Holiday Market pays tribute to indigenous people

The Institute for American Indian Studies located at 38 Curtis Road in Washington, is hosting a one-ofa-kind holiday shopping experience that celebrates Native American culture. What makes this Holiday Market unique is that it pays tribute to indigenous people across the United States and provides an opportunity to see Native American-inspired work that is handmade, artfully displayed, and sold.

The Holiday Market located in one of the Institute’s impressive exhibition galleries takes place on Saturday, Nov. 26, Sunday, Nov. 27, Saturday, Dec. 3, and Sunday, Dec. 4, Saturday, Dec. 10, and Sunday, Dec. 11. The market is free and open to the public from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.

Entrance to the museum is a nominal fee ($12 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $8 for children; members of the museum are free), and includes the newly installed national traveling exhibit, “Nebizun: Water is Life,” curated by Vera Longtoe Sheehan (Elnu Abenaki) of the Abenaki Arts and Education Center.

Gifts sold at the market include Native American jewelry, paintings, photography, and unusual ornaments perfect for Christmas trees to decorative gourds, pottery, rattles, flutes, and more at a variety of price points. Artists will be there and available to speak to customers.

For music lovers, musicians, and collectors, the authentic Woodland Native American flutes handcrafted by Allan Madahbee are truly unique. Madahbee is an Anishnawbe, born on Manitoulin Island, and is a registered Native American in Canada and the United States. In addition to the one-of-a-kind flutes, Madahbee is offering handmade beaded moccasins, woodcarvings, rock sculptures, and original paintings inspired by his ancestors and experiences.

Another vendor, Kim Lewis from Native Visions will offer an array of Native American art from Oklahoma and the Southwest including a fine selection of original paintings and prints, Zuni Fetishes, silver jewelry, pottery by Mel Cornshucker, plus Hopi, and Navajo Kachinas.

A long-time favorite of the market is Primitive Technologies, a nationally known small business that has worked with everyone from filmmakers to museum curators to recreate the material culture of prehistoric Native American life. The business offers woodfired replica pottery, hand constructed from local river clay, hand-carved flint arrowheads and flint animal necklaces, carved stone art, traditional stone tools, containers made out of natural materials, unusual jewelry, and decorative gourds.

Jessie Rose, from the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation and owner of Rooted in Alchemy, will have an array of herbal mixtures including sage, sweetgrass, cedar, and more. Brandy Sawyer, of Cherokee descent, will also be at the market with a selection of contemporary Native American-inspired art.

The museum’s gift shop will be open and brimming with gifts large and small in many price ranges. Highlights of the gift shop include a distinctive collection of Native American jewelry, including wampum jewelry crafted by Annawon Weeden, Mashpee Wampanoag, and Pequot artist Dan Simonds, head of the Wampum Wear Collective. There are decorative gourds and ornaments created by Jeanne Morningstar Kent, a member of the Nulhegan Coosuk-Abenaki of Vermont, and Native American food from Sweet Grass Trading Company from the Cherokee Indian Reservation.