sons and two daughters have died; they are dying as though they were shooting at them with a rifle.”
Question: Do the young men like to work and want to work?
“Yes; the young men work well; love to work; even the women.”
Question: Are your women and children all pretty well now?
“All are not well; some of them are sick (all agree to what Herrero says).”
Question: If your people had plenty of wool could they make all the clothes?
“Yes; if we had the wool we could make all the clothes for the tribe. All of them know how to cultivate by irrigation; thinks there is plenty of land; but somehow the crops do not come out well. Last year the worms destroyed their crops.…There is plenty of pasture for all their stock; some have but 25, 30, or 40, but more have none; none have a hundred. They try and keep their sheep for their milk, and only kill them when necessary, when the rations are short or smell bad. They depend on the milk of the sheep to live and to give to the little children; they are honest and do not kill each other’s sheep; they own their animals themselves, and not in common; they would like each man to have his own piece of land and work it for himself and his family; they have not grain, stock, and other things enough; when they have enough they would like to have their children go to school; they would not like to have their children go to school until they had learned all kinds of trades, so they could make a living. Some officers at Fort Canby told them when they got here the government would give them herds of horses, sheep, and cattle, and other things they needed, but they have not received them; they had to lose a good deal of their property on account of the war, and the Utahs stole the rest from them; have been at war with the Utahs nine years, and about the same number of years with the Mexicans. Before the war with the Utahs and Mexicans, had everything we wanted; but now have lost everything. Herrero was quite young when the war commenced with the Mexicans. In the war everything was stolen on both sides, women and children, flocks. When children were taken we kept them, sold them, or gave them back. The Mexicans got the most children…”
Ordered to compile a list of slaves in his jurisdiction, U.S. Indian Agent Lafayette Head omitted those he personally held in captivity. Fort Garland Museum.
“…we have only two, and they don’t want to go back; have not been in the habit of selling our own children; don’t know of an instance. They don’t expect to be rich again; but if they had plenty of stock, and wagons to haul their wood, they would prosper again. Some of the soldiers do not treat us well. When at work, if we stop a little they kick us or do something else; but generally they treat us well. We do not mind if an officer punishes us, but do not like to be treated badly by the soldiers. They say their women sometimes come to the tents outside the fort and make contracts with the soldiers to stay with them for a night, and give them five dollars or something else; but in the morning take away what they gave them and kick them off. This happens most every day. In the night, they leave the fort and go to the Indian camps; the women are not forced, but consent willingly; a good many of the women have the venereal disease. It has existed among them a good many years in their own country, but was not so common there as it is here; there are remedies to cure the disease, but they cannot get them here; they have no confidence in the medicines given them at the hospital; think it would do them no good; most of the old men know how to cure the disease; they use the root of wild weeds that do not grow here; some of the people are dying here of the disease; some were taken to the hospital, but were not cured; when they find out a person has that disease they report it to the hospital; this they have done for some time; but all they have reported there have died. The custom of the tribe is never to enter a house where a person has died, but abandon it. That is the reason they don’t want to go to the hospital; they would prefer a tent out by their camps for a hospital.”
By Mr. Ross to Herrero, Question: Were you made a chief by your own people or by the whites?
“By my own people.”
To the chiefs, Question: Would you all like to go back to your old country or remain here?
“They would rather prefer to be in their own country, although they have most everything they want here; they are all of this opinion, and would like to have you send them back; and if you have any presents to give them they will distribute them among them. If they were sent back they would promise never to commit an act of hostility.”
Question: If you are sent back could you make your own living?
“Yes; we could support ourselves; and you could send some troops to see that we kept our promise.”
Finally, Ross got to the big question, the only one the Diné really cared about:
Question. Do you want us, when we go back, to tell the Great Father and the great council that you would like to be sent back to your old country?
“Yes; we would all like to go, and if sent back would go straight back the way we came.”
Question: Are the soldiers treating you badly? And if so, let us know.
“The soldiers about here treat us very bad—whipping and kicking us.”
Question: Do you get enough to eat here?
“We do not get enough to eat.”
Question: How much do you get as a ration?
“(No answer recorded)”
Question. Is there any game in your own country?
“Yes; there is plenty of rabbits, antelope, deer, and wild potatoes. Herrero says they would like to have you send them back to their own country. They think you are the greatest men and can send them back, and they would like to have it done soon.”
