Kalle BenallieICT
Young artists at the Santa Fe Indian Market were recognized for their work as emerging talent at one of the most prestigious Native art events of the year. For many, it’s already a lifelong passion.
Sixteen-year-old Aydrian Day, Ho-Chunk/Anishinaabe/Lakota, took home the Best of Class in the 17-years-old and under class. It’s Day’s fourth time being honored as Best of Class and said he was honored to be recognized for his hard work by the market.
“I felt really grateful for my family to bring me all the way to Santa Fe, and give me all the stuff I need, and to give me the opportunities to come to Santa Fe and be a good artist,” Day said.
Best of Class winner Aydrian Day with his Lakota penny dress at the Santa Fe Indian Market in August 2026. (Photo courtesy of Alexa Rae Day)
He made a Lakota shell penny dress, entitled “Wambli Gleska Win,” that represents the tradition of giving a dress to a woman that you respect and admire. Day made the dress to honor his great-grandmother, whom he’s very close to, and his 1-year-old goddaughter.
It took Day more than two years to make because he’s still in high school and can’t bead full-time. He first started beading seriously when he was 7 years old, where he began entering different art markets.
“I was always watching my parents. I’d be playing around with my toys or something and they’d always be beading and making their outfits and regalia and beading in the background,” Day said. “So I would see them doing that and it was just natural.”
His main inspirations are his parents and great-grandmother. Over the years he’s been able to connect to other artists who have shared their knowledge with him and considers them like friends, aunties, uncles, older brothers or grandmas.
“Just made that many deep relations coming to art markets,” he said. “I feel like it’s really cool because we can all bond over all our artistry and how we make our stuff.”
He mainly gravitates toward beading and with the recent piece, he mixed in quillwork. Day also likes to paint and occasionally does ledger art, following in the footsteps of his father.
“I’m trying to soak up all the knowledge I can so I can carry on all these traditions. I can teach my kids and my grandkids how to bead or how to quill and how to shell and how to make their own regalia too,” he said. “Just to be proud of who we are. I never want my next generation of kids to be shameful at all or have any nervousness to be who they are.”
Day encourages young artists to do art and learn a craft because it’s another way to connect to your culture and stay on a good path. The Anishinaabe call it the Red World.
“To not get distracted with any other kind of ways you can go with life that aren’t as good, and this definitely helps with all those distractions and it can be a good livelihood for many people,” he said.
Other categories Day won at the market include: first place in boundary, second place in beadwork and quillwork and best of division through ages 14-to-17.
Twelve-year-old Jaquelyn Patricio, Acoma Pueblo, won first place in the pottery category, non-burnished (matte), either painted or undecorated, and second place in the pottery figures category and the Anita Day Memorial Award to Encourage the Work of a Youth Potter.
It was her first time at the Santa Fe Indian Market and she was surprised that she won.
“I started making pottery when I was 9-years-old. Just watching my dad and sisters make pottery, so I thought I could try too. It’s kind of like playing with mud or slime,” she said in an email.
The design of the pottery submitted represents the mountains and rain.
“We need the rain to give moisture to the land and for the animals to drink,” Patricio said.
She said the process of creating pottery takes three to seven days, depending on the weather and what she plans to make. She hand coils it, lets it dry, makes a shape, lets it dry again, scrapes it and takes out any bumps.
“If it’s raining the pot takes longer to dry. Once the pot is dry, I then shine it with a white slip and use a shiny rock to make it shine,” Patricio said.
Then, she outlines a design with a pencil, beginning at the bottom and sections it off into fours and uses a paintbrush made of human hair and starts filling it in.
“I admire my dad Robert Patricio’s work and my sisters, Felisha, Kylie, Juanita, and TobieMae. Their shapes, styles are all different. The designs that they create are from long ago. I also admire what my ancestors made long ago,” Patricio said.
She plans to continue to make pottery and make figures that’s made before like a set of cups that have faces on them.
“My advice for other young Indigenous potters would be to always keep trying and don’t give up. You can improve as the years go by if you stick at it,” Patricio said.
Nine-year-old Nanibah Little, Diné, won first place in the painting category of the youth division and best of division for ages 9 and under.
She shared a booth with her dad and grandpa at the market; who are both artists in their own right. Her dad does painting and her grandpa makes sculptures.
Her inspiration was her cat and her grandma’s cat, Sebastian.
Nanibah Little’s painting at the Santa Fe Indian Market in August 2026. (Photo by Kalle Benallie/ICT)
“He reminds me about Tuba City [Arizona] and my grandparents,” she said.
It took her about three weeks to paint her cat Sebastian, using a sketch that was drawn from a photo.
“I like to paint because I like spending time with my dad painting together. Since my dad is an artist. When I won the competition, he was really proud of me,” she said.
A copy of her painting was sold to a collector. Next year she’s thinking of drawing another cat of hers named Tigger or make a sculpture out of cardboard to submit to the Santa Fe Indian Market.
Other pieces of art she’s made are a rubberband car for a science project and toys like a paper-folded doll house with different paper figures: cats, a duck, a potato, a bunny and more.
She likes using recyclable materials like paperclips, popsicle sticks, tape, cardboard, plastic, tape and paper.
“I like crafting more too because when I’m crafting sometimes or drawing – sometimes when I get sad or I get mad, I just draw craft or paint,” Little said.
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