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 4th, 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 on arriving in time to fully unload your vehicle from 6:30 am to 8 am on Saturday, April 5th. 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 where to park your car within walking distance of your booth. Be extra cautious when driving to and from your parking, as this is a child’s paradise to run and play. IIA (Indigenous Institute of the Americas) and CTOM (Chisholm Trail Outdoor Museum) are not responsible for any damage to your property.
What to Expect as a Vendor
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 costs for your family. Bring a refillable water bottle to refill and reduce plastics. 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 down with clips or something heavy, then drop your canopy down over the tables. Wear comfortable shoes and change your socks a couple of times daily to rest your feet and prevent blisters.
Weather policy
We are a rain-or-shine event and will not cancel due to weather.
This year, the CTOM Museum requests a daily QR code check-in for every adult on the property. Please help us comply with this new request. This will help us know how many people attended the event and where they traveled from. IIA needs this information to validate the event’s importance to our Native community. Please don’t be offended if staff ask you if you completed this attendance survey each day.
Our venue, Chisholm Trail Outdoor Museum (CTOM), 101 Chisholm Trail, Cleburne, TX 76033, is 30 miles south of Ft. Worth, Texas. Chisholm Trail. Nine 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. Nighttime, beautiful string lights bring a magical atmosphere in the evening for our Saturday night market from 6 pm to 8 pm. Tent camping is available for a small fee (see camping registration button). It is one mile from Cleburne, TX, with access to big-city shopping and eating places.
Buildings from the 1800s include a jail, schoolhouse, mule barn, and 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 ask our Artist Vendors to help us keep the venue clean. We invite everyone to clean up immediately after the animals. Potty bags are available at the small green storage house between the stagecoach and the mule barn. 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 Alica 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.
The nine acres are located on the buffalo trails of north Texas; the area is known to the Kiowa as “ahn daw gaw been’, “where the prairie meets the big trees.” Thank you, Michael Tongkeamha, our Head Gourd Dancer, for this teaching.
This is considered the Eastern Cross Timbers, 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 were so dense 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, near the area where our youth artists will be. The Museum entrance fees are $5 for adults and $2 for children. The artifacts in the Museum have been directly donated by Native families who have requested the museum care for the safety of their items.
The food vendors and Native Tacos are next to the lake near the Star Pavilion. The Old Gringo Boot company may set up a sale our weekend in the Star Pavilion; take a moment to check them out. The IIA headquarters will be in the Office by the stagecoach. In case of emergency, notify one of the staff members who work for the museum riding in the small jeeps/kabotas They have direct access to paramedics and fire and police assistance.
The old school house near the windmill will have our seminars and workshops.
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 needs you may have for equipment and tools 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 has plenty of camping available for a reasonable charge. 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. Our volunteers stay on site, and the Sheriff’s department patrols the grounds several times a night.
What makes us different?
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 tries to stay focused on authentic and accurate representations of culture. Through the 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 booboos running too fast.
Our volunteers do their best to make everyone of all ages and all cultures feel welcome. We want the patrons to stay all day and leave our event with a joyful experience. Feel free to advertise other organizations, powwows, and markets at your booth. We like our patrons to get “hooked” on our art and culture.
Because of the current political climate, we hope you can avoid polarizing political discussions or the distribution of polarizing information. However, please feel free to share when asked directly about your Nation or your family if asked about the impact of current policies. We want this event to be your escape from that stress, so if you feel uncomfortable by 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 our event schedule changes constantly 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.
Evening Art Market
We will have a night market on Saturday, April 5th, that extends our day from 6 pm to 8 pm. All the noisy and distracting activities will stop, and the artists will be the main focus of the evening. 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 lights to wrap up your displays.
Practical Questions
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 you bring your 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 must be quiet and not smell if you are near the performance area. We want to be considerate of our drum and dancers. We have also found using wagons or carts will help with walking back and forth across the grounds.
Booth Assignments
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 3, or Friday, April 4, 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 the vendors a map of the venue and the vendor booth check-in location to refer to 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 8 years of experience. Your location is based on attendance from previous years, electricity needs, booth size, the order of registration, and the type of items you will be selling. An outdoor event takes creativity when assigning spots. Each year, we have to redo our maps based on the trees, new buildings, improvements on the property, and the location of performances. This can make your usual location unavailable; Alicia will inform you of any significant changes.
Takedown -Sunday
Our event ends on Sunday, April 6, 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 what is happening. We consider our vendor’s family, so we are concerned about your safety and well-being.
Vendor Categories in our Art Market
American Indian Artist category:
We comply with the Indian Arts and Crafts Act by documenting our American Indian Artists Tribal enrollment. The IIA committee focuses on educational initiatives to explain compliance with the Act, its history, importance, and impact on preserving traditional and contemporary art.
This is a legal definition, so artisans at our event must not represent their art as American Indian or Native American-made unless they comply with this law. We are not a political organization, but we want all our vendors to understand that we are fully aware of the issues related to the impact of Colonization on our people, especially in Texas. We have added the Indigenous Market Place category to address our concerns.
The Indigenous Market Place category:
We also identify their tribal affiliations and provide information about their tribes’ geography and culture. Items for sale must represent the vendors’ or the family/tribe’s craftwork.
This category would also be appropriate for vendors who sell Traditional medicines, soaps, plants, teas, foods, regalia, fabric, basketry, beading supplies, or other items unique to their traditional homelands.
Our overall goal is to honor the American Indian/Native Tribes from the North Pole to the South Pole and maintain the cultural event’s spirit and integrity. A note to remind vendors that they can only sell mass-produced items if they have cultural significance and only if it is 1/4 or less of your merchandise. This art market is directed at artists who make one-of-a-kind, hand-made, or hand-crafted, culturally appropriate, and significant items.
Artist Booth review
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 made by Alicia because it may be through the eyes of the elders who have talked to her, not necessarily her interpretation of a concern.
Confirming your Reservation
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 2025.
1. Completed Application. Payment is due no later than March 25th. We will roll over your reservation fee to our next annual event if you must cancel. We cannot prorate your payment if you must leave the event early. Your vendor fees are critical to the organization’s ability to provide a quality event.
2. For American Indian Artists, provide a copy of your official enrollment documentation in a Federal or State recognized Tribe or Certification as an Indian artisan. American Indian artists are welcome to bring contemporary and Traditional arts and crafts that reflect our culture. In addition, we want your booth to reflect your unique craftsmanship and/or a family member you represent.
3. For Indigenous Market Vendors, provide information about your family’s Tribal affiliations and include helpful information for our committee about your tribe’s traditional homelands and unique culture. Our event and organization focus on education; we hope the market can provide that opportunity.
4. Description of original work that reflects what you will sell at the event. Please send 2 or 3 recent pictures (with descriptions) of your work that we can post online to promote you. These can be sent as JPG, PNG, or PDF.
