Thanks to a number of occurrences over the past week, the late Carter Camp has been much on my mind again. For those who don’t know him, he was a Ponca warrior, a co-founder of the American Indian Movement, one of the heroes of Wounded Knee in 1973. He was also a man Wings and I were privileged to call “brother,” and we loved him. He walked on last December; the 27th, to be exact. But his spirit lives in on all that he accomplished in his life for The People — his, ours, all of us — and it lives on in our hearts. It also lives on in more tangible ways. Carter himself had significant ties to Taos Pueblo; he traveled here and spent time here decades ago, and he and Wings’s late brother Roy knew each other.
Carter’s nephew, Randy Roughface, lives here now, has for years; he’s married to a Taos Pueblo woman. And for years, we’ve sold Randy’s spirit-filled vintage sculptures at the gallery. Most of the time, Randy’s preferred motif is horses: the small, sturdy Indian ponies of his culture and his childhood.
Among the Northern Plains peoples, horses have been fully integrated into their cultures for centuries: used in warfare, as the old Hollywood Westerns pretend to depict, but also used for hunting, for transport, for trade and political negotiations (including dowries and bride prices). In some cultures, they were essentially members of the family. The relationship between a warrior and his horse was perhaps the closest one he had, and when his horse at last walked on, he would save bits of the animal’s mane and tail and hooves, carve a horse-shaped stick out of wood, paint it with appropriate symbols and attach the horsehair and hoof material, and dance with it ceremonially to honor his fallen friend and fellow warrior.
The Spanish brought domesticated horses with them to this part of Indian Country half a millennium ago, and Pueblo peoples have long since incorporated them fully into their cultural traditions and practices. Certain activities are done only on horseback, so having access to a horse, if not one of one’s own, is important here. Of our own half-dozen (one boards here with us), all but one qualify as “rescues”, and they are members of our family. The most recent rescued arrival is a white horse a bit like the one pictured above. And the image of a white horse had special resonance for Carter, so I chose to lead today with that particular carving by his nephew.
Randy does do more detailed, lifelike sculpture, as well, but his specialty is the much older style, known in the business as “vintage-style” carving. The style, of course, harks back to a time when carving tools were handmade and necessarily less fine: An artist could chip away pieces of block of stone, and polish it to some degree, but fine-edged metal chisels and knife blades didn’t exist yet. Nonetheless, the old carvers still managed to coax eminently recognizeable likenesses from stone of many varieties, and thereby paid tribute to the animals of the spirit world and to those who played such an essential role in their daily lives.
Including the horses.
Randy’s most rudimentary-looking horses are the ones he carves from sandstone. The finish feels a bit coarse to the underside of the fingernail, yet is sanded smooth on the surface, showing the whorls and swirls that betray the ancient presence of water in the stone from which it came. Each little red pony displays a sense of motion and freedom often missing from more detailed carvings:
From the description:
Vintage-style wild mustangs race across the mesa. Each is 4″-5″ in size, rough-hewn the old-fashioned way, straight from the stone, by Randy Roughface (Ponca) in his signature style. Three still available.
Pink sandstone on pink sandstone base $35-$55 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Two more are shown below:
Randy also works in local Pilar slate (although we’ve sold out of everything by him in that medium at the moment), and in alabaster, both of which are popular with local carvers for their accessibility and affordability. He created this tiny horse, tail arched happily behind him, of alabaster:
From the description:
Randy Roughface (Ponca) has carved this sweet little vintge-style mustang from orange alabaster so vivid it looks like Mexican onyx. Cool and smooth to the touch, but shot through with brilliant fiery reds, this little horse emerges out of the bands and lines of the stone itself. Carving measures roughly 3″ X 2″.
Orange alabaster $45 + shipping, handling, and insurance
And once again, my favorite, the white horse shown above, this time with the description:
Once in a while, a carver finds a piece of true white alabaster yearning to take form. Randy Roughface (Ponca) rescued this stone, and out of it emerged this joyous little vintage-style horse. Like actual white mustangs, his coat is shot through with a delicate gray matrix, and the carving is so smooth that it feels like soapstone. Carving measures roughly 3.25″ X 1.75″.
