Indigenous Arts Festival Returns

Back for its eighth year, the Indigenous Arts Festival at Aztec Ruins National Monument promises to bring a wide variety of Native American art and entertainment to Northern New Mexico on Saturday, September 14th. Better yet, the all-day event is free. You're watching the "Local NEWS Network" brought to you by Distil Beer Wine Spirits and M&R Plumbing. I'm Connor Shreve. Aztec Ruins National Monument program manager for interpretation, Nathan Hatfield, says the Aztec Indigenous Arts Festival keeps evolving.

We're going to have about 30 vendors out here in this picnic area, and I feel like we do an excellent job of showcasing both traditional and contemporary artists. So you'll see potters and jewelers, and then you'll see more modern types of pop culture art.

The art market features local artists, the core of the event for years. Vendors open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. For the second year, attendees can also enjoy live music in the evening, starting at 5:00 PM.

We've got Levi Platero, who a lot of folks know around this area. He's modern blues rock. And we've also got Tha 'Yoties from Hopi, and they do kind of a indigenous twist on reggae music. So that's going to be really exciting.

Hatfield says the festival has grown to honor what the ruins themselves represent.

This has always been a gathering place for indigenous people. We know that places like Aztec and Chaco were places where people would come from maybe 40, 50 miles away, and they would come here to interact with other tribes, to trade, to learn from each other. And that's basically what's going to be happening out here on Saturday.

Representatives from the Acoma Pueblo, Zuni, Zia, and Navajo tribes, and possibly others, will be on hand. With everything from DNA storytelling to performance art, the festival offers an array of entertainment.

This is the second year that we're going to have a world champion hoop dancer. His name is Jai'Po Harvier, and he's amazing. He's worth it just to see him do his thing. And we've also got a dance group from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. So it's not just the art and the vendors. There's music, there's dancing, it's an all-day thing. It's going to be in this shaded picnic area, and we're really excited for this year's event.

[Connor The 2024 Aztec Indigenous Arts Festival hopes to celebrate indigenous tradition while embracing modern culture. It runs from 10:00 to 8:00, Saturday, at Aztec Ruins National Monument, and is free. Learn more about this story and others online at farmingtonlocal.news. Thanks for watching this edition of the "Local NEWS Network." I'm Connor Shreve.