Native-owned small businesses will take over the parking lot of the Tigua Business Center this Saturday for a Native Business Market, offering handmade crafts, pottery, and food to the public from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The event, set for August 15 at 9180 Socorro Road on the Tigua Indian Reservation in El Paso, is open to everyone and designed as a family-friendly community gathering.
According to KTSM 9 News, the market will showcase Native-owned small businesses, artisans and service providers alongside food, live entertainment and family activities. Melissa Senclair, a representative from the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, joined Mike Martinez and Tricia Martinez on Second Cup on KTSM+ this week to preview the event, showing off a traditional ribbon skirt and jewelry made by participating small businesses.
“It's a great way to support the entrepreneurs, their families and just the creativity and hard work that goes into building a business,” Senclair said, describing the range of items attendees can expect to find, per the same report.
A Sovereign Nation With Deep Roots in El Paso
The market takes place on the reservation of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, more commonly known as the Tigua, one of only three federally recognized Native American tribes in Texas and the state's only Pueblo community, according to the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. Established in 1682 by Southern Tiwa people forced south from Spanish New Mexico after the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, the tribe describes itself as the oldest continuously existing community and government in Texas. Not long after settling in the El Paso Valley, the Tigua built an extensive acequia canal system along the Rio Grande that sustained an agricultural economy of wheat, corn and livestock in the arid region.
That history of self-sufficiency carries into the tribe's modern economic programs. The tribe maintains roughly 4,226 enrolled members nationwide and employs nearly 1,200 people regionally across its various enterprises, with tribal citizens holding about 30% of those jobs, per tribal figures cited by the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. Revenue generated through tribal enterprises helps fund healthcare, housing, education, and other essential services for the community.
Financial Support Behind Local Entrepreneurs
Small vendors like those featured at the market often draw on infrastructure built specifically to help Native entrepreneurs get off the ground. The Tigua Community Development Corporation operates as a certified Native Community Development Financial Institution, providing small-business loans, technical guidance and incubator programs for Ysleta del Sur Pueblo entrepreneurs, according to Tribal Business News. The tribe has also merged its Native Pathways workforce program, funded through federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act grants across 122 West Texas counties, into its Department of Economic Development to address a tribal unemployment rate historically estimated at 14%, three times the national average, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The tribe's economic sovereignty has also been shaped by the courts. In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Ysleta del Sur Pueblo v. Texas that the state cannot prohibit electronic bingo on tribal lands, finding that a 1987 federal law only bars gaming activities explicitly outlawed under Texas criminal law, per Faegre Drinker. Gaming revenue from tribal enterprises like the Speaking Rock Entertainment Center helps fund infrastructure and community development on the reservation. Federal legislation introduced in July 2025 would place Texas tribes fully under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, aiming to resolve remaining regulatory conflicts stemming from the 1987 law, according to Holland & Knight.
Cultural Preservation Alongside Commerce
The Native Business Market fits into a broader pattern of the tribe pairing commerce with cultural preservation. The Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Cultural Center already provides dedicated retail space for tribal members to sell authentic Tigua attire and handcrafted goods, and it hosts open traditional bread-baking demonstrations on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month, according to Visit El Paso. In 2021, the National Park Service designated the tribe as home to the first Tribal Historic Preservation Office in Texas, granting federal authority and funding to preserve traditional practices and historic assets.
For Saturday's event, the emphasis stays local and personal: independent vendors selling their own crafts, jewelry, and food directly to neighbors and visitors. The market runs from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Tigua Business Center parking lot on the Tigua Indian Reservation, with organizers framing it as a chance for the community to support entrepreneurs building their businesses from the ground up.