White alabaster $45 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Randy has also carved a couple of traditional pipe bowls for us out of pipestone, each with a horse effigy in his same inimitable vintage style. We’ll save those for a subsequent post, but you can see each on elsewhere on the site. And Randy is far from the only artist whose work we carry who honors horses in his or her chosen medium. Jessie Marcus, one of Taos Pueblo’s potters, incorporates horses into some of her mugs — traditional Pueblo-style handle-less mugs that can be used daily or ceremonially:
This matched pair of mugs by Jessie Marcus (Taos Pueblo) is made in the traditional fashion, to be cupped in one’s hands. Hand-coiled of micaceous clay, each features a horse’s head sculpted from the rim, with a tail flowing down the side of the mug. For decorative use only.
Micaceous clay $125 each + shipping, handling, and insurance
Remember when I mentioned the use of horses in dowries and bride prices, above? Well, we have an example of that, too. The name of this little painting is She Cost Me Seven Horses:
Carl Winters (Standing Rock) specializes in imagery from his Lakota reservation, particularly the horse motif that represents such an integral part of his people’s culture. Here, with acrylics and canvas, he evokes an older time, when weddings were also business deals and geopolitical strategies. Bride and groom wear their finest traditional dress before a border of “quillwork” symbols. The “bride price” is shown galloping in the background. Including the metal matting and frame, it is 9.75″ wide by 7″ high (dimensions approximate_.
Acrylic; canvas, matting; metal frame $145 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Horses are popular subjects of fetishes, tiny carvings of spirit beings (animal or otherwise) that are small enough to hold in the palm of your hand, or perhaps to place in a medicine bag or add to jewelry worn ceremonially. An example of such a fetish is this one, unsigned, but based on style we are fairly certain of the carver’s identity:
This little stylized medicine horse fetish is made of ricolite, a very lightweight, banded green serpentine. He has tiny jet inlay eyes, and bears an arrowhead bundle of light green turquoise attached with sinew. Unsigned; based on style and characteristic details, believed to be by Lavies and Daisy Natewa of Zuni Pueblo.
Ricolite; jet; green turquoise; sinew $135 + shipping/insurance
Fetishes and fetish carving are something we’ll cover in detail at a later date. For now, suffice to say that Zuni’s carvers are widely recognized, both within Indian Country and without, as the masters when it comes to fetish carving. However, jewelry artists from many of the Pueblos (and some from Dinetah, or Navajoland), are experts at creating fetish jewelry. and one of the most popular motifs used for fetish jewelry is . . . you guessed it. Horses! Here’s an example from our own inventory:
This fetish necklace by Clarita and Vera Tenorio (Kewa Pueblo) features dozens of tiny horses. Each is rendered in a classic and very versatile medium long used by Pueblo peoples: elk antler. Each has jet inlay eyes. The top of the necklace is wrapped tightly in a heavy-duty natural-fiber twine, and accented with a single free-form piece of rough-cabbed green turquoise. About 32″ long.
Elk antler; jet; green turquoise; natural-fiber twine $375 + shipping, handling, and insurance
We have two more by the same artisans, in turquoise (with a separate, and much more valuable, water bird pendant), and in amber. I chose the elk antler to highlight a unique material frequently used by our artisans and jewelers throughout much of Indian Country — and because it means we can end today with more white horses. And in light of the fact that it is exactly 7 months today since the day (three days before Carter walked on) that our own white horse appeared mysteriously on our land — starving, dehydrated, abandoned and evidently abused, and, we would come to find out, with a near-fatal case of long-term sand colic lurking within — it also seems fitting to close with his photo:
In future posts, we’ll cover not only fetishes and fetish jewelry, but traditional pipes, and carvings in both vintage and more contemporary styles.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2014; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
