This black stone-polished jar by Angela Baca was awarded a First Premium award at the New Mexico State Fair in 1974.

Angela Baca started making pottery professionally around 1955 and continued for the next fifty years or so.  She was the daughter of Severa Tafoya (1890-1973) who was the sister of Van Gutierrez of the Lela and Van Gutierrez family.  Angela followed in her mother's style of shape and design.  They both became famous for melon jars and bear paw jars. 

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When one visits the Hopi villages to witness a Katsina Dance in the plaza, it is generally the culmination of a 9-day ceremony that has been secretly on-going in the kiva and not open to the public. This is a kiva scene pictured by Raymond Naha (1933-1975). A drummer is beating his drum and a chanter is singing.  The young men sitting around are probably initiates.  There is a bowl and ladle next to the drummer that probably contains sacred cornmeal or other medicine.  The basket on the floor appears to hold smoking pipes and a feather.  On the kiva wall is painted a Rainbow Man and a Hopi boy.  Other items hang on the wall.

Hopi-Tewa artist Raymond Naha was born in the village of Polacca, which is at the foot of First Mesa, on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona on December 5, 1933. He studied under Fred Kabotie at Oraibi High School. Kabotie recognized Naha's talent and encouraged him to continue his studies. Naha then took correspondence courses and studied at the Phoenix Indian School, which was the end of his formal art education.  His progress from then was purely self-motivated.  

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The Hemis and Sio Hemis Katsinas are probably the most beautiful and best known of all Hopi Katsinas. Their elaborate headdress, called a tableta, is partly responsible for their attraction. They both wear a kilt, and around the waist a Hopi embroidered sash.

These katsinas appear in the Home Dance or Niman Ceremony. No other katsinas, neither clowns nor side dancers appear with the line of Hemis except the Hemis Manas. It is interesting to note that at Hopi, they refer to the Sio Hemis Katsina as having come from the Rio Grande Jemez Pueblo of New Mexico. At Jemez Pueblo, they refer to a similar dance as a Hopi dance.

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This untitled oil pastel is part of Jaune Quick-To-See Smith's Camus series, which was completed around 1980.  Geometric shapes of squares, triangles, rectangles, human and animal figures, and pastel and dark colors combine for a striking image.

The image was painted on handmade paper which has been framed so that the full view of the paper is visible. 

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Marie has been a constant winner at Santa Fe Indian Market since 1984.  She has participated in Santa Fe Indian Market, Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial in Gallup, and Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Arts & Crafts Show.

This jewel of a dish was constructed of traditional San Ildefonso clay and temper agent and highlighted with micaceous clay.  Half the feathers are natural beige slip with micaceous highlights; and the other half are micaceous slip with a darker slip color.  The center is a beautiful dark red stone-polished slip on which floats a beautiful oblong turquoise cab.

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The Lakota are the western-most of the three Sioux groups, occupying lands in both North and South Dakota. The Lakota were originally referred to as the Dakota when they lived by the great lakes, however, because of European settlement they were pushed away from the great lakes region and later called themselves the Lakota which became part of the Sioux. 

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Jean has a very artistic style of creating designs on pottery. She does not hesitate to select parts of traditional Sikyatki design elements and to arrange them in a most artistic and pleasing manner. The designs she chose for this jar are selections from Sikyatki pottery and appear to be bird-like in form with an insect added as a surprise element. Her arrangement of the design in a non-structured pattern provides for interesting viewing. The canteen is decorated on front.  It is provided with a twisted rawhide strap for use in hanging.  It sits upright in a secure manner.  It is signed J. Sahme Nampeyo.

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We tend to think that all San Ildefonso pottery is either plain black or black-on-black and that all Santa Clara pottery is black carved.  Generally, that is the case, however, there are always exceptions to the rule to enlighten us.

This miniature black canteen has a carved design of clouds and rain.  It is signed with the name Rocky Martinez, a name I was unable to locate in any of my references, but I inquired of Elvis Torres of San Ildefonso to see if he could provide information on the family of Rocky Martinez so that we could place him accurately in our data.  Elvis consulted with Adelphia Martinez (1935-present), daughter of Juanita and Wo-peen Gonzales, who told him that Rocky would sometimes make pottery with his grandmother, Juanita Wo-peen.

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The primary design on this canteen is a rosette, located on top center of the body.  This rosette is the same design used on most Zuni Pueblo Polychrome jars.  Presumably, it is a design influence from the medallions seen on Spanish men's clothing.  The other designs surrounding the medallion on this canteen are designs seen frequently on the neck of Zuni water jars.  The potter used designs with which she was familiar. 

