Native American Craft Stores Added to Downtown Phoenix’s Early Allure

The Graves Indian Shop, managed by Glen Skiles, advertised itself as “The Most Interesting Store in Phoenix” in 1928. Long before Local First Arizona was established, the shop engaged in community marketing during the Christmas season by showcasing handwoven baskets filled with cactus candy from Donofrio’s, a nearby confectionery in Downtown Phoenix.

Skiles apparently didn’t set out to be a trader in fine Native American crafts, including baskets, pottery, jewelry, and Navajo blankets. Glen Skiles graduated with a law degree from Ohio State," says his nephew, Frederick C. Berry, Jr. "However, I don’t see where he ever practiced law. Glen married Florence Berry and moved to Phoenix because of her tuberculosis.” 

Marketing Native American crafts in Downtown Phoenix dates back at least to the Balke Curio Store, which opened in 1899.

The store with which Skiles was associated, Graves Indian Shop, opened at 7 East Adams Street in 1911. E.L. Graves moved from Pasadena to operate the business. “Eastern tourists frequently remark when they first enter the Graves Indian Shop that it is not only the most interesting store they have seen but the most beautiful,” noted an article in The Arizona Republic. 

The shop quickly developed a national reputation and filled an order for four Navajo blankets for U.S. Vice President Thomas R. Marshall in 1913. That same year, Graves visited trading posts on Navajo Tribal Lands and purchased blankets ranging in size from 2 to 12 feet square, priced from $2.50 to $250 at his store.

Navajo weavers would sometimes perform demonstrations at Graves Indian Shop. “See how they card and spin the wool, how the loom is made, the warp put on, how the actual weaving is done,” read an ad in the Republic. “Every process in blanket weaving will be shown, up to the finished blanket. After seeing the Indians at work, you will be better able to appreciate the fine, clean wool and the careful workmanship.” 

In 1929, Skiles purchased the Graves Indian Shop, then located at 16 North Central Avenue, and renamed it Skiles Indian Store. He had other locations, including the Arizona Biltmore and Hotel Westward Ho in Phoenix, the San Marcos Hotel in Chandler, and the Hot Springs Trading Store at Castle Hot Springs. “These were other ‘closet stores’ in some of the local dude ranches and fancy hotels as well,” says Berry, a Phoenix attorney.

The Central Avenue shop catered to tourists arriving on passenger trains at Union Station. “Native American silversmiths would conduct their work inside the windows of the Skiles Indian Store to attract customers,” Berry says.

Skiles Indian Store survived the Great Depression, and Berry’s father, Frederick Curtis Berry, Sr., took it over starting around 1936. “When Uncle Glen died, my father was asked to move here from Columbus, Ohio, to manage the store, which he did until the outbreak of World War II when he enlisted in the Army Air Corps,” Berry says. The store moved to a new location at 215 North Central a few months before closing, thus ending its reign as Phoenix’s most interesting store.

Douglas C. Towne is the editor of Arizona Contractor & Community magazine, www.arizcc.com