Vendors on the Portal at the Palace of the Governors
Just about anywhere where there's plenty of tourists in New Mexico, there will be plenty of Native American art for sale. The Old Town area in Albuquerque and the Plaza areas in Santa Fe and Taos are packed with art galleries, many of them offering authentic Native American art, most of it extremely high-quality. You will also find plenty of touristy places which often sell the occasional piece of real Indian art alongside the postcards, t-shirts, mugs, and other kitsch.
In Santa Fe, Indian artists gather on the Portal (porch) at the Palace of the Governors museum on the Plaza, selling tourist trinkets like jewlery and small pottery. If it's on the Portal, it's guarenteed to be authentic Native American art, but sidewalk vendors elsewhere in town could be passing off non-Indian junk as authentic, so be careful.
If you want to be certain that what you're buying is authentic Native American art, sometimes the best thing to do is just go straight to the pueblos themselves. Virtually every pueblo contains at least several shops, located either along the main road near the entrance to the pueblo, or within the pueblo villages themselves in homes-turned-shops (be extra careful to make sure you're entering a shop and not someone's private residence, and don't venture into rooms behind the shop if it looks private as it probably is).
You can also attend annual festival markets. The Santa Fe Indian Market, held annually every August on the Santa Fe Plaza, is the largest such event, with hundreds of vendors selling an extremely wide range of Native American art. Events like the Gathering of Nations Pow-Wow mentioned above are also great chances to browse for art.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about New Mexico Pueblos
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in New Mexico Pueblos - updated Apr 2024
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New Mexico Pueblos Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
