The Indian Trader - January 2020

“Hopi Angel.”

1905 Edward S. Curtis photo of a Hopi girl.

Stand in the Light: Native Voices Illuminated by Edward S. Curtis

Compiled by Thomas F. Voight

2019 New Mexico - Arizona Book Award Winner Anthology Catagory

In perfect partnership, songs, prayers, and philosophies of eight western American Indian tribes are paired with photographs taken by the incomparable Edward S. Curtis. This thoughtfully compiled collection is an inspirational and educational journey of respect for their cultures, ideals and images.

Hardcover . 7½” x 6¼” . 192 pages . 89 photos . $16.95

“Stand in the light when you want to speak out.”

“Stand in the light when you want to speak out.”

--Apsaroke Wisdom Apsaroke Wisdom

Available at a bookseller near you, on Amazon, or at Rio Nuevo Publishers . www.rionuevo.com

Selected images available as cards and bookmarks .1 -800-473-8709 wintrcnt@rof.net

Collector’s Corner

Robert Yellowhair Belt Buckles

By Jim Olson

Many folks in the world of Native American arts have heard of Robert Yellowhair. Robert was a very prolific and well-known Navajo artist. He painted thousands of pieces over his lifetime. Robert started painting at a very young age, reportedly at around age 5 when his father would take him to the local trading post near their home at Na-Ah-Tee Canyon, located north of Holbrook, Arizona. As the story goes, a trader named Charlie McGee recognized the young boy’s talent and gave Robert his first watercolor set. He painted a picture and a few days later sold it to McGee for fifty cents. Yellowhair began painting in earnest about 1955.

Robert’s life spanned from August 8, 1937 - July 25, 2016. What a lot of folks may not know about Robert, is that during his lifetime, he also became well-known in the Western (cowboy) world as well. More specifically the world of rodeo. Yellowhair started his rodeo career in the 1960s and was on the rodeo trail for over 30 years. He competed as a both a team roper and a calf roper. He was a past President of the All Indian Rodeo Cowboy Association (AIRCA) and he qualified for the Indian National Finals Rodeo (INFR) seven times as a team roper. He competed in hundreds of events outside of the sanctioned Native American rodeos as well and was known as a tough competitor.

In the 1970s, Robert added another skill to his repertoire. He started making trophy belt buckles to sell to rodeo producers. Most folks who have competed in rodeo and other equine events across the Southwest from the 1970s to recent times have either won, or at least heard of, a “Yellowhair” trophy belt buckle. Robert was the founder of Yellowhair Buckles and his son and grandchildren carry on that tradition to this day. Just about any rodeo person recognizes a “Yellowhair” buckle both in name and design.

Timing was good for Robert, because as he started making trophy belt buckles, the sport of team roping took wings and became extremely popular. Jackpot events started popping up everywhere (not just at rodeo competitions anymore) and the Navajo Nation embraced team roping with with just as much enthusiasm as anyone. Robert saw opportunity in making a unique looking, but affordable, trophy belt buckle for producers to give out as prizes.

Although there were many who were making trophy buckles for years before Robert, he put that “Southwest” flair on his by adding turquoise and other Southwestern looking accents, very similar to what you find on traditional Navajo jewelry. This unique look took off. Couple that with the fact he made them very affordable to event producers and this is why his buckle business catapulted to a high level of popularity. It became a “thing” for producers across the country to advertise they were giving “Yellowhair” trophy buckles to the winners of an event.

There are numerous buckle companies in and around the Navajo Nation today that are in business because they rode that wave of popularity of the style of belt buckle Robert started producing back then. He may not have been the very first to make this style of trophy buckle, but he was the first to make it wildly popular.

Along the way, Robert branched out and started making saddles as well. The attention to detail which can be found in his ever popular artwork was also carried over into the buckle and eventually the saddle making business.

Robert was a hustler. It was not uncommon for Robert to show up at a rodeo event and the producer was giving away belt buckles made by Yellowhair Buckles as prizes. Robert would also be entered in the rodeo and have a stack of artwork for sale as well. As a means to support his family, he was paid to make the buckles for the event, was entered in the rodeo to try and win money, and also sold artwork out of his trunk before and after the rodeo.

