Admission and parking are FREE. SOMETHING NEW THIS YEAR!!!!
PLEASE PLAN TO ARRIVE IN CLEBURNE FRIDAY, IF POSSIBLE, STARTING AT NOON. We are offering a SNEAK-PEEK Art Market from 4 PM to 8 PM for PATRONS who want a chance to get ahead of the crowds and purchase from their favorite artists. Invite your friends and followers from social media.
We want to make loading and unloading safe and easy for our Artist Vendors. We encourage you to come to the venue on Friday, April 10th, between noon and 7 PM. When you enter the venue, you will be directed to the Artist Vendor Coordinator, Alicia Crook, or one of her assistants, who will help locate your booth. You can drive directly up to your booth to unload. If you cannot come on Friday, plan to arrive between 6:30 AM and 8 AM on Saturday, April 11th, to fully unload your vehicle. Due to event insurance restrictions, we cannot have cars driving through the venue starting an hour before the event begins (8 AM on Saturday, 9 AM on Sunday). Set up your booth, and then you will be directed to a parking area within walking distance of your booth. Be extra cautious when driving to and from your parking area, as it is a child’s paradise for running and playing. IIA (Indigenous Institute of the Americas) and CTOM (Chisholm Trail Outdoor Museum) are not responsible for any damage to your property.
We are an outdoor event. Vendors must bring their canopies, tables, chairs, and outdoor electrical cords if they request electricity (50ft/100ft). IIAC will have terrific food vendors, but you can bring outside food and drinks (no alcohol) to save your family money. Bring a refillable water bottle to reduce plastic use. Please let our team know if you need us to refill your water bottles if it’s hard to leave your booth. We don’t want anyone to get dehydrated, so let us help! We want you to feel comfortable, so a cooler and ice might be helpful. We have been blessed the last 3 years with cool mornings and warm afternoons, so prepare for both. Bringing sandbags or water buckets to help tie down your canopy is very helpful. At night, we recommend covering your tables and chairs with plastic drop clothes (weigh them down with clips or something heavy, then drop your canopy down over the tables. Some of our volunteers sleep on site, and we try to walk around to make sure things are not blowing away if we can help. Wear comfortable shoes and change your socks a couple of times daily to rest your feet and prevent blisters. We will have a first-aid kit with over-the-counter meds if you need anything.
We are a rain-or-shine event and do not cancel due to weather. We have direct weather information from the fire and sheriff’s offices, which helps us prepare each year. Please check your email or our Facebook page for any updates as you travel to Cleburne. We have many buildings, including the newly expanded Star Pavilion and covered areas on site for sudden changes in weather. Please friend us on Facebook, where we keep a steady update on the volunteers, weather, and venue layout starting on Wednesday before our event.
Our venue, Chisholm Trail Outdoor Museum (CTOM), 101 Chisholm Trail, Cleburne, TX 76033, is 30 miles south of Ft Worth, Texas. Chisholm Trail. ten acres of beautiful natural trees, water, and wildlife. Portable toilets are throughout the venue, and indoor restrooms for men and women with flushable toilets are available. At night, beautiful string lights create a magical atmosphere at our Friday and Saturday night market until 8 PM. Tent camping is available for a small fee (see camping registration button). Our venue is one mile from Cleburne, TX, with access to big-city shopping and eating places.
Buildings from the 1800s include a jail, a schoolhouse, a mule barn, and a blacksmithing workshop. The Big Bear Museum and the new Doug Harmon Museum will be open. No “cowboy” reenactments are permitted, but the town Sheriff may be there in period costume if we need to put one of our volunteers in the “jail.”
We have two types of Artist booths. Those classified as American Indian Artists are vendors who are qualified under the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990. Our Indigenous Artist booths are for vendors whose Nations were originally in the Americas (North Pole-South Pole) but, due to colonization, do not qualify as American Indian Artists. These booths are also designated for vendors who provide products we use in our culture, such as herbs, supplies, and regalia.
We ask our Artist Vendors to help us keep the venue clean. We invite everyone to clean up immediately after their animals. Please bring potty bags and be sure to tie them tightly before throwing them away in the outdoor trash cans. Please take your boxes and other large trash items down to the large trash dumpster by the Big Bear Museum. Our volunteers can help you carry them there; just let Alicia Crook know you need that help. Please pick up your trash each evening and only throw away small items in the trash barrels. We want the patrons to use the barrels, so we want to keep them from getting too full.
Cleburne is considered the Eastern Cross Timbers ecosystem, one of the last old forests in the United States. It is a marker, a meridian that guarded these lands. The forest was a very harsh area for people traveling from the East Coast to the West. The Spaniards called it the Devil’s Forest, and others have called it the “cast iron” forest. The oak trees and briars were so dense that they would break knives trying to cut through a trail. Native people who traveled from California to Texas recognized the 97th meridian as a natural boundary. Parts of the property are federally protected wetlands with nesting Bald Eagles, so we want to be especially mindful of the importance of this land.
The Big Bear Museum and Doug Harmon Museum are on the property. The museum’s entrance fees are $5 for adults and $2 for children. The artifacts in the Museum have been donated directly by Native families who have requested that the museum care for their items for their safety. We have had extensive discussions with the museum caretakers and appreciate their sincerity in their efforts to represent these pieces entrusted to them by Native families.
The food vendors and Native Tacos are next to the lake near the Star Pavilion. In case of emergency, notify one of the staff members who works for the museum riding in the small jeeps/kabotas. They have direct access to paramedics and fire and police assistance.
The Schoolhouse will have displays, and the Star Pavilion will be our location for seminars, demonstrations, and more!
