Silversmith Steve Taylor Develops Technique to Craft Unique Pieces

Silversmith Steve Taylor’s intricate silver designs begin with a length of wire.

“What I’ve done is invent a technique,” Taylor explains. “I take silver wire, straighten it and sauder it together into a sheet. Then I cut up the sheet and fit the pieces together to create the shapes.”

Silver light gleams off of Taylor’s geometric shapes and perfectly placed lines that grace rings, earrings, bracelets, bolo ties, pill boxes and belt buckles.

“Steve’s styles range from contemporary to Southwestern to art deco,” says Rick Smith, owner of the Oldest House Indian Shop. “His work is appreciated by many collectors.”

Taylor developed his technique in 1987 and has used it exclusively ever since.

“It has taken over my life,” he says. “It’s a happy happenstance to stumble upon a technique. And I’m not bored with it yet. I’m always looking for new ways to put together a straight line.”

Taylor started taking art classes in high school, cutting stone and doing lapidary work. Then he decided to put jewelry around those stones. Making jewelry since 1970, Taylor says that when he graduated from high school in Colorado his father, an engineer with the Martin Company building Titan rockets, told him he would give him $300 to attend the outdoor education program Outward Bound or to buy jewelry making tools. He picked the tools. “It’s been a bad habit ever since!” he laughs.

Taylor moved to Santa Fe in 1979 and had warehouse space where he made jewelry in what is now the Santa Fe Railyards. His father came to visit him early on in Santa Fe. “He saw what I was up to and said, ‘It just amazes me,’” Taylor remembers. “He was impressed and that sure made me happy. I inherited some of his engineering skills; there’s a fine line between art and science.”

Today Taylor lives down a dirt road south of Santa Fe and creates amid New Mexico’s geology and archeology and among the jay birds, coyotes, snakes and ravens. “This is the perfect place for me,” he says.

Find Taylor’s designs at the Oldest House Indian Shop at 215 E. De Vargas St. in Santa Fe. Or visit the Oldest House Indian Shop online at www.oldesthouseindianshop.com. Reach the shop by phone at 505-988-2488.

Oil Painter Inspired by New Mexico Residency

Weinman sketching Fort Union. June 2019.

For acclaimed oil painter Melissa Weinman, a chance meeting near the Oldest House Indian Shop led to her newest opportunity to immerse herself in art and place as the 2019 National Parks Foundation Artist in Residence at Fort Union National Monument. 

“When I went into San Miguel I fell in love with the place,” Weinman said. “But you can’t just set up an easel on the sidewalk and paint in Santa Fe. I wrote to San Miguel Chapel for permission to paint on their premises. They said, ‘Sure, we’d love to have you. You can even paint the inside.’ I was standing in the back parking lot of San Miguel painting when I met Rick.”

Rick Smith, owner of the Oldest House Indian Shop, noticed Weinman painting near the shop on several occasions and struck up a conversation. Weinman said they spoke often about the artists throughout history who have traveled to New Mexico and to the national parks and the art they made. “He was giving me nudges along the way and sharing the context and the perspective of art in New Mexico.”

Then Smith told her about his niece Tanya Ortega, founder of the National Parks Arts Foundation, and about the foundation’s Artist in Residence program that arranges one-month residencies in national parks offered to artists from around the world.

Weinman, who lives near Tacoma, Wash., was intrigued by a residency in New Mexico, a state with friends she often visits. She applied and was awarded the Fort Union residency. “If not for Rick, I wouldn’t be doing this,” she said.

Weinman’s residency at Fort Union National Monument began Oct. 2, 2019, and will continue through Oct. 30, 2019.  She will present a plein air painting demonstration on Oct. 19 at 11 a.m. at the park, discussing the practice of “Using Diminishing Intervals to Create Space” as she demonstrates this in her work live. She also will present her work titled “To Make a Space” at Gallery 140, 140 Bridge St., Las Vegas, N.M., on Oct. 25 at 7 p.m.

“National Parks have always welcomed artistic interpretations in support of land advocacy,” Lorenzo Vigil, superintendent of Fort Union National Monument, said in a news release. “We are pleased to host artists who communicate complex and contemporary issues through their chosen medium.”

The monument in northeastern New Mexico sits off Interstate 25 just past Watrous, about 28 miles north of Las Vegas.  It was the largest frontier military post and supply center of the southwest from 1862 to 1891. It also was the hub of commerce, national defense, and migration at the final stretch of the Santa Fe Trail. The richly evocative remnants of a post-civil war era adobe fort standing stark against the prairie became a National Monument in 1954.