Much has been written about Robert as a popular Native American artist and storyteller so we need not to go into that here. What is interesting to collectors however, is that not only was Robert Yellowhair a wellknown figure in the world of Native American arts, but he was just as well-known in the rodeo world as well.

website and show date changes, we urge you to verify dates before planning your trip Thank you

January 4

WESTERN TRADING

POST AUCTION

Casa Grande, Arizona

Info @ 520-426-7702

January 22

COWBOY COLLECTORS

GATHERING

9:00m – 4:00pm

Prescott Rodeo Grounds

840 Rodeo Drive

Prescott, Arizona

Info @ 928-517-1442

January 24–26

30th ANNUAL OLD WEST SHOW & AUCTION

Mesa, Arizona

Info @ 480-779-9378

January 26 –

February 16

AMERICAN INDIAN EXPO

Quality Flamingo Ballroom

Tucson Rock & Gem Show

Tucson, Arizona

Info @ 520-248-5849 Do

Indian Trader Book Review

A Coffee Table and Reference Book for the Ages

“Prehistoric Perishables & Artifacts – From the Attic and Garage” by James W. Owens

This work by renowned conservationist and preservationist James W. Owens is a masterfully assembled collection of some of the oldest and rarest Native American artifacts from North America. The book features privately collected and owned pottery, basketry, jewelry, painted objects, textiles and much more, with some pieces dating back to 700-400 B.C.

Prehistoric Perishables & Artifacts expands knowledge of prehistoric items and exposes collectors, archaeologists, and the general public to items in this private collection. Many of the items described and pictured in the book are unique and were unknown to the public before this publication.

The vast majority of the items in Owens’ collection, and pictured in this book, were collected prior to 1979, some of them prior to the turn of the 20th century. Many of the objects were in attics and garages and in danger of being lost to the ages before being obtained by Owens. All of the items he describes in this book were acquired lawfully and Owens is very careful to document this.

According to Owens, his book stems from his desire to obtain and protect prehistoric Southwest items (many from the Four Corners area of the U.S.). He admits that by building his private collection, he hopes to make the objects known and visible for current and future generations. The focus of this elegantly detailed

book encourages the sharing of archaeological information between collectors and those who want to enjoy and study artifacts and their origins.

Owens has assembled and expertly describes artifacts and objects of a wide variety of cultures and prehistoric times. His book centers on the importance and possible role these pieces may have played in prehistoric times. The hardback coffee tablesized book contains more than 260 pages, most of which feature superior-quality photographed objects and include descriptions, origin, region of find, and comparisons. These comparisons are archaeological comparisons designed to lead the reader through other reference books picturing similar items.

“Prehistoric Perishables & Artifacts – From the Attic and Garage” by James W. Owens is an easy read with professional photography of each item. It makes an attractive and resourceful addition to any Native American arts collection.

“Prehistoric Perishables & Artifacts – From the Attic and Garage” is available for purchase by contacting Jim Owens at P.O. Box 3802, Corrales, NM 87048 or calling 505-933-1112. Also, you can e-mail him at: prehistoricperishables@gmail.com.

Reviewed by Tom Surface, Associate Editor, the Indian Trader

Photos this page: Top – Early Necklace Above – Oldest Wooden Kachina� Right – Complete Hohokam Cradleboard

One of the most popular and beloved cowboys ever to grace the silver screen, Hopalong Cassidy was an idol to millions of children for over sixty years. Actor William Boyd starred as Cassidy, the western hero known for all time as “The epitome of gallantry and fair play.” With non-stop action and spectacular stunts “Hoppy”, as he was known to his friends, battled crime and upheld justice with his quick-draw shooting, clear thinking, fists of steel, and steadfast character.

Boyd was born in Hendrysburg, Ohio, on June 5, 1895. In 1918 he went to Hollywood where he became famous as a

leading man in silent films, including some directed by Cecil B. de Mille, and his yearly salary reached $100,000.

Roles got tougher to find for Boyd during the early to mid 1930’s. It was thought by some that Boyd looked too old, due to his prematurely grey hair and there were rumors that he was a womanizer and liked parties and alcohol.

Then there was the confusion between this William Boyd, and another Hollywood performer who had the same name. The “other” actor had been involved in a scandal in the early 1930’s and Boyd was incorrectly identified in the press and news as the guilty party. The accusations nearly wrecked Boyd’s career.

