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Samuel Manymules, Navajo, describes his "Perfect World" pot

We have several pots created by Samuel Manymules, who won to awards at this year's Indian Market. We were particualar struck by this pot when we encountered Samuel in his Indian Market booth.

We asked him to describe it on video tape for our viewers.




When you visit our website, click on the Navajo buttons on the navigation panel.

Lena Boone, Zuni fetish carver, talks about her family and carving.

Lena Boone has long been one of our favorite Zuni carvers. We meet her early in our pursuit of wonderful Zuni fetishes, possibly 20 years ago.

Lena is very productive, very gracious, and very giving of her love, care and attention to others.

She also is very unassuming.

An unfortunate aspect of In this video, during which she talks about her family, both ancestral and current, is my difficulty in arranging a proper video interview venue. Once she agreed, I had to settle for the venue at hand. It was a noisy booth at this year's Indian Market (2010).

The background sound is terrible, and I have not figured out how to filter it out, if that is even possible. If I do, I will re-post the video at a later time.

But for now, please listen carefully and learn about Lena's connection to the legendary Teddy Weahkie, one of the original Zuni fetish carvers, and how she fosters the talent of youngsters who have been in her care.

She is a truly remarkable woman.

You may see many pieces by Lena Boone on her pages at ZuniLink.com - click on one of her pages in the left hand navigation column. Then click on additional pages (there are five) as you go.

You may also use the search box on the Zuni Link home page and enter "Boone" too access carvings by her and Leland Boone, Emery Boone and Evalena Boone.

A fetish carving by Lena Boone not only brings traditional Zuni values of healing and protection but also carries the personal spirit and caring of Lena herself.


Thank you.
A highlight of our visit to New Mexico has been the 2010 Gallup InterTribal Indian Ceremonial, including the night parade that kicks it off.

We videotaped portions of it, which are shown in the following embedded youtube videos. Because of the length of the parade, we had to divide it into two parts. Watch both to get the full impact of the event.




We love the richness of Indian culture, its fidelity to family values, its enthusiasm and its arts, including Zuni carvings, Native American jewelry and Pueblo pottery, all of which are presented for purchase on our web sites. Thank you.

Zuni fetish carver, Burt Awelagte, tells about his carvings

While we were in Zuni and Gallup for the InterTribal, we visited Burt Awelagte in his home on the Zuni Pueblo. Here is what he had to say about his materials, his tools, his art and his vision. Fascinating!

More of Burt's Zuni fetish carvings will soon be posted on our ZuniLink website. Make a point to visit it in the future. Thank you

Sheryl Mahooty discusses her Zuni turtle fetish carvings

One of our favorite places to stay is on the Zuni Pueblo. It's the Inn at Halona, about which we will write more later.

During this stay, in 2010, we met Sheryl Mahooty. Sheryl carves Zuni fetishes, preferring to carve turtles, although she carves other creatures too, as the humorous bit in this video interview shows.

As with many Native American artists, Sheryl augments her carving income by working at a second job. In her case, it is as a cook in the kitchen at the Inn at Halona. She helps to prepare the delicious breakfasts that the Inn serves to overnight guests. At the end of this video, she refers to the "B&B". Halona is the place she is talking about.




We were particularly fascinated by Sheryl's story because of her interpretation of turtle nesting and nurturing. As sometime residents of Sanibel iIsland, we are very aware of turtle nesting on the island beaches. So, we offer Sheryl's story (and her carvings) to all nature lovers and turtle fans. Enjoy.

ATADA addresses Federal raids on Native American artifact dealers and collectors.

We attended a meeting of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association on August 16, 2010 in Santa Fe.

The subject was the incidences of raids conducted by Federal investigators in the homes and premises of dealers in Native American pre-historic artifacts.

While ATADA opposes and condemns the behavior of the some bad actors in the pre-historic artifacts trade. But the ATADA maintains that the raids and allegations against a wide number of dealers, three of whom committed suicide, were without legal basis.

Jim Owen, a retired attorney, collector and member of ATADA, provided these comments at the meeting.




