Historic Route 66 celebrates its 100^th anniversary in 2026. While the so-called “Mother Road” defined classic Americana–tourist kitsch, neon signs, roadside motels–most of its mid-century fame has faded into memory.

Along a sun-drenched, 150-mile stretch of Route 66 between Albuquerque and the New Mexico-Arizona state line, however, thousand-year-old traditions remain vibrant. The Pueblo of Isleta. The Pueblo of Sandia. The Pueblo of Laguna. The Pueblo of Zuni. The Navajo Nation. The otherworldly Acoma Pueblo: Sky City.

Route 66 through western New Mexico offers a concentrated look at historic and contemporary Native America. See for yourself the highs and lows. Breathtaking cultural heritage. Astonishing artwork. Colonization’s heartbreaking legacy. Glitzy casino/resorts. Poverty.

Albuquerque

The corner of 4^th Street and Central Avenue in downtown Albuquerque doesn’t seem exceptional. Look at the stoplights. Each one–all four–features the Historic Route 66 road sign. At this intersection, Route 66 intersects with itself.

This is the only place along its nearly 2500-mile stretch where it does that. The oddity is owed to political butt hurt.

The original 1926 path of Route 66 swung sharply northward at Santa Rosa in eastern New Mexico to include the state’s capital of Santa Fe before traversing back south to Albuquerque and then west toward Arizona. When Governor Arthur T. Hannett lost his re-election bid in 1927 to a candidate backed by the powerful Santa Fe political machine, he ordered a new highway constructed–a new Route 66–that would bypass Santa Fe and run straight from Santa Rosa to Albuquerque.

Upon completion of the new section in 1938, Santa Fe–and Hannett’s political enemies–were cut off from the economic engine of Route 66.

Begin your exploration of Native America along Route 66 in Albuquerque at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. Here, an introduction to the 19 Pueblos in present-day New Mexico is made through artwork, food, and dance. Admire the IPCC’s remarkable courtyard murals and special exhibitions. Most days, and particularly on weekends, Pueblo artists sell their work direct to visitors around the courtyard which hosts dance groups from the Pueblos every Saturday and Sunday. This is the only place in North America where Native American dances are performed every weekend. Be sure to see one.

IPCC also houses a fantastic Indian Pueblo Store selling museum-quality pottery, jewelry, and textiles, each treasure complete with a certificate of authenticity. The superfood blue corn griddle cakes at the on-site Indian Pueblo Kitchen are worth a visit themselves.

Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque protects one of the largest petroglyph sites in North America. The ancestors of today’s Pueblo people carved these images. While the Rio Grande Valley here has been inhabited by Indigenous people going back 10,000 years, most of the petroglyphs were etched between 1300 and 1650.

As with any outdoor activity in New Mexico, prepare for a harsh sun, alternately scorching heat or freezing cold depending on the season–this is desert–and potential dehydration. Albuquerque sits at 5,300 feet elevation and the combination of that elevation, the heat, and the dry desert air can take a toll on newbies.

The Pueblo of Sandia gets all the love in ABQ. Sandia Mountain, the aerial tramway to the peak, the fancy resort and casino, but don’t sleep on little Pueblo of Isleta south of town. Isleta has a spiffy resort and casino as well, but it’s Yonan Cultural Center is the gem here with a fantastic photography archive and two short films, one from 1898, the first moving images taken in New Mexico. Isleta also maintains one of the most well-preserved Catholic churches–a remnant of Spanish colonialism–and plazas among all the Pueblos.

Back in town, the Albuquerque Museum presents an excellent special exhibition related to Route 66’s centennial through January 3, 2027. The focus is Petroliana and car culture, not Native America, but it provides good context. Admission is free Sundays from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Take a cruise up Central Ave.–Route 66–before leaving. Admire the modestly sized, historic Native murals at 510 Central Ave., and Nani Chacon’s building-filling pottery lowrider three blocks away at the Arrive hotel.