“The ruins stand like sentinels on the prairie, vertical in contrast to the horizontal land,” Weinman described. Originally from southwest Minnesota, she grew up on a prairie like this with its immense sea of land and big sky. 

Along with the prairie, Weinman will have many other environments to explore during her residency. She looks to paint the nearby Mora River Valley with its diving swallows, a dried lakebed and the sky’s storm clouds advancing on the fort. “The sky is incredibly dramatic,” she said after a visit in June.  “And I was very aware of bird sounds, so I might have to incorporate them in some way. Part of the vibe there is the birds, antelope, elk. I even saw a hawk catch a snake.”

She’s also hoping for a little weather. “A snow scene would be incredible to paint,” she said.

Weinman is a plein air painter, meaning she takes her easel and oils outdoors in all conditions to paint. “It’s a different kind of painting,” she said “The scene is constantly changing, the shadows, the light, the weather all affect the scene. And plein air painting is like hunting, you have to find the right place and the right time (to capture the scene you want).”

Weinman began showing her work, which ranges from portraits to landscapes to still-life paintings, at galleries in Santa Fe in 2016 and is currently shown in Santa Fe at Masterpiece Gallery. She has been showing professionally since 1983. 

Weinman is a member of Oil Painters of America, and presently teaches in her studio in Ruston, Wash. She began teaching at the college level in 1981 and was chair of the University of Puget Sound Art Department from 2002-2004. She holds an MFA in two-dimensional media from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in creative visuals arts and Chinese studies from Bowdoin College in Maine.

Celebrate the History of El Barrio de Analco

Join the Oldest House Indian Shop in celebrating the Barrio de Analco Fall Festival from noon to 4 p.m. on Sept. 28.

“This event is long hoped for and much anticipated,” says Rick Smith, owner of the Oldest House Indian Shop. “For the first time we are truly celebrating the history and contributions of the Barrio de Analco to the city of Santa Fe.”

The festival will take place in and around the Oldest House and San Miguel Chapel, the Oldest Church, in the Barrio de Analco. Admission is free to all outdoor activities thanks to community sponsors. Displays and activities inside San Miguel Chapel require a $2 all-day pass for those over age 12. Free parking is available at the PERA Building and other state government parking lots. The cultural event precedes the Sept. 29 Feast Day of Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Rafael.

The National Historic Landmark Barrio De Analco Historic District is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods of European origin in the United States. By 1620, the newly constructed Chapel of San Miguel, built across the river from the Santa Fe Plaza for laborers, artisans and the Tlaxcalan Indian servants to worship, was in place and a suburb, the Barrio de Analco (meaning the district on the other side of the river in the Tlaxcalan Indian language), began to grow. The district suffered major destruction during the 1680 Great Pueblo Revolt. When the Spanish returned, they rebuilt the area beginning in 1692.

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES AND DISPLAYS

Mule-packing demonstrations

From the early 1600s to the late 1800s, travelers and traders relied on mules to transport their goods. Ron and Pat Rundstrom of Aparejo in Española will provide these educational presentations and children’s activities behind The Oldest House.

Danza Azteca de Anáhuac of Taos, registered in Mexico with San Miguel del Archangel Capulli

From the early 1600s, Nahua-speaking indios amigos from what is now central Mexico settled El Barrio de Analco, to be followed a century later by genízaros (captives from semi-nomadic North American tribes, raised to adulthood in Spanish-speaking households). Dances will take placemid-afternoon in front of San Miguel Chapel and inside the Chapel at the conclusion of the Festival.

Trail-related Table Displays

Outgoing and incoming caravans passed through Barrio de Analco along the Camino de Pecos directly in front of San Miguel Chapel and may have used the extensive grounds for packing and unpacking. Tables by the National Park Service, Old Santa Fe Trail Association, and Old Spanish Trail Association, with a Route 66 display by collector and map-maker Willie Lambert. Under portal on the Chapel’s south side, and in pocket-park behind adjacent Lamy Building, the first academic building constructed for St. Michael’s College for Boys.

Table Displays by Partners in Historic Preservation

Historic Santa Fe Foundation, Old Santa Fe Association, Cornerstones Community Partnerships, and Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project (MPPP) of Velarde will participate. Under portal on the Chapel’s south side, and in pocket-park behind the adjacent Lamy Building.

