WASHINGTON, DC — The Indian Craft Shop, which has presented the handmade arts and crafts of federally recognized American Indians since 1938, closed on June 6. Located just blocks from the White House, it has had a historic presence in the main hallway of the massive Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building for 87 years. The Shop also had a mission informed by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, which was established by Congress in 1935 to promote Native American and Alaska Native arts through economic enterprises.“It hasn’t just been a space to sell, it’s been a place to educate. It’s a space that touches people with American Indian art,” Susan Pourian, director of the Indian Craft Shop, told Hyperallergic.Guest Services, the hospitality company operating the store, announced the closure in an email newsletter sent to subscribers on April 22. It chose not to continue operations after Pourian, an employee of the company for 42 years and the Shop’s sole employee since the COVID-19 pandemic, decided to retire this year. In a statement, Guest Services said it had been “a privilege to steward this special location, serving the Department of the Interior and the many visitors who have appreciated its unique offerings.”Marian Kaulaity Hansson, Kiowa, Oklahoma, models a dance shawl she created in front of an Indian Craft Shop mural painted by the late artist Allan Hauser, Chiricahua Apache, born Allan Capron Haozous, titled “Breaking Camp at Wartime.”The nostalgic mood at the second of two open houses marking the Indian Craft Shop’s closure on May 22 was tinged with sadness, a sentiment expressed by others who spoke to Hyperallergic.“I love that little Shop and am brokenhearted to think of it closing,” said Philip J. Deloria, PhD, Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History at Harvard University.Though the details have yet to be finalized, the Interior Department is working to identify a new operator, said Michael “Mick” Rusten, director of the Interior Department’s Office of Facilities and Administrative Services. It plans to release a request for proposals to tribally owned entities within the next few weeks. The future operator would be offered the same terms as Guest Services, including the shop space, adjacent courtyard, and office, free of charge. It would also be required to continue operations in accordance with the stipulations of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 (IACA), as well as to preserve the Indian Craft Shop’s historic and cultural significance.Choctaw artist George “Shukata” Willis has had his work presented in the Shop since the 1990s. He said Pourian prioritized the artists and made them feel important. “She developed a niche market for some of my pendants that I call my spirit people,” Willis said. His sales from the Indian Craft Shop have accounted for about one-fifth of his annual income.Another artist, Artie Yellowhorse, a Navajo jewelry maker, has created more modern designs for the Indian Craft Shop through her family business, which includes her two daughters, two grandsons, and a nephew. “A lot of the things were traditional, but our line was mostly contemporary. You could wear it anywhere and be comfortable with it,” she said.A mosaic inlay thunderbird necklace by Charlene Reano, San Felipe Pueblo, New Mexico, whose work was often featured at the Indian Craft ShopThe mission of the Indian Craft Shop has been to promote currently working American Indian artists. It built a national reputation for the quality and authenticity of the work it sold and, prior to the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in 2004, was the only place in the area primarily offering American Indian art, said Anya Montiel, PhD, a curator at the NMAI.Marya Pickering, a self-described “history nut,” was among the patrons who filled the Shop’s small, office-like space at the closing event before spilling out into the hallway for remarks and a cake cutting. She discovered the store through a colleague when she started working at the General Services Administration in 2006 and has remained a loyal customer. Pickering still has certificates of authenticity, which list the materials used and information about the artist, including their name, tribal affiliation, and location, for the jewelry she has purchased over the years. “It’s beautiful craftsmanship,” she said. “They are works of art that you can wear and incorporate into your wardrobe. What could be nicer?”Left: “Loving Prayer” by Kathy Whitman-Elk Woman, an artist from the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara) in North DakotaRight: “Flying Through the Abstract,” a Colorado marble eagle sculpture by Rollie Grandbois, Turtle Mountain Chippewa, in the Indian Craft Shop sculpture garden (photos Vida Foubister/Hyperallergic)Pourian said she has been intentional in representing tribal area diversity at every level of artistry, from emerging to well-known artists. “If you come in and you have $20, you can leave here with authentic American Indian handmade art. Yet we also have some top collectors from across the country,” she said.High-ranking government officials have long purchased the Shop’s merchandise for visiting dignitaries, and it has been acquired for museum collections. The NMAI in Washington, DC, currently has a Tohono O’odham basket in the form of a cat on view, said Montiel — one of 1,340 items that NMAI received through a transfer from the Indian Arts and Crafts Board headquarters collection in 2000.Yellowhorse said that she knows many artists, herself included, who will miss selling to the Indian Craft Shop. Cliff Fragua, a sculptor and stone carver from Jemez Pueblo, is another. He has worked with the Shop since the 1990s, along with his mother Juanita Fragua and sisters Glendora and Betty Jean Fragua, all potters. “I feel like there should be a presence at the Department of Interior that represents Native artists and the history of Native art,” he said.“Deer Stalking,” a mural painted in 1938 by the late Navajo artist Gerald Nailor on the Indian Craft Shop’s south wall, above a cabinet that was once filled with pottery, sculptures, fetishes, and other Native American artworksYet there isn’t full alignment on what constitutes American Indian art and how it should be represented. Fragua, who served on the Indian Arts and Crafts Association board of directors for five years, including a one-year term as president, noted that art of “the tribal people of California, where a large number of Native communities are only state recognized and not federally recognized,” also needs to be protected, as well as that of Native Hawaiians. Currently, he said, they are excluded from the IACA and thus the Shop.Additionally, the Indian Craft Shop’s central focus on traditional arts and crafts, like work sold at Indian markets that cater to buyers and collectors seeking Native “authenticity,” does not fully reflect the art being created today, said Mario A. Caro, PhD, director of the MFA in Studio Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “If part of the services they offer visitors to the Department of Interior is to represent and educate folks about Native cultures, the image offered is a narrow selection of works that portray customary work as timeless and devoid of contemporary content,” Caro told Hyperallergic.Eugene Tapahe, a Diné artist originally from Window Rock, Arizona, who aspires to bring awareness to Native issues through his work, experienced this firsthand at the Association of International Photography Art Dealers’s Photography Show in April. “It was eye-opening for me when people came and looked at my photography, and they would ask me, ‘Where have you been?’” said Tapahe, who is currently based in Provo, Utah. “We’re still here and we still do practice our ceremonies and practice our beliefs,” Tapahe continued. “Even though we live in the modern world, we still believe in our traditions.”