In 1940, Alva Turney started trading across the Navajo and Hopi reservations with medical supplies from his home state of Oklahoma.

Eventually the medical supplies would change into jewelry, rugs, pottery, and baskets, as Alva Turney transformed from traveling salesman into Indian Trader for the next 20 years.

In 1960, he opened a small Trading Post on S. 3rd street in Gallup, New Mexico, where he continued trading with the Navajo and Zuni craftsmen.

As business grew, Alva needed some part-time help to keep up the store, and hired Keith Wallace, a 12-year-old local boy, to help clean the floor and wash the windows.

Keith continued to work on Saturdays and through the summer months for the next ten years.

After graduating from high school in 1969, Keith began working at Turney’s full time. And, in 1972, Turney’s Trading Company became a corporation.

A few years later in 1974, as the business continued to grow, Irl Wallace, Keith’s brother, started working with Alva Turney and Keith. And together, they continued their trade with the local craftsmen of the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni and Acoma Indian reservations for the next 45 years.

Over that time, Turneys Trading Co., grew from a small, one-man shop to become one of the major wholesale distributors for authentic Native American jewelry and arts and crafts in the Southwest.

Today, a third generation of traders, Keith’s sons Nolan and Austin, continue to carry on the tradition of supplying the industry with quality, handmade Native America arts and crafts to the wholesale market.