Native Art Galleries In Albuquerque:

(A partial list)

Gallery Hózhó

Arrowsoul Trading Post

Allen Aragon Gallery

Penfeld Gallery

Gertrude Zachary jewelry

ABQ Eats:

Sadie’s

El Pinto

Tiny Grocer ABQ

Curious Toast Cafe

Barelas Coffee House

Church Street Café

Downtown Saturday Growers’ Market

World Famous Laguna Burger

Interstate 40 has subsumed what was once Route 66 across stretches of New Mexico. The “Mother Road” was decommissioned in 1984. Progress.

Forty-five miles west of Albuquerque at Exit 114 along I-40 find the Pit Stop convenience store and world famous Laguna Burger. Burgers became part of feast day celebrations at the Pueblo of Laguna in the mid-20^th century. Their popularity grew. In 2005, the Pueblo began sharing its green chile cheeseburger with the world.

Today, multiple Laguna Burger locations can be found around the state–including across the street from the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center–but a visit to the Pit Stop location at Exit 114 is worth your while. As is taking Route 66 through the village of Laguna.

The story of Native America is not so easy here. Houses surrounding the hilltop Mission Church a couple minutes’ drive from Laguna Burger have seen better days. The community persists; prosper lies in the eye of the beholder. All the more reason to see for yourself. Travel as witness. Native America beyond the Vegas-style casinos and chic cultural centers.

Look at the cars. Look at the homes. Look at the roads. Look at the schools. Think about it. Pull off the side of the road and think about it.

Ask before taking photos or videos. At all the Pueblos. Error on the side of not. The Pueblo and the people are not living history props. Here’s a handy guide to Pueblo etiquette.

September is a big month for feast days at Laguna with the 19^th being the largest event.

Gallup And The Navajo Nation

From Laguna, make the 90-mile trip west to Gallup skipping by the Pueblo of Acoma for now. Continuing to follow Route 66 has its own rewards, but using the interstate cuts driving time in half.

Gallup represents the most Route 66 town among all the Route 66 towns in New Mexico. Six thousand tourist cars per day used to stream through Albuquerque and Gallup at the “Mother Road’s” 50s and 60s peak. Not anymore. Not after I-40. The flood of tourists and tourist dollars has slowed to a trickle. Abandoned storefronts in Gallup equal those occupied.

Gallup can be hard to get your head around. Not only the businesses that have gone out of business–motels advertising color TV as an amenity–but those that remain operating, primary among them, the trading posts. Gallup is famous for trading posts.

Trading posts continue a system born out of the horrific Navajo livestock reduction program. Navajo people had their sheep–their food supply and source of income–slaughtered by the federal government. No good reason. Settler colonialism. As a result, the Navajo became economically dependent upon government subsidies. The subsidies, naturally, operated through white traders.

Navajo people purchased goods from traders on store credit or in trade for items they made. The relationship was exploitative from the start. Trading posts have become more equitable over time, but hardly equitable in all circumstances.

Gallup remains the epicenter of trading posts for tourists traveling along Route 66 looking to pick up a Native American souvenir. The caliber of those items ranges from counterfeit to museum-quality. How to know the difference?

Whether you’re purchasing pottery, Katsinas, fetishes, jewelry, paintings, even textiles, authentic, high quality Native American art being sold in a retail location should have an artist’s name attached to it. Not “authentic Indian art.” Not “Native made.” Remember the store at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center; every piece had an artist’s name and tribal affiliation connected to it.

Also, remember the store display at IPCC. Respectful to the objects. It looks like a Tiffany’s. If you walk into a trading post in Gallup and see thousands of objects crammed together on shelves like a going out of business sale at the Dollar Tree, then you’re buying Dollar Tree caliber tchotchkes. Curios. Trinkets. The Route 66 version of a snow globe.

If a trading post primarily uses discounts to sell merchandise, keep moving.

