2023 was the fortieth year Toh-Atin Gallery has been located in our building on Ninth Street in Durango. It seems like it was just a few years ago that we moved into our new space!

Over the years, we have become accustomed to Jeanette Dale creating amazing jewelry. She puts her entire soul into crafting beautiful work, small and large.

In May of 2014, right after the Iron Horse Bicycle Race in Durango,  I was in the Gallery when Tommy Singer walked in wearing his motorcycle leathers. I had known Tommy for over thirty years and had sold his jewelry since the 1970s.

Marie Jackson learned to make jewelry from her in-laws, Martha and Gene. When she met her husband, Tommy, he had been silversmith for years.

"I watched Martha and Gene making jewelry, and they helped me to get started. Tommy encouraged me, too!" she says.

The two premier celebrations of Native Americans in the Southwest bring thousands of people to Gallup and Santa Fe during August of every year. The two events run back to back; both are wonderful and entirely different. The Gallup Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial ended on Sunday, and I want to share a little about it with you.

Before we opened our gallery in Durango, we used to buy and sell rugs and jewelry out of my father’s office in his Pepsi Cola.  We were lucky to meet and work with many well-known and accomplished artists. Many of these people became, famous for their work. 

Back in the 1930's Sallie Wagner Lippincott and her husband, Bill, purchased the Wide Ruins Trading Post in Arizona. She was a young, dynamic woman who truly loved the Navajo people she worked with. But there was one thing she didn't like about how things were going at the trading post.

Mark Chee (1914-1981) was one of the Navajo Nation's most famous silversmiths. His silverware work was precise and clean. He used top-quality turquoise. Toward the end of his career, he always had a line of customers waiting for his work

It is with great pride that we share the exciting accomplishments of two members of our extended Toh-Atin Gallery family!

Sallie Lippincott and her husband, Bill Wagner, purchased the Wide Ruins Trading Post in the 1930s when she was only 28. They were the first traders on the reservation who required their weavers to use vegetal dyes.

We consider Navajo weaving one of America’s most important and wonderful art forms, and one of our favorite weavers is Geanita John.

On Friday, April 21, Mom was the first one at the Gallery. She usually has been for the past 40 years. She would unlock the building, get the lights on, fire up the computer, and get the Gallery ready for business.