Walking Tour of El Barrio de Analco with historian Hilario Romero of Agua Fria

12:30-1 p.m., 1:30-2 p.m., 3-3:30 p.m. Limited to 12 people per tour. Front courtyard of Chapel—meet at top of the stairway leading to Old Santa Fe Trail.

INDOOR ACTIVITIES & DISPLAYS

(all-day admission to Chapel $2; 12 and under no charge)


Display of Vintage Serapes

By Collector Chris Ferguson, owner of Tres Estrellas Gallery in Taos. Tlaxcaltecans, credited with originating the famous Saltillo weaving tradition in northern New Spain, may have been among the original Meso-American settlers and builders of El Barrio de Analco.

One-day-only Art Exhibition

Artists’ Views of San Miguel Chapel and Environs Across the Decades

Docent Chats

10-15 minutes, upon request. Check Docent’s name tag for themes:

“400 Years of Building History” or “Significance of 1798 Altarpiece” or “Mystery of the San José Bell”

Previews of Videos-in-Progress


Preview of Reorganized and New Exhibitions

Period Costumes worn by members of SOCIEDAD FOCLÓRICA


3:30pm: CLOSING CEREMONY with SPECIAL GUESTS and DANZA AZTECA DE ANAHUAC

BARRIO DE ANALCO FALL FESTIVAL

Emigrant Trails Group Gathers in Santa Fe

Celebrating the historic emigrant trails of the U.S., the Oregon-California Trails Association will hold its 37th annual convention in Santa Fe on Sept. 3-8, 2019. The convention will include speakers on the people and places of New Mexico’s historic trails and trips to Taos, Fort Union, Chimayo, Pecos, Albuquerque and Rancho de Las Golondrinas.

“This is an organization that loves history and cultural tourism, just like we do!” says Rick Smith, owner of the Oldest House Indian Shop in Santa Fe. “Santa Fe is the perfect hub for all they will discover in New Mexico during their convention.”

Historic Maps Point the Way

Always in tune with the interests of history enthusiasts, Smith features a collection of historic maps at the Oldest House Indian Shop, including maps of the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail. Others include a map of the Santa Fe area made in 1776 for the king of Spain, colonial maps and a 1556 Mexico City map.

“These are treasures reflecting a place and time we have built upon,” Smith says. “It’s amazing to think that these maps showed the way to masses of people trekking across the U.S. in search of something we now call the American Dream.”

Historic Trails Group Dedicated to Preservation

The OCTA notes that beginning in 1812, more than 500,000 emigrants seeking a brighter future traveled the trails of the U.S., including our state’s most famous Santa Fe Trail and others in New Mexico. The association is dedicated to the preservation and protection of overland emigrant trails and the emigrant experience.

According to its website, OCTA works to protect the trails, place and maintain trail markers, and prevent the destruction of trail remnants, graves and other trail-related sites. It also encourages the study of the trails through its own historical research, publications and classroom materials. The OTCA is based at the National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence, Mo.

For more on historic maps, stop by the Oldest House Indian Shop at 215 E. De Vargas St. in Santa Fe. Visit us online at www.oldesthouseindianshop.com. Reach us by phone at 505-988- 2488.

Artist Sean Michael Chavez Creates Vintage Travel Poster for Oldest House

Sean Michael Chavez often finds himself with a foot in two worlds. From his work as a fine art painter and as a graphic designer, he’s finding an appreciative audience everywhere he steps.

At the Oldest House Indian Shop, Chavez’s Oldest House poster is a new favorite. The vintage-style image reflecting the traditional travel posters of the 1930s and ’40s was created by Chavez through his position as a graphic artist at Studio Hill Design in Albuquerque.

“We wanted to make something quite different for Santa Fe,” Chavez said. “Referencing vintage travel posters and reflecting the feel of the great American travel legacy, we worked to a portray the history of New Mexico and its past and acknowledge our present as well.”

To produce the subtle shadow detail in the poster, Chavez created a 3D computer model to see day-by-day and hour-by-hour how the shadows in the scene change throughout the year. The poster image captures the sun at a low point in the south, around January or February, Chavez said.

“The shadow of the cross from the Oldest Church across the street is a great secondary discovery in the illustration,” Chavez added, although he admits that it presents better in the 3D model than in real time. “We took some artistic license there.”

Chavez has spent 20 years of his career in graphic design with Studio Hill Design, a downtown Albuquerque firm creating authentic brand experiences, including logo design, website design, signage and vehicle graphics, print materials, advertising and interior branding. He came to graphic design from his interest in fine art. He realized it was a realistic way to pursue art and immediately pay the bills, but fine art continued to call to him. About four years ago, he decided it was time to get back to his roots and he began to seriously pursue oil painting.

