Welcome to theTraditional Arts Pages
Where our mission is to help preserve and promote
Why Traditional Arts Need Preservation
High Mountain Hoopla has been a trader and collector of handcrafts since the beginning of it's business. In a world of highly evolved commerce and manufacturing the art of handcrafts is being lost. This is happening for many reasons like financial pressures to produce quickly. Many traditional crafts are a part of heritage and generational knowledge that is will be forgotten as newer generations become more modernized.
In parallel to modernization a large number of the artisans are dependent on their crafts for survival. Though their goods are exquisite the dollar per hour earned is generally very low. This leads to poverty that is may be accompanied with malnourishment, low education quality and vagrancy.
Many organizations like The Fair Trade Federation have recognized the need to help to preserve these traditional values and also elevate the standard of living for prosperous present and future generations. FTF does this by setting a standard price for goods sold on a global level. High Mountain Hoopla would like to contribute to this cause by supporting these artisan types, retailing their goods for a fair amount, telling their story and the story behind their product.
There are many noteworthy foundations and non-profit organizations that are trying to help in the same battle of preserving tradition and fighting poverty. HMH’s site would also like to support these organizations by helping others network with them.
The Sante Fe Market is a tradition that started in the 1960's. It is a show case for any American Indian artisan to showcase their work and sell to the public. Every Sunday people gather to buy and sell
Is there a problem?
A major cause of poverty in Native American communities is the persistent lack of opportunity. The Economic Research Service reports that Native American communities have fewer full-time employed individuals than any other high-poverty community. Only 36 percent of males in high-poverty Native American communities have full-time, year-round employment. On the Blackfoot Reservation in Montana, for example, the annual unemployment rate is 69 percent. The national unemployment rate at the very peak of the Great Depression was around 25 percent.