Most of the Beatien Yazz paintings we have had in the past have been of acrylic or casein paints but he is acknowledged as having painted in oil paints.  This painting appears to be oil on canvas board, the first one I recall seeing.  He is also known to have painted murals at the Navajo Tribal Court Room in the Navajo Police Headquarters, Fort Defiance, AZ.  He is credited with pottery designs, tile designs, prints, fabric designs and designs for greeting cards.  We tend to think of him just producing paintings but he was much more involved in art than that.  He was a very talented man who had a long career from just a young boy to an octogenarian.

Read more about this painting here.

Third Mesa wicker plaques, or yungyapy, as they are called at Hopi are the most common form of basketry at Third Mesa. Although a large number are made for sale, even a larger number never leave the reservation. They are used in payment for the Hopi bride's wedding robes, used as gifts to repay favors or for work performed, or as prizes in footraces. They are also used as part of the dance paraphernalia in women's dances and as gifts to newborn babies.

Read more about this Hopi Pueblo basket here.

Typology designations of pueblo pottery have been assigned by noted authorities based on observed changes over decades. At Zia Pueblo, one of the earlier designations is Puname Polychrome (1700-1760) which was followed by the designation San Pablo Polychrome (1760-1820), then Trios Polychrome (1820-1860) and, finally, today's designation of Zia Polychrome (1860-present).

Although designations have been assigned to periods of production as shown above, it must be remembered that potters actively working at the time did not necessarily make changes simultaneously. A potter making pottery in 1855, during what has been designated as the Trios Polychrome period, might have continued her style until her death maybe in 1895. Technically, according to the authorities, she was in the Zia Polychrome period, although she, herself, was still making what she had learned to make in the Trios Polychrome designated period. The designation was not observed by potters, only by authorities studying pottery.

Read more about this pottery here.

Pueblo pottery was very popular in Santa Fe, New Mexico homes as decorative objects in the 1930s and later and many local residents purchased sugar and creamer sets, candlesticks, bookends and lamp bases.  Some potters made tall jars suitable for lamps and some actually made them with drill holes in the bottom through which the electric cord was threaded.

This jar is the shape suitable for a boudoir lamp and it does have a drill hole in the base.  The hole has been filled in and is not visible from the underside but is visible from the inside of the jar.  Since the drill hole went through the "&" element, it is obvious that it was drilled after purchase and not drilled by Maria Martinez at the time it was made.

Read more about this jar here.

Maria Martinez is known to have had help from her sisters when making pottery.  It is generally agreed that her youngest sister, Clara, polished many, if not most, of Maria's pottery for her.  Desideria also helped Maria in various ways, and the male members helped gather and work the clay and prepare the outdoor firing kiln.

Read more about this jar here.

The earliest signed pottery by Maria Martinez was signed simply Marie.  It was pottery made by Maria and painted by Julian.  It did not have Julian's name on the jar because, in the 1920s, pottery making was considered woman's work.  It was several years before it was rationalized that painting pottery, as was being done by the men, was not the same as making pottery, so by 1925, Maria started adding Julian's name with hers on their joint ventures.  Pottery with the name Marie, was made mostly between 1920 and 1924.

Read more about this jar here.

It has been well published that the matriarch Nampeyo of Hano began having eyesight problems around 1920 and her sight continued to deteriorate until she passed away in 1942.  Nampeyo, of Hopi Pueblo, was so experienced by the 1920s at making pottery, she was able to continue forming and finishing pottery vessels even with diminished sight.  What she could no longer accomplish was painting designs on her pottery.

Read more about this historic pottery here.

One wonders why there was so little study of the early 20^th century pottery of the pueblos when there was so much available.  Most likely the answer is two-fold.  Anthropologists were most interested in what could be excavated from buried sites and not what was available in the pueblo kitchen of the time.  Secondly, the Museum of New Mexico director, Edgar L. Hewett, was more interested in exploring the past rather than the current in the 1920s.

Some of the most amazing pottery was that seen in pueblo households in the late 1800s to early 1900s.  Representatives of the Smithsonian and other museums did collect from the pueblo home but they were seeing everything as ethnographic material and not as we view it today as art.  There was no attempt by these early collectors to describe and classify as art what they gathered, but only classified it as ethnographic material.

Read more about this historic pottery here.

