Elizabeth Medina was born in Jemez in 1956 and later married Marcellus Medina and moved to his pueblo of Zia.  We just received a new collection of these pieces.

In 2011, near the end of the Mayan Calendar, I ran into Lawrence Namoki while pumping gas into my car in Tuba City where the road intersects to take visitors south to the Hopi Mesa.

The year was 1912 and conditions were critical at the Neglected Mine, high in the LaPlata Mountains of Southwest Colorado. Eighteen miners were stranded without food in freezing temperatures with ten feet of snow on the ground. The angel who came to save them was 5’4” tall and weighed about 130 pounds.

Being a judge at the Gallup Ceremonial is a special honor. And not being discriminatory, I think that the weaving category is the most exciting.If you have been to the Santa Fe Indian Market, one of the things you will notice is that there are not many booths that feature Navajo weaving. That isn’t to say that some of the best weavers don’t show there. They do, but the number is limited.

I believe that the Squash Blossom necklace is one the most beautiful jewelry designs in the history of the world!

How’s that for a strong opinion?

Back in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, when there was an explosion of interest in Southwest Indian jewelry, the Pueblo of Zuni was a very busy place. Silver and lapidary artists made jewelry as fast as they could and still couldn’t satisfy the market.

Today I am going to share a story with you about a man I never knew. He was a wonderful artist who captured the beauty of the Navajo reservation as well as anyone has.

When the Spanish came to the Southwest, their mission was the three Gs: Gold, Glory and God. They used to teach that in school!

Gold, and riches, were the number one objective for the conquistadors.

Barbara Wells had an unusual childhood. Her father, J.W. “Duke” Wellington, was the superintendent of the Fort Belknap/Rocky Boy Reservations from 1946 - 1954. The Fort Belknap Reservation is shared by two Native American tribes, the Gros Ventre and the Assiniboine, a tribe belonging to the linguistic family of the Sioux.

Gilbert Maxwell’s book Navajo Rugs, Past, Present and Future, which was published in 1963, was my first introduction to reading about Navajo weaving. I was 20 years old and had grown up around weaving, so I had a basic understanding of the art form.

But I really didn’t have a clue about its history.

This weaving was owned by the Hubbell Trading Company’s wholesale house in Winslow, Arizona. J.L. Hubbell Jr. owned this company and operated between 1924 and 1953.

If you are from the Denver area, and old enough, you might remember a time when the gift shop at the Denver Museum of Natural History had one of the finest selections of Native American Indian arts and crafts in the country. It’s now known as the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.