Indigenous Peoples Art

The art of North America's Indigenous people has been recognized as being among the best in the world. These pages showcase the stone carving artistry of the Zuni people of the Southwest United States and the Inuit people of Arctic Canada.


Zuni Fetish Carvings

We have been purveyors of Zuni Fetish carvings for the past 25 years. In that time we have amassed one of the finest collections of the art form to be found anywhere. The following pages will show you some examples of these wonderful sculptures that you can hold in the palm of your hand. However, they can only give you a glimpse of what lies in store at our physical gallery. Please visit in person, whenever you are in the region.

Numerous are the changes we've seen in the both the art and the artists over the past quarter century. Early carvings tended to be simple renderings of the animals significant to the form. A generation later, many Zuni lapidaries have stopped producing jewelry and now devote their talents full time to fetish carving. Younger carvers are emerging as masters of the form and establishing their own highly defined signature styles. The subjects of their art have gone beyond the traditionally defined animals to encompass exotic creatures and flights of fantasy.

Navajo Fetish Carvings

We offer the work of these fine Navajo carvers in addition to the Zuni carvers. We feel their work is of comparable high quality, and worthy additions to any collection. There are also a few instances where fetish making couples are living on the Zuni reservation, but one of the spouses is Navajo. In these cases, we list them with the Zuni carvers for the sake of simplicity.



Inuit Sculpture

The addition of Inuit art to our gallery was a natural extension of our interest in Zuni carvings. We were immediately struck by the similarities among the two cultures. Separated by thousands of miles, these two peoples share many of the same beliefs, and celebrate many of the same animals in their art.

The Inuit of Arctic Canada have deep roots that lie in the prehistoric past. The art, as we know it today, emerged in the 1940s, and developed into a stunning array of work that continues to develop and refine into a contemporary art form that is acclaimed for its striking imagery, beauty and whimsey.

The Inuit people are found throughout the arctic, generally in small villages of less than 1000 inhabitants. Our collection features work primarily from the villages of the recently incorporated territory of Nunavut. These communities have their own distinct styles and material variations. We also offer Inuit made ivory carvings that originate from small island villages in Alaska.