Tribal Arts

While I was vacationing in Utah, my girlfriend and I were looking for turquoise jewelery. Trish asked one of our tour guides, noted ethnographer and geologist Boma Johnson, if he had any recommendations outside of the typical souvenir shops. He couldn’t remember the exact name of the place but he knew exactly where it was at. I’m glad we made the effort to find Tribal Arts Gallery.
I ended up buying 3 pieces of beautiful Hopi inspired Mata Ortiz Pottery. Trish bought 2.
If you’re in the area, I can’t recommend Tribal Arts Gallery enough. They are an Indian Arts & Crafts Association (IACA) member and the proprietor is extremely knowledgeable and seems to care about the artists she works with (she includes a bio of each artist with their work along with a snapshot photo-​a nice touch).
On top of it all, the prices are extremely reasonable. We’ll definitely stop in again and pick up more pieces when we’re back in the area!

My family took a trip through the southwest this past summer — and I had one thing I really really REALLY wanted to come home with: a necklace and earrings of Santa Domingo tribe beadwork. We started in Denver, went through Santa Fe, to Mesa Verde (through many communities with Native art galleries and shops). We went to Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, and then Zion. I found quite a bit of Santa Domingo jewelry — but nothing was quite right and Zion was my last chance — that afternoon we were driving into Las Vegas and then home.
I felt horrible the day we did Zion — which sucks since that park is AMAZINGLY beautiful. So we drove through the park, then into Springale — which is a lovely little artsy village that borders the park. The first store we stopped in was Tribal Arts — and I was almost in tears of joy when I found they not only had 10 or more necklaces, but like 20 pairs of earrings — and they were willing to let me mix and match to create the perfect set.
After 2 weeks of searching, it was hard to lay down the money (it was considerable) for the set with the whole village still to see — but the owner gladly held the set for me while I checked out the other art galleries and dealers … who had nothing that even came close.
And the place isn’t only jewelry — although there is more jewelry from every tribe you can think of and likely some you’ve never heard of — there are katsinas, masks, pottery, baskets, fetishes, rugs, sandpaintings … and it’s all excellent quality. In fact, when I bought my necklace and earrings I got documentation on the art that is Santa Domingo beadwork, information on the artist who made my jewelry, and a picture of the woman too.
I plan on returning to Zion — preferably when it’s cooler and I’ve had a decent night’s sleep — and I plan on taking myself back to Tribal Arts to add to my southwest-​jewelry collection!