We don’t carry a lot of Native art from Alaska, but occasionally, we are asked to sell examples by collectors. I have always been attracted to the work. Traditional pieces are among the oldest forms of Native American art in the Americas.

Wilson and Carol Begay were raised at Manulito, not far from Gallup. Carol went to school at the Navajo Bible Mission by the Catholic Church there. One of her earliest memories of Wilson was when he and a group of boys would come to the school to play basketball. Carol's mother always told her not to hang around with those boys and to come home if they were down at the school.

Jeanette Dale and her husband Harry live on the Navajo Nation, about halfway between Gallup and Shiprock, off to the west of the highway near a beautiful rock formation. For about fifty years, she has been known to dealers in Indian jewelry as one of the best and least-known Navajo silversmiths.