50 Years of Garland's: Our Story

This year, Garland’s is celebrating 50 years as a family-run business! When we look back at faded Polaroids of our gallery from the early days, we see how much has changed since the era of analog technology, orange carpet, and 1970s style, but we also see what has remained the same: personal relationships and handmade art are still at the heart of the business. In honor of this milestone, we wanted to share a bit of our story.

Garland’s Navajo Rugs: The Beginning Years

Garland’s Navajo Rugs opened in 1976 in Sedona, Arizona. Our gallery was founded by Bill and Georgiana Garland, along with their son and daughter-in-law, Dan and Tricia Garland. Our family’s deep roots in Arizona - including Georgie’s father who worked for the Red Lake Trading Post in the 1920s - meant that Southwestern Native American art was already familiar and cherished. Bill was drawn to the uniqueness of Navajo (Diné) weaving in particular, believing it to be an art form a machine could never replicate. Native American jewelry surged in popularity in the 1970s and was the focus of many nearby trading posts, but Bill envisioned a store specializing in a wide selection of Navajo rugs.

Construction began on the red rock building in 1975. Bill designed a structure reminiscent of a traditional trading post that blended in with its high desert surroundings, complete with Sedona red rocks, thick wooden beams, and even hitching posts for horses. He drove up to Taos, New Mexico in his pickup truck and purchased hand-carved wooden posts, made by artisans of Taos Pueblo, that still hold up the front porch today.

As the building took shape, Bill and Dan set out to gather the inventory. “In the beginning, there were no weavers coming into the store, so some of the best memories that my dad and I had were of our trips to the Navajo Reservation,” Dan recalled. “We spent time going into trading posts and buying rugs, learning about them and trying to get a feel for which rugs came from where, and comparing values. Of course, we wanted to buy directly from the weavers, but first we had to discover which rugs were made in what parts of the reservation and what their comparable values were.”

As Bill and Dan visited trading posts and deepened their knowledge of Navajo weaving, the foundation for the business took shape. It wasn’t long before weavers began walking into the store with rugs they had woven. The increased use of pickup trucks on the Navajo Nation had created new opportunities for weavers to drive to nearby larger towns and seek out good cash prices, rather than solely relying on their local trading post as had been done for many years.

“We would treat them fairly and give them cash prices rather than trade goods,” said Dan. “We tried to give the weavers a price more than what the trading post would give them, and they appreciated that and kept coming.” As word spread of Garland’s reputation for fair and generous dealings, an increasing number of artists were drawn to the Sedona gallery.

To this day, it remains a highlight to see weavers bring in new rugs. Steve Mattoon, who joined Garland’s Rugs in 1981 and managed the gallery for decades, shared, “One of my favorite parts of working with the weavers has always been seeing them come in with a new rug. It’s always great to see a weaver that I have known for years and fun to see the new weaving they just completed. We get to catch up on what they have been doing, talk about any future projects and of course, buy the rug. It’s such a positive interaction.”

Initially, most Navajo weavers who came in did not speak English. At that time, it was common for Navajo individuals over 40 years old to speak only Diné bizaad (Navajo language), while those younger than 40 usually had learned English in school. Bill, Georgie, Dan, and Tricia took evening classes at Northern Arizona University to learn the Navajo language from a teacher named Danny Blackgoat. They learned numbers and phrases for basic conversation and purchasing, which Dan still uses today with some weavers.

Weaver Blanch Hale

Steve reflected on this unique cultural exchange. “One thing that stands out to me when I think about the early days is how many weavers we were meeting for the first time and how many of the weavers were older, very traditional Navajo women. They didn’t speak English, wore traditional clothing and had spent their whole life herding sheep, chopping wood, hauling water, taking care of the family and weaving rugs. It really was like the pickup truck that brought them down was a time machine that transported them from 19th-century Tolani Lake to 20th-century Sedona. I felt that we were in such a unique situation to be able to interact with the Navajo people, learn about their culture, appreciate their rug weaving expertise, gain their trust and form relationships that in some cases have lasted for 50 years.”

Support for artists soon went beyond the art itself. “We just became further connected with families, so as things went along if the grandfather passed away, they would call us and we would send them money to help pay for the funeral. We really became part of the families and that has been a beautiful part of it,” said Dan.

This mutual respect and support became a foundation of the business. “One of the things that impressed me from the very start was the relationship with the weavers,” said Steve, pictured with weaver Betty Ann Nez and husband, Junior. “It wasn’t just a commercial relationship - it went deeper than that, and I could see it really was something special.”

The approach to directly supporting Native American artists would blossom into relationships with multiple generations of artists over the next 50 years. As relationships grew, so did the inventory. We soon incorporated other handmade Native art forms to the gallery, including pottery, baskets, and Hopi kachinas. Each art form opened up a rich world of tradition, meaning, and connections with artists. Weaving remained a central focus, and by the 1990s, Garland’s showcased over 5,000 unique Navajo rugs, representing the largest selection in the world.

Garland’s Jewelry

In 1985, Bill Garland built a second gallery, dedicated to Native American jewelry, on a historic property called Indian Gardens in nearby Oak Creek Canyon. The gallery cultivated a collection of jewelry from Navajo (Diné), Hopi, Zuni, Santo Domingo (Kewa), and other regional Native artists, as well as work by select Southwestern jewelers. Bill managed the jewelry store until the mid-1990s, when his daughter Susan Garland and son-in-law Alan Grodzinsky took over. In 2007, the jewelry store changed hands within the family again, and the jewelry and rug stores came together under Dan and Tricia’s ownership. Since 2018, our online gallery has featured the inventory of both stores.

“Even though I had appreciated this jewelry for many years, once we became involved in the jewelry store it was really special to get to know the jewelry artists personally and learn their creative process. I had no idea the level of intricate work each piece requires. It deepened my appreciation,” Tricia reflected.

“Also, I’m a people person,” continued Tricia, “so I just love getting to know these wonderful artists and their families. I love hearing their stories, histories, and diverse traditions.”

Like weaving, jewelry making is often a family tradition, with skills and designs passed from one generation to the next. Over the years, we’ve had the joy of working with parents and their children or grandchildren, siblings, cousins, and extended families of jewelers.

Family continues to be at the heart of Garland’s too. Three of Dan and Tricia's children have worked in the business, with two actively involved today. Their grandson has also lent a hand in recent summers, marking five generations of Garlands working with Native American art.

Thank you!

While we’ve grown over these 50 years, much of what makes Garland’s a special place has stayed the same. Our artists still visit from across the Southwest daily, bringing with them their latest creations. We’ve had the honor of representing thousands of artists, including some of the most renowned jewelers, weavers, carvers, and potters. Along the way, longtime staff at Garland’s, colleagues in the field, and customers near and far have become dear friends and integral threads in our story. As Dan has always said, there are two equally rewarding parts to this work: supporting the art and the artists who make it, and sharing their creations with the people who will treasure them.

The history of Indigenous peoples in our country is undoubtedly complex. Within that history, Native art is a living tradition, full of beauty and vitality and carried forward by each new generation of artists. We consider it a privilege to directly support this craftsmanship and the artists and families behind it. Just as Native peoples were the original stewards of this land, we extend the notion of stewardship to these pieces of art. Whether antique or contemporary, hand-woven or hand-forged, each piece tells a story, and each customer becomes the next steward of its beauty. As the piece is shared and its story is passed on, something meaningful is spread. In a world that’s moving fast and can sometimes feel further removed from what’s human, perhaps handmade art brings us back to that which is essentially human. We’re grateful to be a part of that.

Thank you to our customers and artists for a wonderful 50 years!

A look back at the early years...