The Power of Sisters

Crushed turquoise sits on the top of the intricately carved olla (pot) on the top of their heads.  Terrance Martza carved it from antler.  The sisters and their children have inlaid jet eyes and red coral mouths.  They all have tiny silver flowers and turquoise below their necks, and turquoise and coral are inlaid into engraved stars on their bodies.  There is so many details to be admired them!  There is a total of thirty-nine turquoise stones and eighteen coral dots set into the bodies.  One of the tiny silver flowers is missing and Michael Horse made something very similar to replace it.  It is barely noticeable.  Signed "TJM" on the bottom.  They feel very good to hold.

Size: 8" H x 3" L x 1.5" W

Female corn beings represent all that is good about being a woman: loving, generous, nurturing, kind, and strong with great compassion.  In tribes that traditionally grow corn, most of the stories are the similar.  There are many Indigenous stories about how corn was brought to the people at a time when there was hunger, and how a sacred, sometimes other worldly, female being brought them corn.  In Zuni Pueblo, there are three ages of female corn beings: the maiden who wears her hair in the traditional buns on each side, the mother who has one or more babies, and the elder grandmother who wears her shawl over her head. There are dances to honor the female corn beings in many of the Pueblos.  And in other tribes, she is held in a place of great honor.

Traditionally, Zuni carvings are symbolically fed cornmeal.   Each Zuni fetish comes in a box with a descriptive card and a tiny bit of corn meal to tide them over until they reach you.