Established on September 28, 1922, the Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial in Gallup had reached its 90th celebration in August 2011, when Native Americans from across the United States gathered for a major celebration of culture featuring Indian fine arts such as Navajo rugs, kachinas, jewelry, pottery, and basketry, as well as socials and rodeos at Red Rock Park and day and evening parades along Route 66 in downtown Gallup. In 1922, local trader Mike Kirk, with support from the local Kiwanis Club, planned the event to give Gallup residents an opportunity to share in Indian culture, arts, and crafts while also showing appreciation for Indian patronage to the Gallup community. Each year, neighboring tribes traveled for days by wagon over dusty roads to what they considered a yearly reunion with family and friends. Early ceremonials featured campfire dances, baseball games, a fruit scramble, a tug-of-war, a kick the stick race, and relay marathons, with participants including members of the Navajo and Hopi communities and the pueblos of Acoma, Isleta, Laguna, Jemez, Zuni, and Taos. Though the four-day event still retains some elements of its early years, it has grown into more of a tourist attraction, with exhibit halls combining trader and dealer booths with artists presenting their own work, while ceremonial dances continue to express the proud history and tradition of the gathering as an opportunity for cultures to come together through rhythm, motion, and artistic expression.
