Could you settle a curiousity about Native American pottery in Arizona? How are the Trading Posts?
 

My husband and I had a very brief trip to Arizona. We spent some time in Scottsdale hoping to find a piece of Native American artwork (pottery). However, we were somewhat disappointed to find the shops were similar to the electronic stores in Times Square in NYC - one after the other...carrying similar pieces...all without prices. A card would be given to "verify" authenticity, yadda, yadda...

My husband and I felt that these stores seemed to be making quite a profit on the work of the Native Americans and decided to check out Trading Posts instead. That never happened because we needed to head home unexpectedly.

The concierge did a google search and came up with Trading Posts in Sedona, Casa Grande, and Holbrook. I'm just wondering what we would have found had we made it there.

Thanks.

Several years ago we bought a piece of pottery in the Heard Museum in Phoeniz, and we still love it.

there is a Navajo nation trading post in Cameron arizona (there is also a commercial trading post). We went there the day after Thanksgiving last year. I don't remember any pottery, but there was a lot of jewelery. Many Navajos were in that day buying Christmas presents. In fact, most of the customers that day were Navajos.

The best place to buy Native American pueblo pottery is in the pueblos in New Mexico or northern Arizona (the Hopi villages. I did see some decent work in a trading post near Winslow.
Here's a website from one dealer -- http://www.pueblopottery.com/

Along 5th Ave and also on 2nd near The Mall (not the shopping, but the square)there are still some nice little shops with a nice collection of Native shopping.
In the northern part of Scottsdale there is a small dependance of Heard Museum, also worth shopping.
Also Hubbell tradingpost is special with this. Check:http://www.desertusa.com/hub/index.html

New Mexico is the place to buy pottery and especially the famous Hopi Kachina dolls.Some say Gallup but we found the Acoma pueblo to have some of the finest pottery and we bought a few small pieces in the parking lot of the visitor's centre there. Aot of indians sell their pottery there and you can talk with the maker and get a decent price.Kachina dolls we bought in S.Fe. Paul