Ceremonial days
‘This event defines Gallup more than any one singular thing or event’

ABOVE: A member of the Cheyenne dance group performs the 'Women's War Dance' during the opening performance Thursday at the 81st Annual Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial at Red Rock State Park. BELOW: Trader Perry Null takes a look at Jon Cordero's best-in-show katchina "High Alert" Wednesday at the Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial art preview Wednesday night at Red Rock Park. Cordero said he spent 3 months on the award winning-work. [Independent file photo]

By Michael Dillin
For the Independent

GALLUP — Walk in the door, and one might confuse it with a bustling campaign headquarters one week from election day. A 4-foot high wall of pamphlets and other publications block out the lower half of the storefront windows. Banners are arranged neatly. There’s a constant ringing of phones as workers move almost frantically from one task to another.

“Don’t forget that 4 o’clock meeting,” one worker reminds Jeri Poletto, the executive director of a very different kind of campaign. Her “campaign” is all about preparing for next week’s Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial, which has served as the town’s calling card for the past 87 years.

“This is about immersing ourselves in Native American culture and traditions,” Polleto says of the five-day event that will unfold Wednesday through Sunday, Aug. 6-10. “People can go to different reservations to learn about Indian tribes and pueblos, but this is the only place where you can see all of those cultures brought together in one place and at one time. It’s truly unique.”

It’s referred to simply as the “Ceremonial” in this community of 22,000 that’s located squarely on historic U.S. Route 66 in northwestern New Mexico. And it is surrounded by the Navajo Reservation — the largest reservation in the country that spans parts of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. In fact, it’s about the size of the state of West Virginia.

“When you say ‘Ceremonial,’ people know what it means,” she says. “The event is of such stature that it has one-word status — like Cher or Madonna.”

For five days there will be song, dance, powwow, exhibitions, rodeos, concerts, story-telling, parades and most certainly the trading of Indian jewelry and artifacts. Whether Navajo, Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne or other tribes and pueblos, if it is part of Native American culture, you’ll see it in Red Rock Park, just a few miles out of town.

“When the Ceremonial begins next week, you’ll see this community blossom,” Poletto says with unabashed pride. “This event defines Gallup more than any one singular thing or event.”
The celebration has been held yearly — with one exception — since 1922. It’s survived Depression, the world war, and even the withdrawal of funding by the state of New Mexico from the late 1990s until 2007 when the legislature and governor realized they were endangering the continuation of one of the state’s most hallowed events.

“The Ceremonial is an economic engine for Gallup,” Poletto explains. “Some people may not think so, but if you took it away for one year people would quickly realize what it means.”

This year, the Ceremonial will be tested once again by a formidable adversary — gasoline that costs four-plus dollars per gallon.

“We’re hoping to get a lot of customers this year, but there is definitely a concern about the price of gas right now,” says Millie Dunning, who’s worked for four years at First American Traders in Gallup. Such trading stores look for a boost in business during Ceremonial week.

The event is touted as a critical element of Gallup’s economy, perhaps one of the few events that puts the town on the list of tourist destinations, as opposed to simply being a convenient stopping-off point on Route 66 for travelers headed to or from Albuquerque and Flagstaff. In fact, the event may be even more popular destination for international travelers as it is for U.S. citizens.

“We have people come from all over — Europe, Japan, Australia,” Dunning says. In fact, a quick check of a visitor’s registration book in the store shows in just the past 12 entries visitors have signed-in from Poland, the U.K., Italy and Australia.

Like the laws of physics — for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction — the concern about high gas prizes may be canceled out by a plummeting U.S. dollar.

“We’ve been having a lot of foreign tourists,” says Rachel Ortega, the bookkeeper of the well-known El Rancho Hotel. “They’re coming in and are in awe because their money is worth so much more, and they feel they’re getting great deals. They’re simply amazed. They see everything as a bargain and they’re loving it.”

Perhaps surprisingly, however, is that not all businesses see the Ceremonial as a major boon.

“We don’t have the crowds we used to have when I was growing up,” says Frances Richardson of Richardson’s Trading Co. & Cash Pawn.

“Our business doesn’t go up that much during the Ceremonial, it stays about the same. I think when they moved the events out of downtown to Red Rock Park a few years ago that it took a away a lot of the extra business we always used to get. When people go out to the park, they can stay all day because everything they need is out there — all of the events, the jewelry and artifacts. That’s where the action is. They don’t even have to come back into town for food. We had really hoped they would put the convention center downtown instead, but that’s politics.”

To be sure, Richardson is a major supporter of the Ceremonial, rolling out new items during, and taking out a full-page ad in its souvenir magazine.

“We’re very thankful for what we get,” she continues. “But if I was going to complain about it, I’d have to get on one of their committees, but I’m not. We’re leaving that to some of the younger folks now, and they’re trying really hard.”

With the event just five days out, hotels and motels have yet to sell out.

“We’ve got a few rooms left,” says Ortega at the El Rancho.

“We used to be booked by January and February, in fact we’d be overbooked. It hasn’t been as busy in the past five years, but I have a feeling it is going to be better this year.”

Poletto, the event’s director, agrees with the prognosis.
“It was more difficult during those years when the state took away our funding,” she says. “But better minds prevailed.

Things are on track again, and this year is going to be great.

The event kicks off with an Indian Junior Rodeo next Wednesday at 9 a.m. The events will go from early morning until late in the evening. Except for the parades, which are still held downtown, the events are held concurrently at six venues in Red Rock Park, including the convention center, the main arena, museum and amphitheater.

“Look, Ringling Brothers and Barnum-Bailey had the three ring circus, but we’ve got six rings, and for five days they’re going to going all of the time. Let them try and top that. ”