WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s the end of an era for a mainstay of Native arts and culture in the nation’s capital.

After nearly nine decades, the Indian Craft Shop at the Department of the Interior has closed. The last day of business for the purveyor of Native arts, from pottery to jewelry to massive sculptures, was Friday, June 6.

But in this age of uncertainty, upheaval and unrest, the closing is not connected to the change in power in Washington. Neither President Donald Trump — nor the befallen figurehead of DOGE — had anything to do with the Indian Craft Shop, which opened in 1938 during the administration of then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Instead, it’s a matter of timing, as the longtime manager, Susan Pourian, decided to retire after 42 years at the helm. Her departure prompted Guest Services, the Virginia-based company that held the contract to operate the shop since 1938, to finally call it quits.

“For generations, the Shop has been a beloved cultural gem inside the U.S. Department of the Interior, connecting visitors with authentic Native American art, jewelry, and traditions from across the country,” Guest Services said in a blog post on May 19.

But the historic space — which boasts murals from the legendary Chiricahua Apache artist Allan Houser — functioned as more than a business. To Indian employees of the federal government, it helped them find last-minute gifts, remain connected to their communities and even find solace during challenging times.

“It was just great for the mind-set of the employees,” a former Interior official who often visited the art in the sculpture garden at the shop told Indianz.Com.

And Native artists from tribes across the nation found a myriad of opportunities at the shop. Cliff Fragua, a prominent sculptor from the Pueblo of Jemez in New Mexico, said the business helped carry out the mission of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, a federal law designed to boost authentic American Indian and Alaska Native art.

“It’s unfortunate that they’re closing because it’s been open since 1938,” Fragua told Indianz.Com. “They represented a lot of Native artists and promoted and marketed them.”

“So when we found out that they were closing, we were sad because that’s been such a mainstay there for such a long time,” said Fragua, who has known and collaborated with Pourian, the former manager, for years through their work with the Indian Arts and Crafts Association, which itself closed operations in 2018 after more than four decades of advocacy.

Fragua is among the many Native artists whose talent has been on display at the shop. In 2002, he traveled to D.C. to celebrate the opening of the sculpture garden, where one of his works — a monumental representation of a Native woman titled “Heart Locket” — was still on display as operations came to a close.

“A lot of the employees there at the Department of the Interior got used to, you know, the piece being there in the courtyard,” Fragua said of “Heart Locket,” which is estimated to weigh about 2,200 pounds.

Fragua, in fact, drove the massive sculpture himself from New Mexico to Washington for the opening more than two decades ago. He also transported two other pieces that were created by the late Rollie Grandbois, who was from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and was based in the Land of Enchantment.

The family of Grandbois, whose tradition of stone sculpting is being carried on by his daughter, Shayna Grandbois-Herrera, was able to retrieve “Blessing for the Future” and “Flying Through the Abstract” from the Indian Craft Shop prior to the closing this week. The pieces were able to be wheeled out of the Interior building at 1849 C Street NW in D.C.

But “Heart Locket” has posed a different set of challenges due to its size, as well as the cost and availability of suitable equipment in the nation’s capital. Fragua is currently developing a plan to once again drive to Washington, move the sculpture himself and bring it back to his studio at the Pueblo of Jemez, where he created it during an intensely personal period of his life.

“I was recovering from a heart attack I had prior to working on the piece,” Fragua recalled in a telephone interview earlier this week. “That health issue, I got through it, and that inspired me to create a sculpture to reflect what I went through and all the care and support that I have from family and friends.”

“I just wanted to make a statement about health, love and the importance of taking care of ourselves, maintaining good health, good diet and exercise,” Fragua said.

“Particularly with Native people, heart attacks, diabetes, it really has hit our community pretty hard,” Fragua added.

So for now, Fragua’s statement about Native well-being will remain in D.C., where another one of his works is housed across town at the U.S. Capitol. He was commissioned by the state of New Mexico to create a statue of Po’pay, the leader of the 1680 Pueblo of Revolt, that was installed at the National Statuary Hall in 2005.

As for the future of the Indian Craft Shop, the Department of the Interior is committed to maintaining the space, a spokesperson for Secretary Doug Burgum told Indianz.Com. A request for proposals is being prepared to look for another vendor and to continue the mandates of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act.

“The selected vendor will be expected to preserve the Shop’s historic and cultural significance while ensuring compliance with the Indian Arts and Crafts Act,” the spokesperson said in a statement to Indianz.Com.

“The IACA is a critical federal truth-in-advertising law that prohibits misrepresentation in marketing of products as ‘Indian made’ when they are not,” the statement continued. “This ensures that the work of Native artists is protected from counterfeits, and that consumers can purchase with confidence knowing that their support directly benefits enrolled tribal members and certified Indian artisans.”

“Compliance with the IACA is central to the Shop’s mission and will remain a core requirement for any future operator,” Interior said.

The space for the Indian Craft Shop is situated on the ground floor of Interior’s main building. The area is accessible to the general public, making it a frequent stop for visitors who toured the building, where the central offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education are housed.

The space consists of two rooms, along with a doorway that leads to the courtyard where the sculptures were located. Prior to the closing, news articles, press releases and other historical documents were on display in the shop.

A “memorandum for the press” from September 2, 1938, announced the opening of the shop. The release highlighted Houser’s work on two murals, as well as an already-completed mural from Gerald Nailor, who was from the Navajo Nation. Like Fragua and the Grandbois family, both artists based their operations in New Mexico.

“Special treatment is being given to the decoration of the museum room, to create the proper background for the display of Indian culture,” reads the 1938 memo, which credited the announcement of the shop to then-Secretary Harold L. Ickes.

The Department of the Interior’s full statement about the Indian Craft Shop follows: