Native Indian Art in Santa Fe

Southwest Indian artwork is the most distinctive and the best-known of Native American artistic traditions. Southwest Indian designs are easily recognizable. Anyone who takes a Santa Fe vacation or weekend trip will immediately notice the large array of Native American pueblo art at many venues throughout the city. Santa Fe probably has the best selection of native art including jewelry than anywhere else in New Mexico. Most of the Native Indian art you see is made by the Pueblo Indians who are comprised of some nineteen tribes in New Mexico as well as the Hopi villages in neighboring Arizona.

Kachina

When you peruse the selection of Native American art items in front of the Palace of the Governors, you will see an excellent display of pueblo art work. The traditional products of the Pueblo Indians include pottery, basketry, cotton and wool textile weaving, moccasin making, drum making, painting, turquoise jewelry, bow and arrow making and cottonwood root carving.The fact is, most of these items you see today were at one time utilized in everyday living. What's also quite interesting is that each item of southwest Native American jewelry has a degree of historical significance. Information is still being learned every year as to the geographical origins ans spiritual meaning of much of what you now see displayed. Archeology digs continue in the American Southwest and I would expect more historical facts will be uncovered. There is still much to be learned of the ancient Anasazi who predated the pueblo Indian tribes of the Southwest.


A few very interesting and historical items you'll see a lot of while touring Santa Fe are kachina's and kokopelli's. The kachina, where there are more than 400 different ones in the Hopi and Pueblo culture, can represent anything in the natural world or cosmos. It can include a revered ancestor to an element, a location, a quality, a natural phenomenon, or a concept. The kachina theme is that there is something alive in absolutely every element of the universe. The kokopelli is another interesting piece of symbolic art work. The Kokopelli character is very prominent in the Anasazi culture  and found in a number of Native American cultures. The kokopelli figure represents a mischievous trickster or the minstrel, a spirit of music. The kokopelli is always seen in a dancing pose with a flute. His whimsical nature, charitable deeds, and strong spirit give him an important position in Native American mysticism. The kokopelli, for thousands of years, has been a very significant and sacred figure to Native Americans in the southwest. This was part of the culture of the Anasazi going back centuries.

Another often seen Pueblo Indian art item is the turquoise jewelry piece. Turquoise is a highly prized gemstone of great historical and cultural importance in the American Southwest. Turquoise is not found everywhere. This mineral deposit called Turquoise, is really found in a limited geographical area in the Southwestern U.S. Additionally, some amounts are found in western South America and a very limited amount can be found in Mexico.

Untreated turquoise

For sale and on display in Santa Fe is also a very good collection of silver jewelry.There have been many studies undertaken as to when the Navajo began producing silver art products. All seem to agree that a Native named Atsidi Sani, meaning Old Smith,  was the first Navajo silversmith. He is thought to have learned the blacksmith trade in the early 1850s and may have even worked with silver in the early 1860s. What is also known is that a full line of silver jewelry could be found throughout the navajo reservation during the 1880's. The early Navajo silver work comprised concha belts, bracelets, bow guards, tobacco flasks and necklaces. Later, items such as rings, earrings, pins, hair ornaments, buckles and bolos could be found. Turquoise was a very popular stone of the Navajo and appeared in Navajo silver jewelry around 1880. An interesting historical note regarding the Navajo was their often times strained relations with the Spanish, Mexican and American rulers in the present day New Mexico and Arizona region. At one time they were literally marched to Fort Sumner to the south and put on a reservation. There's an interesting story about Kit Carson's involvement in this expedition.

Hopi kokopelli

Native American pottery which includes Hopi pottery can be traced back some two thousand years. One thing which is still a subject of some debate is how it was discovered that you could form useful objects by heating clay to high temperatures. Some researchers think it happened independently whereas others contend that it made it's way to the Southwest from Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America). Another rather simple theory floated was that the Native Americans saw that when lining their cooking baskets with clay they noticed that the clay would harden by the heat and create a hard surface. The Southwest Native Americans almost saw their pottery making go by the wayside after the white settlements in the Southwest grew. The trade routes including the railroad brought in glazed vessels and metal cookware. These products from the east almost flooded the market. Pueblo pottery however, while certainly having a utilitarian purpose, also had a spiritual meaning for the Pueblo peoples. This is similar to other art work items produced by southwest tribes. For these people, pottery has a spirit. It is a product of the Mother Earth and this is the basis of pueblo culture which again dates back to the Anasazi. So while pottery was produced and somewhat similar products from the east entered the region, the spiritual significance of Native American pottery remained in place to this very day. native American pottery could never be replaced.

Because Southwest Indian artwork is so highly popular there are a lot of fake knock-offs. When you're buying jewelry and other Native American  art be sure to check out the source thoroughly. There are many locations in Santa Fe that certainly do trade in genuine Native American produced products. As an example, the Native Americans who sell their hand made wares in front of the Palace of the Governors on the plaza are licensed vendors. The license is meant to assure that what is being sold there is the genuine thing.