His images of the Southwest’s landscapes and people have been described a cross between Ed Mell’s angular deserts and skies and Logan Maxwell Hagege’s modern take on the Southwest.

Acosta-Strong Fine Art in Santa Fe will debut Chavez in an opening titled “REVELATION” on April 18 – 29, 2019. The general opening reception will be held April 19 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

“I’m honored, and grateful to Acosta-Strong, to be showing in the same gallery with some of the Taos Masters and Santa Fe Cinco Pintores — the artists responsible for making Santa Fe and New Mexico the art destination that it is today,” Chavez said. “It’s a gallery I had been going into for years saying, this is where I want to be some day. It’s a dream come true.”

See history first hand at the Oldest House at 215 East De Vargas St. in Santa Fe. Or visit the Oldest House Indian Shop on line at www.oldesthouseindianshop.com. Reach the shop by phone at 505-988-2488.

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Oldest House: Witness to Prehistoric Settlement and Pueblo Revolt of 1680

The city of Santa Fe was founded around 1610 by Spanish colonists, but its history as community of prehistoric peoples is thought to be have begun as far back as 1050 to 1150. Excavations by the New Mexico Office of Archeological Studies in the area of the Santa Fe Community Convention Center have revealed evidence of an early village that appears to have been occupied from the late 1200s until the first half of the 1400s. Prehistoric pit structures that may have been homes or ceremonial chambers are evident there.

“The Oldest House is steeped in that history,” says Rick Smith, owner of the Oldest House Indian Shop. “The Oldest House is believed to rest on part of the foundation of an Indian Pueblo that has existed for eight centuries and it has seen major events in the history of New Mexico.”

When the Spanish arrived around 1610, they were accompanied by Tlaxcalans, a group of people native to an area east of Mexico City who helped the Spanish bring down the Aztec state, according to historian Marc Simmons.

“Tlaxcalan Indians loyally served the Spanish government and church,” Simmons wrote. “In the latter 1500s, many of them were recruited as colonists on Mexico’s dangerous northern frontier. After their arrival in New Mexico, the Tlaxcalans congregated in their own barrio, or neighborhood, at Santa Fe. It was called, and is today still known as, the Barrio de Analco.”

The Oldest House is part of that barrio. Analco means “on the other side of the water,” in the Tlaxcalan’s Nahuatl language. The name was fitting as the Indian suburb sat across the Rio de Santa Fe from the Spanish settlement with its plaza and Palace of the Governors. The Franciscan friars who joined in the settlement activities of Spain built an adobe mission in the neighborhood for the Tlaxcalans, the site of San Miguel Chapel that sits across from the Oldest House.

The Barrio de Analco was the first section of Santa Fe to be attacked and razed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Nervous colonists taking refuge in the Plaza watched as pueblo war parties approached from the cultivated fields to the south and gutted buildings in the barrio. Eventually, “a company of armed colonists and soldiers carried battle to the Indian warriors in the Barrio de Analco and its adjacent fields,” wrote Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint in an article for the New Mexico Office of the State Historian.

“In the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Tlaxcalans suffered along with the Spaniards,” Simmons wrote. “Their houses and San Miguel Chapel were burned by the rebels, and with the Spanish withdrawal they retreated to new homes in El Paso.”

Simmons wrote that only a few Tlaxcalans returned to Barrio de Analco to reclaim their homes during the Spanish reconquest of Santa Fe in 1692. Those that did helped place new roof over the walls of San Miguel that survived its burning in the revolt. Some remnant of the Oldest House with its thick adobe walls and corner fireplace, dirt floors and low ceiling also likely gave them a place to restart their lives.

See history first hand at the Oldest House at 215 East De Vargas St. in Santa Fe. Or visit the Oldest House Indian Shop on line at www.oldesthouseindianshop.com. Reach the shop by phone at 505-988-2488.

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Zuni Fetishes Attract Collectors

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Zuni fetish collectors attracted to the small stone carvings of animals find their reasons for collecting to be as individual as the carvings themselves.

Collectors range from Dr. Boyd and Mary Evelyn Walker, whose collection housed at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum of more than 3,900 carvings systematically documents the rapid and fascinating changes in Zuni fetish carving tradition in the late 20th century, to a young boy searching the shelves of a Santa Fe shop to find the perfect black stone horned lizard just because he likes them.