In the mid 1930’s, several factors came together. Harry “Pop” Sherman was an independent producer, who produced low-budget sagebrush yarns. Sherman convinced Paramount Studios to release a series of westerns based on the Hopalong Cassidy novels and short stories authored by Clarence E. Mulford. In 1935, the forty-two year old Boyd was offered the lead role in the movie Hopalong Cassidy. The filmmakers changed the original pulp-fiction character, as written by Mulford, from a whisky guzzling wrangler to a cowboy hero who did

not smoke, drink or swear, and he always let the bad guy start the fight. The movie was such a success that many more Cassidy films followed. Boyd would become indelibly associated with the Hopalong Cassidy character, and he gained lasting fame in the Western film genre because of it. Boyd later purchased the rights to the character of Hopalong, as well as the rights to the 66 Hopalong Cassidy movies that had been made. In the early 1950’s, he released the movies to television, where they became extremely popular. Hopalong Cassidy is in fact, credited with helping reinvigorate the timeworn western genre. In 1959, seven of the top 10 shows on national television were westerns like The Rifleman, Rawhide and Maverick. As did other cowboy figures, such as Roy Rog-

ers and Gene Autry, Boyd licensed merchandise, including such products as Hopalong Cassidy watches, cups, dishes, comic books, and cowboy outfits. Boyd used his fame and fortune to meet with children around the world, and underscore for them the fine qualities of the Hopalong Cassidy figure he portrayed. As a private individual and an actor, he was a hero to a generation of American children. William Boyd rode off into his last sunset on September 12, 1972, at the age of 77.

The Hopalong Cassidy films remain available for broadcast and are on DVD in restored form.

Above: Film poster for 1935 Hopalong Cassidy film The Eagle’s Brood

Right: The publisher of The Indian Trader, Clay South, dressed as Hopalong

“Puchteca” Ends Successful 45-Year Run

Owners of Prominent Native Arts and Crafts Business Retire

By Tom Surface

Since 1974, Steve Beiser has welcomed local residents, tourists and Native American artists to “Puchteca”, his highly successful Native American arts & crafts business and a mainstay in downtown Flagstaff, Arizona. His wife, Antoinette, joined him in the shop several years ago after her 26-year career at Lowell Observatory.

Traveling from Dumont, New Jersey, to Flagstaff in the summer of 1968 to attend Northern Arizona University, Steve had no idea that he would soon start a business and career that would make him a trusted partner for Native American craftsmen and women and a dependable dealer for buyers from around the world. “I arrived in Flagstaff the summer I graduated high school to attend NAU and took a job working at the Sacred Mountain Trading Post north of town. I worked there for about six years and since most of the sellers were Navajo and Hopi, I was able to slowly learn some of the language and made many long-lasting relationships,” Steve said.

Then in 1974, Steve decided to strike out on his own and with a scant $800 of inventory, established “Puchteca.” “The business is named after the ancient Aztec Traders’ Guild that in prehistoric times walked north from

continued on page 12

Enjoying Retirement! Steve and Antoinette Beiser on a recent road trip to Las Vegas

30th ANNUAL OLD WEST SHOW AND AUCTION - MESA, ARIZONA

JANUARY 24-26, 2020

WESTERN AMERICANA ANTIQUE SHOW

Saturday, January 25, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Sunday, January 26, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

$10 daily or purchase online and save Friday Early Buy-in, $100, 8am-5pm

SHOW LOCATION Mesa Convention Center 263 N. Center Street, Mesa, AZ 85201

WESTERN AMERICANA AUCTION

Friday, January 24, 6:00 pm The Cordy Rich Collection

Saturday, January 25, 5:00 pm 30th Annual Old West Auction

AUCTION LOCATION

Delta Marriott Mesa (Next door to the Show) Purchase Catalogs online or by phone.

Email: ContactUs@OldWestEvents.com | Phone: 480-779-9378 | #MesaOldWest

Pictorial beadwork in the upcoming auction.

continued from page 10

what is now Mexico to trade with the Pueblo Indians,” Steve noted. The name of his business accurately describes how Steve conducted his trading and buying with Native artisans – by traveling to the reservations to buy direct, and in the process offering creations from approximately 20 tribes in his shop. Steve has always preferred to trade directly with his Native friends. “Over the years, I have bought and traded with as many as five generations of families. When I started, I dealt with the grandparents, and now we are friends with the great-grandchildren,” Steve added.

