Reporter’s Notebook: Chadd Scott at the Santa Fe Indian Market, Day 2
Summer in Santa Fe can bring a mixed bag of weather conditions. Torrential rain. Blistering heat. Wind. Indian Market has seen them all. The first day of Santa Fe Indian Market 2025 proved perfect: not too hot, nice cloud cover, no rain, no wind.
Special to Fry Bread by Chadd Scott of See Great Art.
On top of that, artist booths were full, crowds jammed the streets – perhaps a record attendance day – sales were brisk, dancers and singers filled the main stage and intersections, and for one day, when nothing seems right, at this tiny pinprick on the map of America, everything seemed right.
For anyone who loves the arts or culture – or retail, for that matter – there was no better place to be in all the world than Santa Fe, NM on Saturday, August 16, 2025.
Trends
I’ve been covering contemporary Native American art since 2018. I’ve attended three of the last four Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Santa Fe Indian Markets. In that short time, I’ve noticed a number of trends come and go.
The “Star Wars” trend has cooled.
Since the pandemic, “Star Wars” inspired pottery, prints, paintings, beadwork, and textiles have been everywhere. Understandable as the original “Star Wars” kids of the 70s and 80s reach their prime art making years and the movie’s themes mirror the Indigenous experience of rebellion (Native people) vs. empire (America/colonizers).
While storm trooper helmets painted with pueblo pottery designs and Imperial walkers in Monument Valley can still be found, the presence is noticeably less.
Photography, too, was less prevalent than a year ago. What photography there was was exceptional.
A trend continuing to gain momentum is skateboard artwork. I wasn’t counting, but a half dozen artists or so had hand painted deck designs on display. Even the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Santa Fe currently features an exhibition highlighting skateboard art.
As with “Star Wars,” this motif makes all the sense in the world as well for Native artists.
Skateboarding has always been cool, always been counterculture, rebellious, anti-establishment. Skateboard decks have been a “canvas” for creativity, particularly graphic design, going back to the 1980s. Mashing up the anti-authority vibes inherent in skateboard culture with indigenous imagery on the bottom of boards is a match made in heaven. As a kid who grew up skateboarding – terribly – and now loves Native art, I dig it.
More Than Art
Beginning around noon on Saturday, drum beats and the sound of jingles began filling the air around Santa Fe Plaza, Indian Market’s epicenter. In addition to artwork, the event features dancers, drummers, and singers from across Indian Country. They perform on the Main Stage as well as throughout the Market at street intersections. The Buffalo Dancers from Jemez Pueblo are always a highlight.
Adding music and dance and regalia to artist booths contributes more than mere entertainment. These performers are artists too. The people who made their regalia, likewise. They bring added cultural depth and spirit to Market – essential to making it what it has become. Indian Market wouldn’t be the same without them, not close.
The drummers and dancers also exemplify how Market is more than a market, more than a retail venture. New York’s Armory Show and EXPO Chicago have nothing like this, and nothing on this. Indian Market is a celebration, a celebration of Native culture in a wide variety of forms, a reminder of not only the beauty of Native culture, but its diversity as well.
Check out more of Chadd Scott’s work at SeeGreatArt.art.