Carved for over a thousand years by artists of Zuni Pueblo for personal and religious use, the stone and shell animals small enough to fit into the palm of your hand became part of the Indian tourist market by the early 20th century.

“The breadth of Zuni fetishes has widened over time, with some artists adding more realistic representations and exotic animals to their body of work,” says Rick Smith, owner of the Oldest House Indian Shop in Santa Fe. “Other artists have returned to a more simplistic and traditional style. Collectors respond to both for the positive energy and beauty the tiny carvings hold.”

The traditional bears, mountain lions, wolves, badgers, moles and eagles, now are joined by dolphins and seahorses. Despite changes in the carvings, their meanings have changed very little. The animals represented are honored for their natural traits, which bring to mind our own similar attributes. The bear is associated with strength, power and self-knowledge and is carried for healing. The mountain lion represents leadership and resourcefulness and is carried for travel. The horned lizard represents longevity and self-reliance. For the Zunis, every animal carved has a meaning and the carvings represent the animal spirit thought to reside in the stone.

“The Zunis regard the carvings as something to care for, even offering it a little cornmeal next to its place on the shelf as a sign of respect for the spirit of the animal represented,” Smith says. “Adding to that connection and response to nature is the beauty and artistry of these carvings, which are true works of art.”

To learn more, visit the Oldest House Indian Shop at 215 East De Vargas St. in Santa Fe or online at www.oldesthouseindianshop.com. Reach the shop by phone at 505-988-2488.

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Lynn Garlick Retablos Have a Life of Their Own

Lynn Garlick says the sweet, simple and sincere retablos she creates raised her son.

As a single mom of a 3-year old with no extra money for Christmas presents, Garlick took her training in landscape and portrait painting and began to create Christmas ornament-sized paintings of Christmas saints.  She sold the hand-painted ornaments at a local Christmas craft fair.

“They went really fast,” the Taos, NM, artisi says.  “Since then they’ve had a life of their own.”

From those craft fairs 27 years ago, grew Lynn Garlick Retablos.  After her initial success, Garlick decided there must be a more efficient way to produce her images.  A friend showed her an Italian altar screen made in medieval Europe in which an image was decoupaged onto board.  She adopted the age-old technique, creating a high-quality print from her original design and decoupaging it onto pine and birch boards, creating affordable retablo pieces in a wide variety of sizes from plaque- to pocket-sized.

As she  researched the art of iconography and retablos, she saw a responsibility to create her art with honest prayer and energy.  “I felt a responsibility to make the painting a prayer for healing, kindness and right thought,” she says.  She also saw how deeply many people responded to the images of the saints and heard their stories of how saints had blessed their lives.

“I hear so many stories from people:  it’s very touching,” she says.

She laughs recalling her son at 16 losing his car keys.  “I told him to ask for San Antonio’s help,” she says.  He headed off, annoyed and unconvinced that the saint invoked for help finding lost objects might assist.  Then he returned, shaken.  “Mom, that’s really creepy,” he said.  “I told San Antonio, ‘I don’t believe in you.'”  Then he stepped back onto a magazine laying on his floor and felt his keys under the magazine and under foot.

On the back of each of her retablos she places the story of the saint’s life and often a prayer.  She describes the simple, almost primitive images, as “coming from a more humble place.”

“They tell me what they want to be, they don’t belong to me,” she says.

Garlick started making her pocket-sized saints when her son turned 18.  “I told him we could go anywhere in the world and he chose Japan,” she says.  “That’s a long flight so I made a saint pack to carry to keep the plane in the air.  That was the start of my pocket saints.”  Now there are pocket saints, angels and blessings across the country and they have become her most popular offering.

Now her son is grown, and she’s at a new stage in life.  “The focus becomes more internal,” she says.  “There’s a deepening of the soul that I’m thinking of now.  The saints, angels and prayers have changed and blessed my life.  My hope is that they touch and bless others as well.”

You can find Lynn Garlick Retablos at Oldest House Indian Shop located at 215 E. De Vargas Street in Santa Fe or online at www.oldesthouseindianshop.com.

Phone:  505-988-2488

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Medicine Wheel Important to Many Native People

Used in health, healing and spirituality, the Native American Medicine Wheel is a symbol embraced by numerous tribes for generations. The Wheel can take many forms including artwork like an artifact or painting or a physical construction built to cover space on land.