With pottery, if there are dozens of objects of the exact same size and shape, or multiple sizes of the same form, that pottery is most likely molded and kiln fired, not hand coiled and wood fired; you want the latter if you’re looking for a treasure. The molded pieces are often hand painted by Native artists, technically/legally rendering them “Native art,” but it’s shady. Note that Native artists do sell molded pottery as well.

If all you want is a souvenir, whatever; if you’re looking for heirloom quality Native American fine art you can cherish in your home for decades, be careful. Error on the side of caution. More knowledgeable shoppers than you have been fooled.

Purchasing turquoise jewelry can be tricky as well.

If the price seems too good to be true, it’s fishy. Again, remember pricing at IPCC to gauge. There are a thousand good places in New Mexico to purchase authentic Native American art of the highest quality–including numerous opportunities to do so direct from the artist–and you can do that in Gallup, but be careful.

Recommended Native American Art Retailers In Gallup:

(A partial list)

Silver Dust Trading

Zuni Fetishes Direct

Yazzi’s Indian Art

Direct from artists during annual Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial.

Gallup Eats:

Jerry’s Café (406 W Coal Ave, Gallup, NM 87301; no website)

Stop for anyone selling tamales or burritos along the road or from their house. Have cash.

Navajo Code Talkers

When the Navajo Code Talkers left their homeland bound for Japan and the essential communications work they performed in World War II, they departed from the train station in Gallup. The free Gallup Cultural Center next to the train station provides an excellent introduction to the Code Talkers as well as Navajo sand painting. Find the Code Talkers mural a couple blocks away.

Gallup’s Works Progress Administration courthouse is a wonder with spectacular–and mysterious–examples of Depression-era Native art. Take a tour if you’re able.

A thirty-minute drive north from Route 66 takes road trippers to Window Rock, AZ, capital of the Navajo Nation. Go there. See Window Rock. Visit the Navajo Nation Museum. The Navajo count 300,000-plus members among the tribe, second most populous in the United States behind only the Cherokee.

Pueblo of Zuni

Forty miles south of Route 66 from Gallup sits the Pueblo of Zuni. The Zuni have a stronger tourism infrastructure than most Pueblos with a visitor and arts center, tours, restaurants, shops, accommodations, and public feast days and celebrations.

Opportunities to purchase artwork directly from the makers abound. Look up Raylan and Patty Edaakie for A++ jewelry.

Acoma Pueblo: Sky City

The most alluringly named visitor destination in America belongs to Acoma Pueblo: Sky City. Hearing it described seems like something out of a dream. A village continuously inhabited since roughly 1100 AD–the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States–perched 360 feet atop a mesa with commanding views of the surrounding valley.

Acoma’s reality equals the fantasy of its moniker.

Begin your exploration at the exceptional visitor center and museum where most days artists will be selling their work direct to visitors. Guests can only access Sky City by taking a tour. Tours run hourly, 9:30 AM until 3:30 PM, seven days a week.

Tours visit the mesa-top Catholic church. The Acoma people were enslaved to construct the building. The violence of European colonization across the North American continent may have achieved a grisly apex at Acoma when, following a siege by Spanish conquistadors in 1595, a massacre occurred killing hundreds. Male survivors of the slaughter over age 25 had their right foot cut off. Women and children were enslaved. The Acoma Massacre.

Acoma eventually merged the Catholicism forced upon it with its traditional spirituality–as many Pueblos have–and today, Christmastime is a major celebration. The Pueblo is closed to visitors on Christmas Day, but on Christmas Eve, one of the most remarkable sights you will ever witness has a thousand luminarias lining the road to Sky City.

Acoma’s annual schedule of closures and public events can be found here.

The Pueblo operates Sky City Casino Hotel 60 miles west of Albuquerque just off the interstate. The interstate that rendered Route 66 mostly obsolete after only 60 years. Sixty years in America can seem like a long time. Not in Native America, where time is measured by seven generations and thousands of years.

Route 66 through western New Mexico represents a remnant of a bygone American past, and more importantly, a passageway through Native America’s dynamic present.

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