JURIED INDIAN MARKET, NAVAJO RUG AUCTION, ARCHAEOLOGICAL TOURS HIGHLIGHT SOUTHWEST COLORADO EVENT

Mesa Verde Country® hosts 11^thannual Indian Arts and Culture Festival

Featured as a "must-attend festival" in Patricia Schultz's best-seller, 1000 Places to See Before You Die, the celebration begins on Memorial Day Weekend with events in Mesa Verde National Park. An authentic juried Indian art market features world-renowned Pueblo, Zuni, Hopi, Navajo, Ute and Apache artists; all representing tribes who claim a cultural affiliation with Mesa Verde National Park.

The Festival, recognized as one of the "Top 100 Events in North America" by the American Bus Association,, also features a Navajo rug seminar and auction, a Native American concert, Native American dancers, traditional foods, and cultural programs. The Anasazi Heritage Center will feature a special exhibit, Sacred Images: A Vision of Native American Rock Art. This photographic exhibit joins the talents of three wilderness photographers with the storytelling skills of indigenous peoples to present the visionary power of Utah's rock art.

Guides from Ute Mountain Tribal Park will offer special archaeological tours during the festival, including a Porcupine House and Ute Petroglyph Tour and an Anasazi Sun Calendars and Petroglyphs Tour in Mancos Canyon. Ute Mountain Tribal Park is an area set aside by the Ute Mountain Utes — one of the seven original Ute bands that inhabited Colorado — to preserve Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) architecture.

This year's Festival featured artist is the exceptional Hopi potter, Valerie Namoki. She received her gift of pottery making and carving from her late grandmother and father. As a young girl at the age of 12, she learned the art of traditional polychrome pottery from her late grandmother, Carol Namoki, and carving techniques from her deceased father, Virgil Namoki, in the Hopi community of Polacca, referred to as First Mesa. Incorporating the coiling method and carving into her sculpturing, Namoki sculpts indistinguishable pieces she hopes will please the eye of an artist or collector and leave them mystified and perplexed. To view examples of Namoki's work and review a full schedule of festival events, visit: http://www.mesaverdecountry.com/tourism/festivals/iacf/iacfschedule.html.

Mesa Verde Country® (www.mesaverdecountry.com)
Mesa Verde Country® is the southwest Colorado travel destination surrounding Mesa Verde National Park. The towns of Cortez, Dolores, Mancos, and Towaoc, and the entire Mesa Verde Country® area, comprise the archaeological center of America.