“YOU SMELL LIKE SHEEP”

Steve bought his first painting from the renowned Navajo artist, the late Harrison Begay. “The first piece I bought from him, I paid $8. His works now sells in the thousands.” Some years later, Steve called Harrison to see what he was working on. Harrison said he would bring something to him the next day because they were butchering sheep that day. Steve quickly asked for some sheep parts. Harrison arrived the next day with his work and a cooler with “sheep parts (intestines)” in hand. Steve quickly took the sheep parts to the back room to prepare for cooking. When he returned to the shop area, he was covered with sheep grease. “You smell like sheep,” Harrison told him and then asked him to clean up before they started their dealing.

Prominent Hopi silversmith Darren Seweyestewa is another longtime friend. He has enjoyed a more than 30-year association and selling to “Puchteca,” beginning when he was eight-years-old and selling kachinas he had carved. Back then, Steve bought them for $10 apiece. Decades later, grown and trying to forge a career as a silversmith, Seweyestewa brought his jewelry back to Steve. They renewed their partnership (and friendship), and now the artist’s work sells for far more than $10! Seweyestewa is very grateful for Steve’s support and sad to see him close up shop. “This is not an easy business. You have to establish your name out there, and Steve was one of the first to help me do that,” Seweyestewa admitted. Over the years, Steve believes that authentic Native American jewelry was the most popular item to buy. Tourists liked it because it was affordable, easy to carry, and made nice gifts from the Southwest. But he also featured a vast collection of traditional pottery, basketry, weavings, and kachina carvings, purchased directly from the artists. In fact, Steve noted that “Puchteca” was the biggest seller of traditional Hopi pottery in the region.

Steve and Antoinette hoped to sell their business intact, but instead sold off most of the inventory before they closed up shop. A gallery featuring handmade in Arizona art will soon move into the former “Puchteca” location.

Feliz Navidad Best Wishes for a Great 2020

Steve displaying some of Puchteca’s inventory in the mid-1980s�

continued from page 11 ENJOYING RETIREMENT

collection of his body of work ever assembled for public viewing.

This show continues to grow every year and is one of the top national antique events of its kind. Due to its Southwest location, the show traditionally has a unique American flavor leaning heavily on early American arts & crafts, Native American, western fine art and ethnographic art, but with some 200 dealers in attendance, it also offered items for everyone –from the first time buyer to the veteran buyer and serious collectors. Even the very famous decorators and interior designers attend the show, seeking just the right touch to create the “perfect” southwest or native motif for their clients.

This year, as in the past, the show also drew representatives from many of the major international and domestic clothing and jewelry designers and their buyers. Cowboys & Indians had something for everybody.

Proceeds from the show’s general admission customers this year supported the show’s additional beneficiaries, VSA Arts of New Mexico, University of New Mexico’s Popejoy Hall SchoolTime Series and The Albuquerque Museum’s Magic Bus Program.

continued on page 14

Since they closed “Puchteca” this past September, Steve and Antoinette are enjoying retirement. They recently took a railroad trip staying in old Fred Harvey hotels and plan a trip to Costa Rica in early 2020. As Steve recently said after closing up shop, “It’s like we are now on a permanent vacation.” In addition to volunteering in the gift shop at the Museum of Northern Arizona (notice he is still keeping his hands in the business), they plan to continue to visit friends on the reservation and host them when they come to town to visit. “To be accepted and become part of their families, that’s the hardest part for me about retiring, leaving all that behind. The friendships goes on, but the material is left behind,” Steve lamented. But, after a lifetime of doing business with his clients, old habits and friendships will continue. Steve and Antoinette can still be reached at: puchteca1@aol.com.

Original Native American Art & Jewelry

Pendleton Robes and Shawls

Native American Music

Flutes • Pottery

Rugs • Native American Church supplies

Carvings • Native Bookstore

Enamel and Cast Iron Ware

On the corner of Nizhoni and Highway 602 in Gallup POB 636 • Gallup, NM 87305

505-863-4434 www.etanner.com

Where you can always pawn for cash, and make a great deal

Steve back in 1975 posing with several pieces of original Native artwork�

See the Book Review on Page 6

UNIQUE PERISHABLES AND ARTIFACTS PICTURED HEREIN:

1. Probably the only but certainly the most complete Hohokam cradleboard.

2. The only complete North American atlatl set.

3. Earliest wooden kachinas in existence carbon dated 1150+/-50 A.D.

4. Stone anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures.

5. Great Basin Archaic period baskets radiocarbon dated to 700-400 B.C.

6. Basket Maker dance rattles, painted in multiple colors.

7. Fremont Culture bassinette.

8. Complete medicine man’s kit including an altar blanket.

Look up the items described above and know this book contains hundreds of other unique items such as a complete Fremont cradleboard, Pilling type unfired clay figures, a Fremont Concho belt, three sets of wooden sunflowers (one set with stems), moccasins, sandals, a burden basket, snares and other hunting equipment.