Everything you find in a big town is in Cleburne, Texas. Nationally recognized restaurant chains, as well as locally owned yummy choices. We love buying groceries from H-E-B located at 600 W HENDERSON CLEBURNE, TX 76033-4830; they have been generous sponsors to the Museum and our organization. Other equipment and tools you may need are available at Harbor Freight, located at 1663 W Henderson St, Suite 4, Cleburne, TX 76033.
Cleburne Chamber of Commerce has a list of hotels. Many towns are within a 30-minute drive of our venue. If you are arriving from Oklahoma City, West Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona, you can find hotels in Cleburne, Cresson, Burleson, Godley, and Glenrose. If you are arriving from East Texas and eastern Oklahoma, consider Cleburne, Keene, Joshua, Alvarado, Midlothian, or Mansfield, Texas.
Our venue also offers plenty of camping for a reasonable fee. You must register for camping even if you are camping in your car. Security is essential during our event. The gates will be open throughout the night, but several of our volunteers will stay on site. The Sheriff’s department patrols the grounds several times a night, so don’t be alarmed if you see cars coming through the venue.
This event is designed to offer welcoming education to people outside our culture. We depend on our artists to show hospitality through their knowledge of their arts and crafts.
We aren’t just a powwow; we aren’t just an art market. We have it all: food, arts, crafts, songs, seminars, displays, games, powwows, demonstrations, stickball, and children’s activities. Our organization strives to maintain authentic and accurate representations of culture. As an example, our Seed Ambassador Program, children attending the event will have a wonderful time learning about sunflower seeds and their importance in our culture.
Young people are included in our leadership roles. We want to help the next generation feel comfortable planning events and learning cultural protocols. We hope you will bring your children too. We know it’s hard to leave the children and grandchildren at home. This is a beautiful outdoor venue; just be sure the kids wear clothes for the weather and closed-toe shoes so we don’t have many boo-boos running too fast.
Our volunteers do their best to make everyone, of all ages and cultures, feel welcome. We want the patrons to stay all day and leave our event with a joyful experience and, hopefully, many purchases! Feel free to advertise other organizations, powwows, and markets at your booth. We like our patrons to get “hooked” on our art and culture.
Given the current political climate, we hope you can avoid polarizing discussions or the distribution of polarizing information. However, please feel free to share when asked directly about your Nation, your family, or the impact of current policies. We want this event to be your escape from that stress, so if you feel uncomfortable with any patron, please reach out to Alicia Crook.
People say our event is like an enormous family reunion. We have so many friends and partners that step in to help and offer their talents, so you may see our event schedule change sometimes just days before the event. The talent in our Native communities allows us to try new ideas every year. Gourd dance, educational powwow, dance demonstrations and workshops, yummy powwow food, survival skills, stickball, silly contests, serious contests, performances, and more.
We will have a night market on Friday and Saturday, April 10th and 11th, that extends our day to 8 pm. All noisy, distracting activities will stop, and the artists will be the evening’s main focus. We will have quieter entertainment, like flute and harp playing. Sundown is approximately 8 PM, so there should be plenty of light for buying, but it will get dark quickly, so you might want battery lights to wrap up your displays. (IIA has some available, too, just ask Alicia Crook to borrow some)
We have wifi available, so your online sales will be easy. There may be a small charge if you need electricity. Please let us know what you need on your application. We request that you bring your own outdoor electrical cords. Most of our outlets are 15 amps. You may not be beside the outlet, so consider getting longer 50 to 100-foot outdoor extension cords. Generators can be used, but they must be quiet and odor-free if you are near the performance area. We want to be considerate of our drum and dancers. We have also found that using wagons or carts helps when walking back and forth across the grounds.
Please be considerate regarding your booth location. If you have been a vendor with us before, let Alicia Crook know on your application if you want the same spot from last year. We visited the Museum recently, and the property has been improved. Some of the improvements will cause a shift in booth locations in a few areas; Alicia will be able to tell you if there has been an impact on your booth.
You can text the Artist Liaison, Alicia Crook, at 214-406-3432 on Thursday, April 9, or Friday, April 10, with your estimated arrival time for Friday’s set-up. Please remember to tell Alicia your name from the vendor application so she knows who is texting. We will email all vendors a map of the venue and the vendor booth check-in location for reference when you arrive. After receiving your assignment, a volunteer will help you navigate to your location.
We ask that everyone be kind and patient as Alicia and her Crew assign locations. Her job is complex; she looks young but has almost 9 years of experience as our Artist Liaison. Your location is determined by attendance from previous years, electricity needs, booth size, the order of registration, and the types of items you will be selling. An outdoor event takes creativity when assigning spots. Each year, we have to update our maps to reflect the trees, new buildings, property improvements, and performance locations. This can make your usual location unavailable.
Our event ends on Sunday, April 12, at 4 PM; we ask that you wait until 4 PM to bring your car to your booth for loading. We have a three-hour window for takedown between 4 PM and 7 PM. Please let us know if you need more time to pack your things. We want you to be safe driving home. If you are sleepy and need to nap, eat, or rehydrate, please let us know. We consider our vendor’s family, so we are concerned about your safety and well-being.
IIA committee representatives reserve the right to review what is being sold at our event. If you are asked to remove any item from sales, we apologize, but that is why we invite artists to send us pictures that reflect what you will be selling at the event. Any concerns will be presented through our Artist Liaison, Alicia Cook. Please respect any suggestions or feedback from Alicia, as they may reflect the views of the elders who have spoken with her, rather than her interpretation of a concern.
Your booth will be confirmed when we receive the following information and review your booth reservation as an American Indian Artist or Indigenous Market Place Vendor for 2026.