Jamie K. Oxendine of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, editor of PowWows.com and director of the Black Swamp InterTribal Foundation, writes on PowWows.com that the symbolism and the name of the Medicine Wheel vary greatly among Native people, but its physical characteristics share a common structure.

“The main characteristic design of the Native American Medicine Wheel is the most basic yet most perfect form – the circle,” Oxendine says. “This is one absolute not only in Native America for sacred hoops but also for most cultures that have some kind of Circle of Life symbol.”

Added to the circle are two intersecting lines that create a cross in the center, separating the circle into four equal sectors. But there’s more to imagine.

“The Medicine Wheel must be thought of as floating in space and its cardinal points as well as other points that cannot be seen create a perfect sphere,” Oxendine says. “Thus creating other points for directions up and down and of course perfect center.”

Added to the sectors are the symbols of color, which can also vary widely. The most common colors of the Medicine Wheel are red, yellow, black and white. Blue, purple and green are used by some tribes instead of black, Oxendine says.

The four points on the circle and the four sectors can represent many different things and ideas, including the four directions, four seasons, four stages of life, four times of day, four elements of life and more.

“It is widely accepted that the Medicine Wheel is a symbol the Circle of Life,” Oxendine says. “There can many reasons behind the meaning of the circle itself among Nations… It should be stressed that this is not the same from Nation to Nation and there can be some representation that is very secret.”

Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness, an exhibition by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, demonstrates how Native peoples today enhance their wellness through both traditional and Western healing practices.

“Ceremony is an essential part of traditional Native healing,” according to the Native Voices exhibition. “Because physical and spiritual health are intimately connected, body and spirit must heal together. Traditional healing ceremonies promote wellness by reflecting Native conceptions of Spirit, Creator, and the Universe. They can include prayer, chants, drumming, songs, stories, and the use of a variety of sacred objects.

“The Medicine Wheel, sometimes known as the Sacred Hoop, has been used by generations of various Native American tribes for health and healing.”

Discover more about this fascinating Native symbol at the Oldest House Indian Shop at 215 East De Vargas St. or online at www.oldesthouseindianshop.com. Reach the shop by phone at 505-988-2488.

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Gathering of Nations Powwow Creates Opportunity

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO-APRIL 24: The Gathering of Nations is the largest Indian Pow Wow in North America and it was held at the University of New Mexico on April 24, 2010 in Albuquerque .

Nearly 3,000 American Indian dancers and singers representing more than 700 tribes of Canada and the United States will come together to celebrate and share culture at the Gathering of Nations Powwow and Miss Indian World Pageant April 26-28 at Tingley Coliseum/Expo New Mexico in Albuquerque. The event celebrates 35 years in 2018, with allevents open to the public and photos encouraged.

“The Gathering of Nations Powwow is an exceptional opportunity for all people to experience and learn about Native American culture,” says Rick Smith, owner of the Oldest House Indian Shop. “The activities like competition Indian singing and dancing and a street fair filled with native foods, arts and crafts, and music are amazing. The movement, colors and sounds make for an experience like no other.”

The GON website www.gatheringofnations.com quotes Flint Carney, a long time friend and member of the Kiowa tribe, who said, “The greatest thing about the Gathering of Nations is the respect that is shown to all Native people of the world.”

The event begins with the Miss Indian World Pageant, the world’s largest cultural pageant for young native and indigenous women. On April 26 at 7 p.m., the Miss Indian World Traditional Talent Presentations take place at the Albuquerque Convention Center-Kiva Auditorium. The young women compete in public speaking at 1:30 p.m. on April 27 and 28 at Stage 49 on the Powwow Grounds of Expo New Mexico. The title of Miss Indian World will be awarded on April 28 at 7:30 p.m. inside Tingley Coliseum.

The Powwow schedule begins at 10 a.m. on April 27 and 28 with pre-powwow performances inside Tingley Coliseum and the food court and Traders’ Market open all day. Events throughout the day include dancers’ grand entries, contemporary stage performances, competition singing and dancing, and horse and rider regalia parades. See the complete Gathering of Nations Powwow schedule at www.gatheringofnations.com.

“This is the way of powwow life and teachings, which are provided and handed down from the elders to the younger generations,” the GON website says. “The Gathering of Nations experience does not end when you leave and head for home, but rather continues in your heart and mind, remains with you down the road to the next event, powwow or your own personal family gathering(s).”

Visit the Oldest House Indian shop at 215 E. De Vargas St. in Santa Fe or online at www.oldesthouseindianshop.com.

Phone: 505-988-2488

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