Three beautiful blue-green turquoise cabs are mounted on the two triangular shaped silver bars that are connected at the ends and separate as the bracelet expands upward.  Each turquoise cab is secured in a silver bezel that is surrounded by twisted silver wire.  The Southwest Indian Jewelry bracelet is Navajo-made but not signed by the artist.

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Maria and Julian's son, Adam Martinez (1903-2000), was the longest-living male of the family and perhaps the longest-living of anyone in the family.  He was not generally known as a potter but primarily helped Maria and Santana with gathering and mixing clay for their pottery and for firing the completed pieces.

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Barbara Gonzales (1947- ) Than Moo Whe is an excellent potter and an extension of her famous great-grandmother, Maria Martinez, and her grandparents, Adam and Santana Martinez. Her mother, Anita Martinez, was also a potter. Drawing on the traditions of her family, she expanded this tradition by personalizing her Southwest Indian Pottery with inlaid coral and turquoise on etched black and sienna wares-often inlaid on spider designs which she created in 1973.

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This jar is signed Maria Poveka and does not have a date added to the signature so we must assume it dates to the late 1950s.  This is a superb example of San Ildefonso blackware created by Maria. These undecorated black polished vessels are some of the most beautiful Southwest Indian Pottery made by her. Their beauty is in the shape and burnish, and decoration is unnecessary. Without some of the visual excess of the painted works, these late blackware pieces can be truly appreciated from a more minimal, formalist stance. In this late work, proportion, scale, and excellence of polish are key factors.

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This painting by Johnny Secatero was painted before 1976.   It is about Koshare Clowns, Mudheads and an Owl Katsina playing around chasing each other.  One Mudhead holds a tree branch he is brandishing around to keep the others from attacking him.

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This exquisite small bowl is attributed to Nampeyo of Hano based on construction techniques, layout of design, and execution of design.  One of the first items of consideration is the extra coil of clay Nampeyo placed at the rim of bowls which is quite obvious on this small bowl.  The bottom is rounded, not flattened, and shows evidence of long polishing strokes as was typical of Nampeyo.  The layout of the design divided into one-third/two-third separation is very typical of her layout.  The design is reminiscent of one on page 241D of the book Canvas of Clay (see reference below) which is acknowledged as a design used by Nampeyo. 

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The previous owner of this fetish necklace owned a shop selling Native American items a number of years ago.  She selected the best fetishes from particular carvers whose work she admired and set them aside until she had accumulated enough to have one of the artisans string them into this necklace.  There are 65 fetishes from a variety of stones and shells and 32 fetishes from turquoise.  All of the turquoise fetishes were strung on a single strand and the other fetishes divided among two strands.  The hieshe is shell.  The three strands are grouped together with the traditional pueblo wrap.

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This Navajo-made bracelet was formed from ingot silver.  Three strips of silver expand outward from the ends of the bracelet and a large oval Morenci turquoise stone sits on the center.  Stamped designs of traditional Navajo style cover all the exposed silver foundation.  Repoussé leaves flank the stone.

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This Navajo bracelet was made from heavy ingot silver.  There are three silver bars that are spread apart except for being joined at the ends of the bracelet.  Mounted on top of the split portion of the silver bars is a flat sheet of silver on which are mounted the essences of the bracelet-beautiful blue Burnham turquoise from Nevada.  The bracelet dates to circa 1940s.

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This painting depicts male and female deities of the Diné.  It may seem out of place for a pueblo artist to paint subjects of the Diné culture but it is an accepted practice.  The Native religions are similar even in their differences.  Paintings of Katsinas and paintings of Yei are both depicting Native supernatural deities.  Both Helen and her mother, Pablita Velarde, painted Yei deities on rare occasions.

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Robert Daughters (1929-2013) specialized in painting landscapes and people of Northern New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico. At the time, he lived in Taos, New Mexico, in a house built by Oscar E. Berninghaus. Daughters was a co-founder of the group of artists known as the Taos Six. The others with him in this group were Walt Gonske, Rod Gobels, Ron Bursano, Ray Vinalla and Julian Robles.

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Cochiti Pueblo potters are recognized as the 20th century's most adept potters at making humorous figurines, whether they are of people or animals. This Koosa clown has a large nose, big eyes, wide open mouth and is holding his arms up in the air. The cornhusks on top of his head represent his hair.

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   Persingula Gachupin was the matriarch of a family of outstanding potters. She was the mother of Marie Romero and grandmother of Maxine Toya-both of whom were exceptional potters. She always used traditional clay and materials in her work. She, along with her daughter Marie Romero, were among the first potters at Jemez Pueblo to make storytellers and nacimientos.

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Louis and Virginia Naranjo started making these wall mounted fonts in the 1980s and said they were used by pueblo residents for sacred corn meal and by others for holy water or even business cards.  It can either be hung from a nail using the leather strap or more securely by attaching more permanently to the wall with screws.

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Small animal beaded items such as this lizard were traditionally made by a number of Native tribes to be used as repositories for the umbilical cord of the newborn, as a measure of health and luck. They were hung from the cradle board and, later, worn by the child or attached to its clothing.  It was an amulet for protection and was kept throughout life.  Normally, a long incision was made on the underside of the fetish so that the cord could be inserted.  This one does not have an incision so it is doubtful that it was made for that use.

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I am not familiar with moccasins or with beadwork but I was told by an Indian dealer that these were most likely Southern Cheyenne, so I accept his analysis.  The soles show wear patterns.  I do not know the age of the moccasins but they were estimated to date to circa 1910.

The Cheyenne (Tsitsistas/The People) were once agrarian, or agricultural, people located near the Great Lakes in present-day Minnesota. The Cheyenne language is a unique branch of the Algonquian language family.

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Sometime in the history of Native American jewelry from the Southwest, someone named a necklace, such as this one, a squash blossom necklace.  Technically, the blossoms attached to the necklace were originally derived from the pomegranate.  The area with the small turquoise cabs that looks like a blossom and the silver protrusions were copied from silver pomegranate blossoms seen on the trousers of the vaquero from Spain and Mexico.  Regardless of the name, these have been among the most popular Native necklaces for decades, certainly as early as pre-World War II.

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   Eddie Beyuka (1920-2002) is best known for his bola - bolo ties and standing figures of Katsinas and dancers executed in channel inlay with a variety of materials-generally turquoise, mother of pearl, jet, coral, and others-skillfully integrated in his famous creations.

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   Zuni lapidary artisan Eddie Beyuka was recognized as one of the most creative in designing and executing bola - bolo tie imagery.  This roadrunner design is an excellent example of an artisan exceeding the norm in effort.  The variety of stones chosen by Beyuka enhances the roadrunner well beyond what most artisans would have done.  The wing feathers and tail feathers are an amazing layout of many colors and many stones and shells that achieve a beautiful colorful bird.  The piece is stamped with the initials EAB and ZUNI.

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This older katsina doll, probably from the 1930s or early 1940s, represents a Chakwaina Katsina but I have been told that in this configuration, he is known as Hewto. 

Chakwaina appears most often in January during the Kiva Dances, dancing in a line with lively gestures, stooping and turning and singing a spirited tune.

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