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This is an oil painting executed in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains north of Santa Fe near the Tesuque River. Von Hassler often painted on site in areas in Northern New Mexico. He particularly liked the small Northern villages between Santa Fe and Taos.

In his early years in Albuquerque, Von Hassler's studio was in the original Casa de Armijo (now La Placita Restaurant) in Old Town Albuquerque. He is best known for his traditional realistic landscapes of New Mexico and his Indian portraits.

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This beautiful green turquoise stone was cut into the shape of a new moon and simply surrounded by a silver bezel.  The turquoise is devoid of copper matrix and is a solid color with minor shading.  There are no cracks in the stone.  The silver shank has two domed silver buttons attached at the ends. The shank is heavy silver which would indicate a date of 1950s or earlier. 

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Hopi potter Polingaysi Qöyawayma, also known as Elizabeth White, studied ceramics under the tutelage of Charles Loloma, famous Hopi jeweler, who taught ceramic classes at the University of Arizona, Arizona State University and at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.  Polingaysi was a teacher who began making pottery after she retired from that career in 1954.  Once she learned the techniques, she began searching for a style that suited her taste and personality.  When she found uniquely special clay that needed no painted design to bring out its beauty, she decided to use only the unadorned clay.

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There is a group of Hopi Clowns named Tsutskutu.  Some of them have yellow body paint and are known as Sikya Tsuku and others have white body paint and are known as O-oto Tsuku.  The Na'somta Tsutsukutu clown illustrated here by Ronald Honyouti is one of the O-oto Tsuku clowns.  Their name derives from the manner in which they have their hair tied in a knot.  

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Juan Mirabal, an artist from Taos Pueblo, was joined by two other Taos Pueblo artists, Albert Lujan and Albert Looking Elk, in painting in a realistic three-dimensional Euro-American style in the 1915 to 1920 period. Lujan and Looking Elk mostly painted scenes of Taos Pueblo buildings and surroundings and sold their art directly to tourists visiting the pueblo. Because they did not paint in the flat style other Natives were producing, their work was considered "not Indian." 

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Large pottery vessels always elicit favorable comments and admiration because of their scale.  Equally, small vessels receive favorable comments because of their diminutive scale.  

This small Hopi vessel contains all the magnificence of its larger brethren.  It has a rounded bottom that expands outward to mid-body, then upward and inward-sloping to a short, raised neck.  The design is restricted to the upper shoulder and is framed on its upper and lower ends with wide framing lines.  The five red triangles evoke a feeling of a star when viewed looking down from the top.

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Following Julian's death in 1943, Santana, wife of Maria's oldest son, Adam, began assisting Maria with her pottery.  Maria still formed and finished the pottery and Santana's contribution was decorating it.  There are two periods that were collaborated by Maria and Santana.  The earlier ones were signed Marie & Santana and that period lasted from Julian's death in 1943 until 1956, at which time Popovi Da replaced Santana and helped his mom.  Maria did not immediately stop working with Santana when she began working with Popovi but continued periodically for a few more years.  Those pieces are signed Maria & Santana. 

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   Marie Zieu Chino (1907-1982) is considered one of the significant ceramicists at Acoma and was the matriarch of a very talented family of potters. She is best known for her black-on-white pottery.  Along with Lucy Lewis and Sarah Garcia she led the revival of ancient pottery forms of the ancestral pueblo potters.   She was one of the women who was inspirational in the movement to revive the use of ancient Mimbres designs on contemporary Acoma pottery.

Chino was a master potter and it is understandable why collectors admire her work so enthusiastically.  She was certainly one of the Acoma potters who made particularly important contributions to the art of pottery making in the period following World War II. She had been making pottery since 1920.  She won her first award at Indian Market when she was only 15 years old.  Some of her pieces were among the prizewinners at the first Southwest Indian Fair (predecessor to Santa Fe's Indian Market) in 1922.

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Silver double-bar crosses are frequently referred to as "dragonfly crosses." The dragonfly image was used by the Ancestral Pueblos long before the arrival of the Spanish. Early Spanish priests attributed the use of the cross to a miraculous encounter of the early Pueblos with the Holy Spirit. 

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As is tradition, this Zuni Pueblo Katsina doll was carved from a single piece of wood for the complete body, with the arms and ears separately applied. Also, in traditional Zuni form, each arm of the doll has been attached with a peg so that it articulates, and the skirt and moccasins have been made of fabric.

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The Cochiti Pueblo Medium Size Drum Painted Blue is painted blue and the ends near the drum heads are painted white with a red line separating the blue from the white.  The edges of the drum heads are painted black and the heads are left in the natural color of the rawhide. 

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