Post by Okwes on May 1, 2006 18:18:56 GMT -5
Palace of the Governors: Portal artists urge end to rift
Palace of the Governors: Portal artists urge end to rift
www.freenewmexican.com/news/42797.html
<http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/42797.html>
Native American artists who sell on the Palace of the
Governors meet all day on April 25, 2006 in the St. Francis Auditorium
in Santa Fe, New Mexico to elect a committee to run their program. By
Tom Sharpe <mailto:tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com> | The New Mexican
April 26, 2006
The Palace of the Governors' portal was empty Tuesday while the American
Indian artists who usually sell there met nearby to vote on issues
surrounding how the museum's Native American Portal Program operates.
The 180 artists attending the annual meeting voted overwhelmingly to ban
use of cell phones and credit-card machines at the portal, to allow use
of coral and fresh-water pearls in the handmade jewelry they sell to
tourists and to continue a two-year ban on allowing new vendors.
Those votes came against the backdrop of an ongoing division within the
group over who serves on the committee that oversees the self-governing
program on museum property fronting the Plaza.
By split decisions, the artists elected some of the same officers that
state museum officials had appointed earlier this year after the museum
ousted several officers. The group also voted to return the panel's
evicted chairman to a position on the committee.
The eight-hour meeting began with more than four hours of uninterrupted
oratory -- much of it lamenting recent publicity about the dispute among
the artists and calling for unity.
Ohkay Owingeh potter Robert Naranjo called for an end to fighting so
artists can concentrate on sales. "We're all here for the same reason --
to make a living," he said. "I don't know anything else to do. I can't
drive a truck anymore, and I can't go around shooting people because I
learned that in Vietnam. So I'm here. I want to make my pottery. I enjoy
it."
Naranjo said when he returned to the portal after a year elsewhere, "the
first day I was sitting there, I heard the Navajos talking on this side,
heard the Santo Domingos talking here, heard the Spanish people walking
by, and I said, 'God, thank you. I'm home again.' "
Judy Charley, a Navajo silversmith, said the recent trouble began when
several former committee members began questioning the Museum of New
Mexico, consulting with attorneys and speaking to the news media.
"The portal belongs to the state," she said. "It doesn't belong to any
of us."
Ramos Pacheco, a Santo Domingo Pueblo jeweler and former committee
chairman, said if the disagreements don't cease, the state Supreme Court
might have to reconsider its 30-year-old ruling through which Indians
from New Mexico tribes have exclusive use of the portal.
"We're trying to muddy the water, you might say," he said. "If we do
that, those people out there, they're watching us. They're watching us
to make that big mistake, and they're going to try to take advantage of
that and come back here. We don't want that. The Supreme Court knows
we're the ones who are supposed to run the program -- not be dictated
how to run it."
In January, state Department of Cultural Affairs Secretary Stuart Ashman
appointed Cheryl Arviso, a Navajo silversmith, to replace Glenn Paquin,
a Laguna Pueblo jeweler, as chairman of the portal committee. Ashman,
who acted at the behest of a petition signed by 200 portal artists, also
dismissed vice chairman Merton Sisneros, a Santa Clara Pueblo potter,
and first committee member Allen Bruce Paquin, a Jemez Pueblo jeweler
and Glenn Paquin's son.
On Tuesday, Arviso was elected chairwoman over Glenn Paquin and Charles
Ortiz, a San Felipe Pueblo silversmith who had sided with Arviso and
Ashman in the dispute. Arviso received 84 votes to Paquin's 58 and
Ortiz's 9.
Ortiz was elected vice chairman with 78 votes over Paquin's 56 and
Charley's 10.
Mavis Garcia, a Santo Domingo jeweler, was re-elected
secretary-treasurer with 78 votes over Charley with 40 and Michael
Gorman, a Navajo silversmith, with 28.
Paquin then got the position of first committee member with 50 votes
over Charley with 44 and Gorman with 31.
The other committee positions went to Charley; Gorman; Eva Toledo, a
Navajo jeweler; Juan Tafoya, a San Ildefonso potter; Lorraine Martinez,
a Santo Domingo jeweler; and Mabel Pacheco, a Santo Domingo potter.
Alternate positions went to Marvin Martinez, a San Ildefonso potter;
Wayne Bailon, a Santo Domingo jeweler; Elloise Padilla, a Santo Domingo
jeweler, and Darrel Slim, a Navajo silversmith.
Because they are believed to detract from tradition, cell phones and
credit-card machines have been banned on the portal for years, even
though many artists say they carry cell phones set on vibrate and walk
away from the portal to talk on them. But on Tuesday, the artists voted
by a wide margin to reject efforts to legalize either cell phones or
credit-card machines and, in fact, to make it an offense to even carry a
cell phone on the portal.
Coral and fresh-water pearls for years have been allowed as components
of jewelry sold at the portal, but some artists said the rules for using
them were unclear. On Tuesday, the artists voted to rewrite the rules so
these objects can be used in approved native crafts if the craftsperson
uses them in conjunction with something they have made themselves --
like the silver cones at the end of a necklace strand.
More than 4,000 artists are registered in the portal program, even
though only about 400 are active and only about 100 show up on most days
to draw lots to sell from the 68 spaces designated outside the museum.
For two years, no new applicants beyond the adult children of registered
artists have been accepted.
On Tuesday, the artists voted down a motion to reopen applications after
Palace of the Governors Director Frances Levine said no extra spaces
would be opened up this summer on the west side of the building because
of construction of the new History Museum on Lincoln Avenue. Even the
two extra spaces that open up at the entrance when the Palace of the
Governors is closed on Monday will not be available, she said, because
the Palace will be open seven days a week this summer, beginning on
Memorial Day.
