Some men measure their worth by what they accumulate; others by what they give away. Jackson Clark II and Ben Nighthorse Campbell were the latter kind, and Southwest Colorado was immeasurably richer for it. When the region lost Jackson on August 28, 2025, and Ben on December 30 of that same year, it lost two men whose lives had been quietly intertwined for nearly five decades—bound not by proximity alone, but by a shared code of loyalty, generosity, and an unwavering commitment to the artists they both served.
The Clark family’s roots in Durango reach back to the 1880s, when Jackson’s great-great-grandfather arrived and planted the first of many family businesses on Main Avenue. Jackson Clark Sr. founded Toh-Atin Gallery in 1957, naming it for a Navajo mesa meaning “No Water.” He built it into one of the most respected Native American art galleries in the country. Jackson Jr. grew up in that world, riding alongside his father, meeting weavers, potters, and jewelers, absorbing the ethic that art is not a commodity but a relationship. He earned a journalism degree at the University of Colorado, but Durango called him back. He spent the rest of his life there, making Toh-Atin not just a gallery but a community institution.
Ben Nighthorse Campbell came to Southwest Colorado by a different road. Born in Auburn, California, and shaped by poverty, time in the Air Force, and a discipline forged through Olympic-level judo, he opened a small shop in Old Sacramento where he hired Native artists and taught them his craft. He estimates he taught more than 100 people to make jewelry, and several significant careers trace their origins to him, among them, Gibson Nez and Victor Gabriel. When he was weighing a move and considering Wyoming, a chance encounter at the Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial with Navajo jeweler Jimmie King, who was associated with Toh-Atin Gallery, pointed him toward Durango instead. Ben arrived in the late 1970s with Linda and their family, drawn to the land near Ignacio. With the move, Southwest Colorado gained one of its most extraordinary citizens.
It was through the Indian Arts and Crafts Association that he and Jackson came to know each other well. The IACA brought together dealers, artists, and advocates who cared about the integrity of the market. Jackson served as the organization’s president. Ben showed his work through it. Both understood that protecting artists meant protecting something larger: a living culture that could too easily be exploited or displaced by imitation.
When Ben reached Congress, he made that protection law. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, which he championed, made it illegal to misrepresent non-Native work as Native American-made, safeguarding the authenticity of the market for thousands of Native American men and women artists.
Ben’s jewelry found a home at Toh-Atin, and over the course of more than a decade, the trust between the two families deepened into something that transcended business. Then Shanan Campbell, Ben and Linda’s daughter, who had begun working at Toh-Atin at 14 and eventually managed the gallery, opened Sorrel Sky Gallery in Durango in 2002.
What happened next says everything about who these men were. Ben called Jackson and told him that Toh-Atin had shown his work for years, and he planned to keep it there out of loyalty. Jackson declined, telling Ben that if his own child were opening a business and he had the chance to help him the way Ben could help Shanan, Ben would expect him to put family first. They both did what was right. The jewelry went to Sorrel Sky. Jackson and Shanan remained close friends and colleagues until his passing.
Those who knew these men describe them in nearly identical terms: they looked you in the eye, were genuinely glad to see you, made time, shared what they knew, and never stopped thinking about the other person’s interest. Neither confused success with money. Both understood that the point was stewardship, relationships, and family.
Shanan Campbell once served on the IACA board—the same organization where her father and Jackson stood side by side. The jewelry Ben made by hand is available exclusively at Sorrel Sky, and Ben’s grandson Luke Longfellow is keeping the creative Nighthorse legacy alive with Shanan. Antonia Clark, Jackson’s sister, has taken the helm at Toh-Atin. The thread these two families wove together over nearly 50 years holds. It will keep holding.
By Leanne Haase Goebel
