Native American Women Artists Getting Recognition

Above, Navajo rugs on display for bidders at the Crownpoint,
New Mexico Navajo rug auction. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Around 45 years ago, my family took a vacation trip into the Southwest/Four Corners area of the U.S.

At one point, we found ourselves in Page, Arizona. We were there for dinner and we had just finished when we spotted a Navajo family unloading Navajo rugs from their pick-up truck to sell to a gift shop. My dad got the idea to see if they would be willing to sell one to him directly. So he went over to their truck and he bought one for under $200. I still have that rug (or blanket) today. It is still in great shape.

Above, Navajo artists with their pottery in Crownpoint. I found the artists to be friendly,
accessible and willing to answer questions about their work. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Today, the same Navajo rug would sell almost ten times that amount. Probably the best place to get a great deal on one is at the monthly Navajo rug auction in Crownpoint, New Mexico. I went there a year ago and I saw some good deals and I ended up buying some Native American pottery goods for Christmas presents.

Travel + Leisure has an interesting article on the recognition of female Native American artists in New Mexico today.

Here's some snippets:

Prior to the first half of the 20th century, if a Native American woman created a rug, basket, jewelry, pottery, or other artistic piece, it was usually only attributed to the tribe itself: “a Navajo rug,” perhaps, or “a Zuni bowl,” or sometimes the warrior who wore the piece, but never a woman’s name, and never a story of how the piece was created.

Since this time, female Native American makers have been becoming more and more recognized for not only their artistic endeavors, but for preserving their histories and earning the respect they deserve from their trades. Today, 75 percent of Native American art comes from the Gallup, New Mexico area, where Tanner’s Indian Arts is located, and where Emerald Tanner works with Native American women to promote their work and traditions. “We like to continue their stories, and we work with generations of artists that learned from their mothers and grandmothers,” says Tanner. “It’s not uncommon for us to work with artists where my grandfather worked with their grandfather.”

Today, Native American women’s pieces have been featured in world-renowned museums, with their creators being recognized and celebrated on a national scale. 

Travel + Leisure talked with five Native American women makers who are carrying on their cultures and traditions, and earning the respect they deserve along the way.

To read more, go here. 

Page, Arizona Mayor Makes "Insensitive" Remarks About Navajos

Above, a map of the massive Navajo Nation at the Navajo Museum Library
 & Visitors Center in Window Rock, Arizona. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

As we are almost two months into the lockdown and stay-at-home orders in various states, it is understandable that nerves are frayed a bit and some things are being said and done that shouldn't be and normally wouldn't be.

The latest involves the mayor of Page, Arizona and the Navajo Nation.

From The Middletown Press:

PAGE, Ariz. (AP) — Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez called on elected officials in reservation border towns to work with the tribe to combat the coronavirus after one mayor made a comment he said was insensitive. 

The Navajo Nation has been hit harder by COVID-19 than any other Native American reservation and has one of the highest per capita rates in the country. As of Saturday, 2,292 people have tested positive and 73 have died. 

The tribe instituted nightly curfews and weekend lockdowns, closed its tourist destinations and tribal offices, and ordered people to stay home. 

Levi Tappan, who is mayor of nearby Page, Arizona, and isn't Native American, posted a comment online over the weekend that said, “I wish he would battle alcoholism as hard as COVID19.” It came after Tappan wrote a letter to Nez asking if he would consider reopening some popular recreation areas on the reservation. 

The comment has since been deleted, and Tappan apologized. 

“I know he’s devoted a lot of resources to combating COVID-19, and I think when the number settles, it will show that alcohol is still far deadlier for our residents, and so I just wish that we could work with those kind of resources on all of our diseases,” Tappan said Sunday. 

Alcoholism is one of the largest social ills on the 27,000-square-mile (70,000-square-kilometer) reservation that reaches into New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. The sale and consumption of alcohol largely is banned there, fueling bootleg operations or leading people into border towns that are hubs for basic household supplies, alcohol sales and water hauling stations. 

Albuquerque was sending water tankers to Gallup on Monday, a much smaller New Mexico city about two hours west on the fringes of the Navajo Nation. Gallup is on lockdown until Thursday to prevent nonessential travel after a rise in coronavirus cases was linked to an outbreak at a detox center.

A portion of the Navajo Nation is just across Interstate 40 from our community of Jamestown, New Mexico. The Iyanbito Chapter of the Nation is directly north of us.

I am pleased to read that water tankers are being sent to Gallup for the tribes in the area (the Zuni Pueblo is south of Gallup). Food and other provisions should be also sent to the tribes since Gallup is under lockdown and non-residents aren't allowed in.

To read more, go here.