BILL’STRADING POST

Foutz Trading Co.

Galaxy Leather and Sales Company

James Burns

P.O. Box 1904 • Hwy 64 Shiprock, NM 87420

2945 College Avenue Berkeley, CA94705 (510) 841-1615 www.bills-tradingpost.com

Navajo Arts & Crafts 505-368-5790 • 800-383-0615 www.foutztrade.com

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 849; Flagstaff, AZ 86002 5270 N. 89, Flagstaff, AZ 86004

EMAIL: Galaxy_S99@yahoo.com

World traders since 1939

OFFICE: 928-774-0533

FACEBOOK: galaxyleatherandsales FAX: 928-774-4438

Turquoise jewelry by award-winning silversmiths Pottery and Fetishes Kachinas and Navajo rugs Northwest Coast Carvings Baskets and much, much more

Featuring great exhibits and the finest in antique and contemporary Navajo and Two Grey Hills rugs and tapestries available.

P.O. Box 8014 – Newcomb, N.M. 87455 (505) 789-3267

Kiowa Chief Satanta

One of the leading chiefs of the Kiowa in the 1860’s and 1870’s, Satanta was a fearsome warrior, but also a skilled orator and diplomat. He helped negotiate and signed treaties with the United States establishing a Kiowa reservation in Indian Territory (modern day Oklahoma), but Satanta remained resistant to government efforts to force the Kiowa’s to abandon their nomadic ways. The 1867 treaty allowed the Kiowa’s periodically to leave the reservation to hunt buffalo, but for more than a year, Satanta and other Kiowa’s continued to hunt and never set foot on reservation lands. Fearing the Kiowa hunters would never come to the reservation, in late 1868 General Philip Sheridan had them arrested and brought in by force.

From the start, Satanta detested reservation life. He did not intend to become a farmer, a chore he considered to be woman’s work. The beef provided by the Indian agents was stringy and vastly inferior to fresh buffalo, and he hated the tasteless corn they received from the government. In 1870, when the Indian agent finally agreed that they could leave on another of the hunts provided by the treaty, Satanta and several Kiowa happily rode off to Texas in search of buffalo. Along the way, they raided several white settlers, but the Kiowa were not identified and later returned to the reservation.

The following spring, Satanta grew more aggressive. He joined a large party of other Kiowa and Comanche, who bridled under the restrictions of the

reservation they were determined to leave. Heading south to Texas, the Indians eluded many army patrols along the Red River and crossed into Texas. On May 18, 1871, they spotted a wagon train traveling along the Butterfield Trail. Hoping to steal guns and ammunition, the warriors attacked the 10 freight trains, killing seven teamsters. They let the remaining drivers escape while they looted the wagons.

Again, Satanta and the other warriors returned to the reservation. Informed of the Texas raid, the Indian agent asked if any of his charges had participated. Amazingly, Satanta announced that he led the raid and that their poor treatment on the reservation justified it. “I have repeatedly asked for arms and ammunition,” he explained, “which you have not furnished, and have made many other requests, which you have not granted.”

Taken to Texas for trial, Satanta was sentenced to hang, but the penalty was later commuted to life in prison. Besieged with humanitarian requests, the Texas governor paroled Satanta back to the reservation in 1873. The following summer, Satanta again led war parties off the reservations, this time to participate in the Red River War from 1874 to 1875. By October 1875, Satanta and his allies were again forced to surrender.

Despite his vocal protests that he preferred execution to imprisonment, Satanta was returned to the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville. He fell into a deep depression, refused to eat and slowly began to starve to death. Transferred to the prison hospital in 1878, he committed suicide by leaping headfirst from a second story window.

Western Americana - Vintage Turquoise Jewelry

Western Trading Post TV on The Cowboy Channel Sunday, 7:30 PM EST

Upcoming Auctions! Jan. 4th, Feb. 8th