Ross explained that he and his colleagues didn’t have the authority to release anyone—they could only relay the wish to the president and Congress. Delgadito conferred with other Diné headmen and then turned to the interpreter. “They say they will try and work to do all they can to support themselves until they learn what disposition is to be made
of them.”
Delgadito had one other request that day. He told Ross that his name— Herrero—meant “blacksmith.” He explained that he’d been training some of the other men, teaching them how to fashion bridle bits, hatchets and such. Was it possible, the counterfeiter asked the congressman, to send more tools for the blacksmith’s shop?
As Indian Market celebrates its centennial anniversary, this video captures so much of the wonderful aspects of the Indian Market throughout the years, as seen through the eyes of JoAnn and Bob Balzer. It captures not just JoAnn and Bob’s experiences of 50 STRAIGHT Indian Markets, but the wonderfulness and importance of Indian Market, its artists and events.
Credit goes to Cathy Notarnicola, Curator of Southwest History at the New Mexico History Museum, and her team, who have worked tirelessly since last year to produce not just this video, but the not-to-be-missed exhibition:
Artist Rhonda Holy Bear is awarded Best of Show at Santa Fe Indian Market 2021 Awards Luncheon in the Beadwork/Quillwork Classification
Santa Fe Indian Market is pleased to announce this year’s Best of Show, Best of Class and Special Award winners in a variety of classifications. For 99 years, Santa Fe Indian Market, the world’s largest and most prestigious Native American art market, has awarded Best of Show winners to the nation’s most exceptional artists in a variety of juried categories.
Thirty experts in various media spent all day Thursday, August 19, reviewing and critiquing this year’s entries to determine the winners. The announcement of Best of Show and Best of Class winners was made public at the Best of Show Luncheon on Friday afternoon.
This year’s overall Best of Show winner is Rhonda Holy Bear’s (Cheyenne River Sioux) Doll, “Lakota Honor- Sees the Horses Woman.”
All Best of Show winners’ phenomenal artwork will be available this weekend during Santa Fe Indian Market— beginning with the Sneak Preview on Friday night from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the Santa Fe Convention Center. This is the public’s first opportunity to see this year’s award-winning artwork. The General Preview, 4:30-6:30 p.m., immediately follows the Sneak Preview.
This year’s Best of Class winners by classification are:
Class I: Jewelry
Denise Wallace (Chugach Sugpiaq)
“Origins, Roots and Sources”
Class II: Pottery
Robert Patricio (Pueblo of Acoma)
“Raining Dawn to Dusk”
Class III: Painting, Drawing, Graphics & Photography
Thomas Tapia (Pueblo of Tesuque)
Watercolor, “Buffalo Elk Dance”
Class IV: Wooden Pueblo Figurative Carving & Sculpture
Arthur Holmes Jr. (Hopi)
Carving, “Broken Arrow”
Class V: Sculpture
Raymond Chee Sr. (Navajo/Diné)
Sculpture, “Healing into the Night”
Class VI: Textiles
Tyler Glasses (Navajo/ Diné)
Weaving, “Poncho for Days”
Class VII: Diverse Arts
Dana Warrington (Menominee/ Potawatomi)
Taxidermy, Otter wearing leather, quillwork, beadwork, lapidary, silver, weaving and feathers.
“Defending the Homeland”
Class VIII: Beadwork & Quillwork
Rhonda Holy Bear (Cheyenne River Sioux)
Doll, “Lakota Honor-Sees the Horses Woman”
International Partnership Unites North American Indigenous Fashion Leaders
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Santa Fe, NM; June 17, 2021: SWAIA Fashion, the highly acclaimed and largest Native North American fashion show which takes place annually during Santa Fe Indian Market, is proud to announce a partnership between SWAIA Indigenous Fashion, Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto (IFWTO), Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week (VIFW) and the newly established Supernaturals Modelling Agency.
Together, the four organizations will strengthen the international impact and visibility of Indigenous fashion design, embracing IFWTO’s mission: “presenting works that celebrate Indigenous people and cultures, and welcoming innovative and meaningful expression, design and craftsmanship from designers.”
The alliance will convene at SWAIA’s 2021 Santa Fe Indian Market with Joleen Mitton of VIFW and Supernaturals Modelling Agency (co-founded by Patrick Shannon), Executive and Artistic Director Sage Paul of IFWTO and Amber-Dawn Bear Robe of SWAIA Fashion. The relationship between these powerhouse Indigenous fashion organizations signifies the enthusiasm for and expansion of Native art and fashion.
