New Wilson Romero Cochiti carved Nativity Set

How fitting is this for the season?

We just received a newly carved Nativity set from Cochiti Pueblo carver, Wilson Romero.

We have carried Wilson's Nativity Sets and other carvings for years.

He and his wife, Annette, are two of our favorite artists. We are regular visitors to their home on Cochiti Pueblo, where they are very gracious hosts.

This new set is some of his best work.12 pieces are included: Mary, Joseph, Jesus in the crib, three wise men, a buffalo, horse, bear, ram, camel and mountain lion.

We have just posted it to the web site at $660. If you purchase it this Christmas season and mention seeing it on the blog, you can put in your home for just $550 plus shipping (and tax, if you are a Florida resident) a $110 saving.

Thank you for your support this year. We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy, prosperous New Year.

William and Susanne Waites, proprietors, ZuniLink.com.

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“Sasquatch?” at Cochiti Pueblo

While visiting with Wilson Romero on Cochiti Pueblo, he mentioned that some of his fellow puebloans were visiting some Sioux Indians in the Dakotas. They claimed to have seen a Bigfoot creature near a lake in the nearby hills. They reported that they had seen the creature stop at the lake and scoop up some water to sip. They went on to say that they do not allow anyone to enter that area. They feel the creature is not hurting anyone and there is no reason to intrude on his privacy.

Regular readers of Tribal Artery will remember that Wilson is one of the Romero brothers who carve animals in a certain natural style. They carve creatures from large stones and rocks found on the Cochiti Pueblo grounds.

That is one of the things that brings us to Cochiti each year. We were here to purchase some of his most recent carvings. We will be posting them to the blog and the website. In the meantime, you can see some of Wilson's vintage carvings at ZuniLink.com.

As we were wrapping up our purchases from among his most recent works, he added a carving that looked like a large foot print. It was carved from locally collected basalt.

Here is a photograph of it. (No. It is not a casting of an actual footprint.)He insisted that we have it, as his gift.

We had a good laugh about his attempt to reflect the lore with a Bigfoot carving. We accepted his gift with appreciation. It will have a special place in our personal collection.

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Nativities and Native American culture in Native Peoples

The November/December issue of Native Peoples magazine has a special editorial feature concerning Nativities (or as they are sometimes known, "Nascimientos"). It starts on page 36 and covers not only a number of examples by Native American Indian carvers and potters but also an historic discussion of the culture that spawned them.

We at Aboriginals have maintained a vibrant collection of Native American nativity sets. For the most part they are pottery. But some are carved works. For example, Wilson Romero of Cochiti carves sets from sandstone and natural stones found around the Cochiti Pueblo. One of his sets is pictured on page 38. Another carver who is doing nativity sets is Troy Sice of Zuni. Troy works in antler with inlaid turquoise and shell, plus sterling silver crowns adorning the three kings. An example of his technique is portrayed on page 37 of the article.

If you can't find a copy to buy, you can see an abstract of the publication online here. The November/December issue has not been posted to the web site yet but should be shortly.

If you are interested in seeing other examples of nativity sets, ones that actually can be purchased and added to your collection, visit the nativities page at Native-PotteryLink.com

You will find examples of works by
Wilson Romero and
Troy Sice

also by clicking on the appropriate preceding link.

While we are on the subject of Native Peoples magazine, one of our favorites, you will find a link to them on our web sites and you will also find an advertisement from Aboriginals on page 50. With so many beautiful Calvin Begay bracelets to show, we couldn't choose one. So we showed a lot of them. You can see each up close at this web address.

There's also an ad for Aboriginals in Smithsonian Magazine, featuring the Troy Sice Nativity Set, if you happen ot pick up a copy of that fine magazine.

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