Zuni artisans learned jewelry making from the Navajos in the late 19^th century. They made jewelry for their own use up until about the 1930s when they began making it for the tourist trade. Zuni work is characterized by the creation of design by cutting and shaping of stones.

Read more about these earrings here.

This is an amazing historic small jar from Zia Pueblo.  It is the traditional shape of a Zia storage jar, but in smaller scale.  The leaf designs are red with black outlining.  There are four panels of design, each divided by dual vertical lines.  There is a pair of framing lines at the rim and another pair at the base of the design.  The jar has a slight indented base, red underbody, red inside the rim and a black rim.

Read more about this historic jar here.

This Jemez Pueblo Black-on-white jar has two handles near the rim of the jar.  The decoration extends down to the midpoint of the vessel and up to the beginning of the neck.  It is likely that the jar dates to late 17^th century.  It is possible that it was used as a field canteen.

Read more about this historic pottery here.

Western Apache basket makers did not succumb to making non-functional basket shapes such as flat plaques, wastebaskets, straight-sided and footed vases and gadgets such as match holders, purses, and figures of animals, plants and humans as some of the other tribes did.

Read more about this basket here.

The two Tewa pueblos of Santa Clara and Ohkay Owingeh are neighbors and it is to be expected that influence in Southwest Indian Pottery production and design would overflow from one to the other.  That is quite likely the event responsible for this black jar.

The top half of the jar had red slip applied and then stone polished.  The lower half of the jar was stone polished without addition of slip.  This process is normally associated with Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo.

Read more about this historic pottery here.

The Spaniards bred two kinds of sheep, the churro and merino.  Churro sheep were well adapted to sparse countryside and the merino was the finest sheep in the world, so fine it was reserved for the royal family and the nobility and its export from Spain was punishable by death.  Based on this, it is obvious that the Spaniards brought churro sheep to the American Southwest and left the merino sheep for royalty.  They adapted well to the southwest which had a climate similar to Spain.

Churro sheep produced fine, long-stapled wool which was well suited to the Navajo hand-spindle. The Navajo acquired their churro sheep by raids on Spanish rancheros and Pueblo Indian farms.  They lost all their sheep during their forced relocation and containment at Bosque Redondo in the 1860s.  After Bosque Redondo, the government allotted $30,000 to re-stock sheep for the Navajo as they returned to their homeland. The replacement sheep were churro as well.

Read more about this Navajo rug here.

"Ahöl Mana occurs only on Second Mesa at the time of the Soyal.  She is a standard Kachina Mana except that she comes with Ahöla which by context makes her Ahöl Mana.  She accompanies Ahöla on his rounds to the various kivas and ceremonial houses.  In her hands she holds a tray with various kinds of seeds from the fields of the Kachina Chief." Wright 1973

Read more about this Katsina doll here.

Sadie Tsipa, according to the Social Security Death Index (a government publication) was born on July 1, 1915 and passed away on March 12, 2010.  She lived 94 years, 8 months, and 11 days according to the report.  I am not familiar with her as a potter, however, it is quite likely that she was no longer active in the late 1970s when I opened the gallery and started purchasing from potters.

Read more about this pottery here.

To make sandcast jewelry, there are numerous steps. First, a design is carved into a mold.  Then the artist pours molten silver into the mold. It is then taken out and finished by hand. The mold is only good for a single object, so each is one of a kind.

Read more about this bracelet here.

When the railroad came to New Mexico in the 1880s, it brought with it tourists eager to purchase souvenirs to remind them of their adventure west. By the early 20^th century, Fred Harvey had built a chain of hotels along the railroad catering to the tourist trade.  This small pill box would have been found in a Fred Harvey gift shop. It is beautifully hand stamped and has well-crafted hinges and a tight clasp.

Read more about this pill box here.

This bracelet consists of five domed and stamped silver strips separated at the top and anchored at the ends with a silver bar.  The two outer strips are slightly higher at the center than the three inner ones, acting as guards.

Read more about this Navajo bracelet here.

Santo Domingo (now Kewa) Pueblo pottery exhibits a strong and bold design concept.  The black guaco paint, when painted on the cream slip, appears almost transparent, but fires to a beautiful black.  The guaco does not perform well on other slips but finishes beautifully on this particular Kewa Pueblo native slip.  The Southwest Indian Pottery dough bowl probably dates to the 1930s decade.

Read more about this historic pottery here.