We do not endorse or rebut these observations. We are not attorneys. We feel, however, that the more you know about this controversy, the better you will be prepared to draw your own conclusions.

Brian Yatsattie tells about his Zuni fetish art.

During our travels in the Southwest, we found Brian Yatsattie at his home. We have carried Brian's Zuni fetish carvings for a while, having first met him at the Santo Domingo Arts & Crafts Festival in 2009. His six directions carvings, created in antler are still available on our web site.

This year, we acquired more Zuni fetishes from him and also had an opportunity to videotape him outside of his home, which now is on San Felipe Pueblo. Here is the Brian Yatsattie in his own words.



Brian's new Zuni carvings will soon be posted at http://www.ZuniLink.com. Come back and look in a few days.

Thank you.

Colin Coonsis, Zuni jewelry artist speaks at the Wheelwright Museum

We have been very privileged to have several Native American artists appear on our video camera to talk about their work and their motivations. If you scroll down, you will find videos by Dee Edaakie and Melvin Sandoval.

Now, we were able to videotape Colin Coonsis as he was speaking to a group at the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, NM. His exposition is compelling in its honesty and fascinating in its detail.



We are pleased to consider Colin a friend. We have done business with his mother, Rolanda Haloo, and are showing on our web site a photo of an extraordinary inlaid concho belt created by his father, Harlan Coonsis. Beautiful work by Harlan and Rolanda can be seen at our web site, Native-JewelryLink.com. New items acquired from Colin will be posted there shortly.

Meet Dee Edaakie, Zuni Pueblo fetish carver.

Today, we met with Dee Edaakie, one of our favorite Zuni carvers. We enjoy Dee both because of his superb and inventive carving and because he is a genuinely nice person. He came to our Santa Fe casita, accompanied by his young daughter. We purchased four carvings from him, and induced him to tell you about them in this video.



We hope that getting to know the carvers we work with and who we support will give you an even better sense of what Zuni fetish carvings are about. You will see more of Dee Edaakie's work and that of other carvers at ZuniLink, our web site featuring these outstanding works and the artists that create them.

A video interview with Melvin Sandoval

This blog contains a video. Scroll down to view it.


Introduction

Yesterday, we had the great pleasure of spending some time with Melvin Sandoval in his San Felipe Pueblo home.

We were driving through the Pueblo on our way to another meeting when we passed Melvin's home. One of his sons was in the front yard tending to the corn crop that was in various stages of ripening. Melvin later told us some of it already had been harvested, while other rows are still to reach maturity.

We pulled into Melvin's driveway and called to his son, "Is Melvin here?" In less than thirty seconds, Melvin emerged from behind his tidy, manufactured home. His hands were filled with small pieces of stone and covered with dust. We had caught him in the act of carving.

After a few seconds of "who are you?" looks from Melvin, we identified ourselves, "Susanne and Bill Waites". We had not seen Melvin for a couple of years. His appearance had changed and so had ours. Of course, we had the advantage of knowing where we were. For Melvin, we were just two people who appeared unannounced in a (rental) car he didn't recognize.

As the light of recognition came on, there were hearty, "How are you"s, followed by embraces of reunion.

Melvin invited us into his home and we sat at his dining table, catching up. He has a new granddaughter, by name of Madison, and he had started carving in earnest again, after a break for family and pueblo duties.

He showed us some of his newest carvings - a couple of otters, a couple of wolves and an eagle. The first four are in dolomite, a stone he likes to carve but has not had much supply of lately. The eagle is in travertine.

As he shared his vision, artistry and motivation with us, we asked if we could record him talking about it.


The Video:



Acknowledgements:

We enjoy our time with Melvin, as we do with all of our artist friends from Native America.

It is one of the fringe benefits of operating web sites that feature their work - ZuniLink.com, Native-JewelryLink.com, Native PotteryLink.com and TribalWorks.com.

We hope you also will enjoy this encounter with Melvin Sandoval, a San Felipe carver with ties to Zuni and a deft touch in the Zuni style. His new carvings will be available on ZuniLink in September.