Living in the far western portion of Texas for 4 years permitted us to visit the pueblos in New Mexico and meet quite a few individual artist from various Native American Indian tribes. .

In New Mexico there are 19 pueblos. Out of those we visited Zuni, Santo Domingo, Cochiti, Acoma and Mescalero Apache.

Zuni pueblo is located 38 miles from Gallup, New Mexico which many regard as the 'Indian Jewelry Capital of the World'.

Zuni's by tradition are known for intricate inlay, needlepoint and petitpoint work on jewelry.

There are quite a few Navajo artist in the Gallup area. We have enjoyed working closely with some to give a new twist on more traditional type silversmith work resulting in unique design concepts.

A few that come to mind are Navajos: Lonn Parker, Jon Mc Cray, Ken Etsitty, Mark and Cindy Yazzie.

What we found of interest is that lately Navajo's have begun doing inlay work. Courses have been offered at local community colleges teaching this time honored craft. Navajo's doing inlay has not exactly been received well by some.

Santo Domingo pueblo is located 25 miles south of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
For this tribe I think of tortilla shell jewelry, traditional black, blue and white strung bead chokers and necklace, mosiac inlay and of course slab earrings.

It was while visiting the Santo Domingo pueblo we literally stumbled upon the Cochiti pueblo. While there I had the priviledge of visiting with Felicita Eustace.     .

Felicita is quite famous for her Storytellers with many in the finest galleries of the Southwest. She makes them in the traditional manner and shared a photo album that chronicled the process. She also demonstrated for me the manner in which jewelry is made and the casting process. Very memorable day!

Acoma which is also known as 'Sky City' is a must see when visiting New Mexico. A visit to the Mesa high above the desert floor is both inspiring and memorable. Acoma is mostly known for their pottery which features intricate geometric designs and bird designs.

It was during a visit to Acoma that I met Darryl Chino and his wife. Darryl's hand carved images on pottery are simply amazing and life like! He said that when he is doing this type of work he imagines in his mind what he looks like doing traditional dance.

When visiting Acoma many local artist have their wares out for sale. If the opportunity arises please do make a point of seeing Darryl's work. Breath taking!

A visit to Inn of the Mountain Gods near the resort town of Ruidoso, New Mexico brought us to the door steps of the Mescalero Apache.

The Mescalero Apache own and operate Inn of the Mountain Gods casino and Ski Apache. It is a great location during the summer if you are looking to beat the heat while enjoying beautiful mountain scenery, gaming and great shopping near by in Ruidoso, New Mexico.

While our experiences have been mostly with the Southwest Native American Indians make no mistake, they can be found in many other states across America.

Currently we live very close to the Oklahoma state border which presents new opportunties and adventures.

The number of tribes within Oklahoma varies depending on reference source used. I have seen it vary from 33-40 tribes, some with divisions located in different areas of the state.

We recently met with two members of the Kiowa tribe who shared with us a bit of Native American history and demonstrated their beading abilities.

The local Medicine Man features pottery, paintings and hand made garments crafted by himself and his family members.

Whether travels take you to the Southwest region of the United States such as Arizona or New Mexico or other tribal areas, the results will be an opportunity to interact with a living part of America's heritage and history.