1st Annual Montana Tribal Tourism Alliance’s Gathering Of Artists- 7/16-17 – Pablo, MT

2004-07-16 08:00:00
The People’s Center in Pablo, Montana

The 1st annual Montana Tribal Tourism Alliance’s Gathering of Artists is an inter-tribal, 100% Indian-planned MT American Indian Arts & Crafts market to be held at the People’s Center in Pablo, MT from July 16-17, 2004, in conjunction with the Kootenai Standing Arrow Powwow that takes place in Elmo, MT during the third week in July.

Contact: Dyani Bingham, 406-259-4600

MTTA’s Indian Arts & Crafts Market will offer low-cost vendor space for American Indian artists around the state. This event is important because it creates a brand new venue for American Indian artists and vendors in Montana to showcase and sell their arts and crafts. This will also be a perfect opportunity for MTTA to build a stronger coalition of artists to benefit tourism development and small business development in Montana’s
reservation communities.

The Montana Tribal Tourism Alliance is a non-profit intertribal organization that works to promote culturally appropriate economic development through tourism. MTTA activities include training for tourism businesses and interpretive training; coalescing encampment and reenactment opportunities; assisting and organizing opportunities that ensure the tribal stories will be heard and shared; development of appropriate education tools for visitors about proper cultural etiquette while visiting reservations; cultural gatherings and pow-wows; and to serve as a hub of information for Montana’s tribal communities and tourists interested in learning more about Montana’s first peoples.

In the wake of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, MTTA is coordinating and collaborating with a diverse range of partners to create an Intertribal American Indian Arts & Crafts market in combination with informative and educational materials to ensure that the potential tribal participants in the National Signature Events, ‘Explore the Big Sky!’ in 2005 and ‘Clark on
the Yellowstone’ in 2006, will be prepared, informed and ready.

This project will work to give Montana’s tribal communities, reservations, entrepreneurs and tribal governments a chance to showcase local talent while obtaining the educational tools they need to make informed decisions regarding their participation in the upcoming Lewis and Clark B icentennial.

Montana’s American Indian involvement in Lewis & Clark Bicentennial is pivotal to building a solid foundation in tourism development, small business development, and the basis to further historical and cultural preservation efforts. The long-term benefit of the art market will be the economic development that occurs when Native American artists and vendors sell and promote their own work, and this art market will be designed to occur annually in Montana, while moving to different locations year after year.

The National Council of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial provided support for this project through the Circle of Tribal Advisors Indian Involvement Grant Program.