Palace of the Governors: Portal artists urge end to rift
www.freenewmexican.com/news/42797.html
<http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/42797.html>
Native American artists who sell on the Palace of the
Governors meet all day on April 25, 2006 in the St. Francis Auditorium
in Santa Fe, New Mexico to elect a committee to run their program. By
Tom Sharpe <mailto:tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com> | The New Mexican
April 26, 2006
The Palace of the Governors' portal was empty Tuesday while the American
Indian artists who usually sell there met nearby to vote on issues
surrounding how the museum's Native American Portal Program operates.
The 180 artists attending the annual meeting voted overwhelmingly to ban
use of cell phones and credit-card machines at the portal, to allow use
of coral and fresh-water pearls in the handmade jewelry they sell to
tourists and to continue a two-year ban on allowing new vendors.
Those votes came against the backdrop of an ongoing division within the
group over who serves on the committee that oversees the self-governing
program on museum property fronting the Plaza.
By split decisions, the artists elected some of the same officers that
state museum officials had appointed earlier this year after the museum
ousted several officers. The group also voted to return the panel's
evicted chairman to a position on the committee.
The eight-hour meeting began with more than four hours of uninterrupted
oratory -- much of it lamenting recent publicity about the dispute among
the artists and calling for unity.
Ohkay Owingeh potter Robert Naranjo called for an end to fighting so
artists can concentrate on sales. "We're all here for the same reason --
to make a living," he said. "I don't know anything else to do. I can't
drive a truck anymore, and I can't go around shooting people because I
learned that in Vietnam. So I'm here. I want to make my pottery. I enjoy
it."
Naranjo said when he returned to the portal after a year elsewhere, "the
first day I was sitting there, I heard the Navajos talking on this side,
heard the Santo Domingos talking here, heard the Spanish people walking
by, and I said, 'God, thank you. I'm home again.' "
Judy Charley, a Navajo silversmith, said the recent trouble began when
several former committee members began questioning the Museum of New
Mexico, consulting with attorneys and speaking to the news media.
"The portal belongs to the state," she said. "It doesn't belong to any
of us."
Ramos Pacheco, a Santo Domingo Pueblo jeweler and former committee
chairman, said if the disagreements don't cease, the state Supreme Court
might have to reconsider its 30-year-old ruling through which Indians
from New Mexico tribes have exclusive use of the portal.
"We're trying to muddy the water, you might say," he said. "If we do
that, those people out there, they're watching us. They're watching us
to make that big mistake, and they're going to try to take advantage of
that and come back here. We don't want that. The Supreme Court knows
we're the ones who are supposed to run the program -- not be dictated
how to run it."
In January, state Department of Cultural Affairs Secretary Stuart Ashman
appointed Cheryl Arviso, a Navajo silversmith, to replace Glenn Paquin,
a Laguna Pueblo jeweler, as chairman of the portal committee. Ashman,
who acted at the behest of a petition signed by 200 portal artists, also
dismissed vice chairman Merton Sisneros, a Santa Clara Pueblo potter,
and first committee member Allen Bruce Paquin, a Jemez Pueblo jeweler
and Glenn Paquin's son.
On Tuesday, Arviso was elected chairwoman over Glenn Paquin and Charles
Ortiz, a San Felipe Pueblo silversmith who had sided with Arviso and
Ashman in the dispute. Arviso received 84 votes to Paquin's 58 and
Ortiz's 9.
Ortiz was elected vice chairman with 78 votes over Paquin's 56 and
Charley's 10.
Mavis Garcia, a Santo Domingo jeweler, was re-elected
secretary-treasurer with 78 votes over Charley with 40 and Michael
Gorman, a Navajo silversmith, with 28.
Paquin then got the position of first committee member with 50 votes
over Charley with 44 and Gorman with 31.
The other committee positions went to Charley; Gorman; Eva Toledo, a
Navajo jeweler; Juan Tafoya, a San Ildefonso potter; Lorraine Martinez,
a Santo Domingo jeweler; and Mabel Pacheco, a Santo Domingo potter.
Alternate positions went to Marvin Martinez, a San Ildefonso potter;
Wayne Bailon, a Santo Domingo jeweler; Elloise Padilla, a Santo Domingo
jeweler, and Darrel Slim, a Navajo silversmith.
Because they are believed to detract from tradition, cell phones and
credit-card machines have been banned on the portal for years, even
though many artists say they carry cell phones set on vibrate and walk
away from the portal to talk on them. But on Tuesday, the artists voted
by a wide margin to reject efforts to legalize either cell phones or
credit-card machines and, in fact, to make it an offense to even carry a
cell phone on the portal.
Coral and fresh-water pearls for years have been allowed as components
of jewelry sold at the portal, but some artists said the rules for using
them were unclear. On Tuesday, the artists voted to rewrite the rules so
these objects can be used in approved native crafts if the craftsperson
uses them in conjunction with something they have made themselves --
like the silver cones at the end of a necklace strand.
More than 4,000 artists are registered in the portal program, even
though only about 400 are active and only about 100 show up on most days
to draw lots to sell from the 68 spaces designated outside the museum.
For two years, no new applicants beyond the adult children of registered
artists have been accepted.
On Tuesday, the artists voted down a motion to reopen applications after
Palace of the Governors Director Frances Levine said no extra spaces
would be opened up this summer on the west side of the building because
of construction of the new History Museum on Lincoln Avenue. Even the
two extra spaces that open up at the entrance when the Palace of the
Governors is closed on Monday will not be available, she said, because
the Palace will be open seven days a week this summer, beginning on
Memorial Day.