Storytellers: Connecting the Past and the Future
Every culture across the world has stories: stories of life and death, birth and rebirth, creation and destruction. Many of these tales are ancient, passed down from generation to generation until a written alphabet was invented, enabling the stories to be written for... Read moreMaria Martinez, the Mother of San Ildefonso Pottery
Creating pottery is an ancient pueblo art. Shards of pottery have been found in the ruins of the dwellings of the Anasazi, thought to be the ancestors of today’s Pueblo Peoples. But pottery as an art form hasn’t always been the same. In fact, the thousand-year-old... Read moreSan Ildefonso’s Feast Day
Pueblo feast days are sacred festivals that serve as a time for tribal members to come together to share their rich traditions, language and religion. The pueblos are also opened to the public on feast days as an invitation to view and share in their sacred... Read moreSilversmithing Technique: Sandcasting
The value of Native American Indian jewelry does not just come from the cost of the materials—the silver and the stones—used to make the piece. The value of each piece is also derived from the artistic tradition that inspired the piece and the craftsmanship that... Read moreHoliday Celebrations on the Pueblos
There are many different traditions when it comes to celebrating the holidays, but the holiday celebrations on the Pueblos are unlike any other. Tradition When the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, they began converting the Pueblo peoples to Catholicism. The... Read more
Turquoise Energy and Beauty
As one of the premier traders of Native American Indian jewelry, Palms Trading Company has a very large selection of handmade turquoise jewelry crafted by Pueblo and Navajo artists. Still, the use of turquoise in jewelry is not a modern innovation. The energetic and... Read more
Mining and Classifying Turquoise
Although many stones are used in Native American Indian jewelry, one of the most used and recognized is turquoise. The gem, which is “a hydrous phosphate of aluminum, containing copper, iron and other minerals,” ranges in color from bright green to blue-tinted, the... Read moreNative American Heritage Month
November is Native American Heritage Month. As one of the Southwest’s premier traders of Native American Indian art, we think it’s important to look at why we should and how we can honor and preserve the cultures and traditions of our country’s Native peoples. A Month... Read moreHalloween Masks and Kachinas
Halloween has its roots in Celtic culture, where November 1 marked the New Year. On the day before the New Year, October 31, ancient Celts believed that portals opened enabling the dead to take humans to the spirit world. Over time, Romans and Christians influenced... Read more
The Story of Storytellers
The oral tradition is the time-honored way Native American cultures pass traditional values and beliefs from one generation to the next. The first storyteller figurine was created in 1963 by Helen Cordero of Cochiti Pueblo. Representing her grandfather’s way of... Read more