As a juried market, each piece sold among the hundreds of white tents lining the downtown streets had to go through a rigorous approval process to ensure authenticity.’ Jaymie Campbell—who is Anishnaabe originally from Curve Lake First Nation in Ontario—creates trillium-shaped beaded earrings and quill roll necklaces for the market. She says that the intense application process ensures the validity and quality of the artists’ work.
Taking part in the market was “such a level up from anything that at least I’ve participated in,” says Campbell, who now lives in British Columbia. She drove down with a handful of other art market participants from the province, including custom moccasin maker ). Campbell and her booth-mate Niio Perkins from Akwesasne Mohawk First Nation in New York state both sold out of their pieces within the first few hours of the market., an Apsaalooké bead artist from Montana who was selling large geometric beaded bags with dentalium shells and elk ivory, and a show-stopping purse with a blue rose beaded onto the smoked deer hide.