Lyon’s Indian Store

A great store to find quality Native American jewelry, beadwork, and gifts. Alas it has permanently closed after 100 years in Tulsa. RIP

Lyon’s Indian Store had all the trappings of a serious tourist joint from the outside, but inside the store I met some very nice people and saw a great collection of native American artwork, jewelry, and Minnetonka moccasins. Lyon’s is located along Detroit Avenue in downtown Tulsa, in between 1^st and 2^nd Streets, and it’s within the Blue Dome entertainment district.
I was in need of a new pair of soft-​soled moccasins to wear in the hotel room when I travel, and so on a whim I ducked inside Lyon’s to see what they offered. The lady walked me over to their surprisingly large collection of mocs, and I was able to find what I wanted in just a few minutes. It’s rare to find such a complete collection of styles, and so I was quite pleased that this was an easy shop.
The rest of their store is filled with beautiful turquoise and silver antique jewelry (earrings, necklaces, bracelets, belt buckles, and so on), as well as dream catchers, beading and feather supplies, hand-​tooled leather belts, cowboy hats, and native American costumes and crafts. The front section of the store is much more touristy with t-​shirts, candles, coloring books for the kids, and postcards.
I’d suggest skipping the touristy part of their shop, and spend more time walking around the glass display cases with the beautiful jewelry, and then walk back to the native artisans area.

I love Lyon’s Indian Store. Whenever I come back to Tulsa, my home town, from my home on the east coast, I make sure to schedule a trip to Lyon’s.What brings me in is the jewelry. There are beautiful vintage pieces — much of it made in the 40’s in workshops the previous generation of Lyons set up for Native artisans on their premises — and lots of contemporary jewelry (Native American and otherwise) at a range of prices. I’ve always enjoyed having moccasins from Lyon’s and other customers might go there for tooled belts or hats. It’s a small store with great service which has been a Tulsa fixture since the 1930’s!

For a place that calls themselves the largest store of Native American goods in Tulsa, I was expecting a store like you’d find in Old Town Albuquerque. Nope. It was one store, sliced into two parts. One side, it was filled with high priced Brighton type stuff that you could buy at the mall — candles, home plaques that say «faith» or what not, ornaments, etc. The left hand side of the store had Native American stuff.
The left hand side had a section to buy beads, leather laces, fur, bells, patterns, etc. for Native American costumes. I’m sure you could buy the same stuff at Garden Ridge, Michael’s or Hobby Lobby — except for the patterns. There was a big jewelery case, a small shoe section, a statue section (stone or ceramic painted horses, indian heads, etc.) There were two turnstiles of kid’s books. I picked up an indian cookbook (I’m a sucker for those cheap-​o part local history/​part cookbook 30 page things) for $ 4. I also got a pair of copper pony studs for $ 7. My husband went nutso and bought a carved dream box (about the size of a pill pox) for $ 11 (way too expensive IMO) and a stone tomahawk for $ 30. It was really too expensive for what he got — I think he just had money burning a hole in his pocket and it was the only big thing that wasn’t $ 100+. He had wanted to get a decorative pipe but those were about $ 200+ and I had to put my foot down.
All in all, I was really disappointed. Things I liked were way over-​priced. I wanted to get a storyteller figurine but they were like… $ 75+. You could find those WAY cheaper in the SW US. I wasn’t that impressed with the selection of goods by any means.