Indigenous fashion defies the conventions of traditional Native design. Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week’s mission is shared by the four organizations, “Contemporary Indigenous fashion mixes the legacy of Indigenous artistry with modern day high regalia and street styles: it goes beyond surface beauty and highlights how worn identity can build connection with Indigenous values, wisdom, empowerment and history.”
SWAIA’s 2021 Fashion Show will take place on Sunday, August 22, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Santa Fe Convention Center featuring designers Jamie Okuma (Luiseño, Shoshone Bannock), Orlando Dugi (Diné), Pamela Baker (Squamish/Kwakwaka’wakw) and Lauren Good Day (Arikara, Hidatsa, Blackfeet and Plains Cree).
SWAIA Fashion is expanding this year. On Saturday, August 21, SWAIA’s Annual Gala will feature new collections by Delina White (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) of I Am Anishinaabe, Yolanda Skelton (Gitxsan Nation) and Loren (Acoma Pueblo) and Valentina (Navajo) Aragon of Acanoc. Supernaturals Modelling Agency will be represented on the runway at both fashion shows.
Media Inquiries:
Audrey N. Rubinstein | METTA
505-490-5029 or audrey@themettaagency.com
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About SWAIA Fashion:
SWAIA Fashion is the annual Fashion Show produced during Santa Fe Indian Market by curator and art historian Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika Nation). Bear Robe has presented and curated the fashion show, since 2014. Learn more at SWAIA Fashion
This short documentary serves as a portrait of Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, one of Canada’s most important painters. We meet him at the Bisley Rifle Range in Surrey, England, where he’s literally shooting the Indian Act in a performance piece called “An Indian Shooting the Indian Act.” It’s in protest of the ongoing effects of the Act’s legislation on Indigenous people. We then follow him back to Canada, for interviews with the artist and a closer look at his work.
Dana Claxton is a critically acclaimed international exhibiting artist. She works in film, video, photography, single and multi- channel video installation, and performance art. Her practice investigates indigenous beauty, the body, the socio-political and the spiritual. Her work has been shown internationally at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis, MN), Sundance Film Festival, Salt Lake City (UT), Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis (IN) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney, AU), Cyrstal Bridges (Bentonville, AR), with exhibitions at Nasher Gallery of Art at Duke University (Durham, NC), Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (TN) and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Minneapolis (MN). Read More…
1864- NEW MEXICO TERRITORY: While the Civil War rages in the east, a Confederate renegade embarks on a mythic trail of stolen Union gold. Rival bounty hunters vie to claim the riches and the Red Rebel’s scalp. There is no law here, but the law of man.
It is a time of GOLD.
It is a time of CIBOLA.
Performed by Jamison C. Banks, Frank Buffalo Hyde, Keith Secola, Garnett Thompson, August Walker, Leahi Kekahuna Mayfield, Marty Two Bulls, Cole Bee Wilson and Mark Herndon.
Co-Directed by Daniel Augustin Grignon.
Photography by Cameron Tafoya.
A Syndicate Production
Jamison Chas Banks is a multi-disciplinary artist who creates films, paintings, performances, and installations. His works often explore the history of war and territorial expansion, both literal and psychological. Banks appropriates and alters symbols employed in propaganda and popular culture and redeploys them in contexts that subvert their original meanings.
Our project originated from a dream to unite the beauty of the land and the healing power of the jingle dance during these uncertain times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The origin of the jingle dance to the Ojibwe people happened during the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. It came as a dream to a father whose daughter was sick with the virus. His dream revealed the new dress and dance that had the power to heal. When the dresses were made, they were given to four women to perform the dance. When the little girl heard the sound of the jingles, she became stronger. By the end of the night she was dancing too. Our dream is to take this healing power to the land, to travel and capture a series of images that will document spiritual places where our ancestors once walked.
Wake Up Call’s MK Mendoza speaks with Executive Director of SWAIA, Kim Peone about the success experienced at this year’s virtual Santa Fe Indian Market, now placing it in the lead as a model for helping artists survive the pandemic. Once again the indigenous community shines with resilience: A moment of poetic justice as we pay homage to a population American history has not only attempted to conquer but all too often criminally neglected.
Wake Up Call’s MK Mendoza speaks with Executive Director of SWAIA, Kim Peone about the success experienced at this year’s virtual Santa Fe Indian Market, now placing it in the lead as a model for helping artists survive the pandemic. Once again the indigenous community shines with resilience: A moment of poetic justice as we pay homage to a population American history has not only attempted to conquer but all too often criminally neglected.