Artist Interviews

Interview List »

• Oscar Alexius |
• Darryl Dean Begay |
• Harrison Begay |
• Philander Begay |
• Steven Begay |
• Virgil Benn |
• Harrison Bitsue |
• Harlan Coonsis |
• Thomas Curtis Sr |
• Harold Davidson |
• Virgil Dishta |
• Delbert Gordon |
• Vernon Haskie |
• Harrison Jim |
• Robert and Bernice Leekya |
• Irene Lomayaktewa |
• Calvin Martinez |
• Leonard Nez |
• Lonn Parker |
• Ernest Rangel |
• Sunshine Reeves |
• Abigail Smallcanyon |
• Edison Sandy Smith |
• Herman Smith |
• Kirk Smith |
• Aaron Toadlena |

Ernest Rangel

Perry Null Trading:

I must ask, how did you get involved in the Wild West Show?

Ernest Rangel

I saw an ad in the paper for cowboys and I applied. I have been doing it since 1999.

Perry Null Trading:

How long do you stay in Europe for?

Ernest Rangel

I go for six months. It is becoming harder because my one son is wanting to do the rodeo and needed me there to teach me.

Perry Null Trading:

How did you get involved in making jewelry?

Ernest Rangel

I was 14 years old when my mother began teaching me to make jewelry.

Perry Null Trading:

She did sand cast work?

Ernest Rangel

I married my wife Glenda in 1983. She comes from a family of master silversmiths. They did everything in old style, even made their own wires. They are real involved with ranching and her mother is also a master weaver so they do not make much jewelry anymore. Glenda comes from a large family 18 kids and she is the only one who works in silver. So they gave us their tools, and is a very neat collection.

Perry Null Trading:

How long have you been making the style you do now?

Ernest Rangel

We started making those buckle pieces around 10 years ago. My wife is very artistic and carves out the design. She also makes old style pieces, but we never sell those.

Perry Null Trading:

Do you also ranch?

Ernest Rangel

We raise horses and are involved in team roping.

Perry Null Trading:

Hope to see you next time your home.

Sunshine Reeves

Intro

Navajo silversmith Sunshine Reeves is the popular guy, you know, the guy everyone knows by name and likes to be around. His silver work takes on those same attributes, it is work everyone likes and enjoys wearing all the time. People all over the world wear his work. No matter if it is a silver stamped bracelet or an elaborate silver jewelry box with several drawers, Sunshine makes it with style that is all his.)

Perry Null Trading:

You grew up in Tohatchi?

Sunshine Reeves:

Twin Lakes, I went to school and Tohatchi and graduated from high school there in 1983.

Perry Null Trading:

So what was your childhood like? Did you play lots of sports?

Sunshine Reeves:

No sports, I worked. My family told me I needed to work and I had my first job at 13.

Perry Null Trading:

What did you do?

Sunshine Reeves:

I worked at T & R Market after school everyday as a sack boy at the grocery store. After three years there my step-father got me a job at AC Houston Lumber that I liked a lot better.

Perry Null Trading:

How about school, did you do good in school?

Sunshine Reeves:

I was a bad student in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade and realized I needed an education and turned it around the last 3 years of high school. I just didn’t try early on.

Perry Null Trading:

So you have your job at AC Houston, you like it, what are you doing?

Sunshine Reeves:

I am the young guy so I am stacking lumber and helping build rafters. After a couple of years Andy started working there.

Perry Null Trading:

Andy Cadman, tell me how everyone is related, we get asked all the time?

Sunshine Reeves:

Andy, Darrell, and Donovan Cadman are full brothers. My full brothers are Gary & Herman, three have passed, and I have three sisters. Andy, Darrell, and Donovan are our half-brothers.

Perry Null Trading:

Did all of you make jewelry growing up?

Sunshine Reeves:

No, when I was 23 years old I moved to Albuquerque and worked at a lumber yard there. During the winters it would get very slow so I wanted to figure out a way to make some extra money. My brother David and brother in-law Darrell Becenti were making jewelry for Eric Bonecutter in Albuquerque and one day I went with them to the shop and started working.

Perry Null Trading:

What did you do?

Sunshine Reeves:

My brother gave me a piece of copper and I made a stamped concho. It was intricate and I knew that I could make nice things from that first piece.

Perry Null Trading:

Do you still have that concho?

Sunshine Reeves:

No, Eric bought the concho as a sample for 25 dollars. After that he would give me work, lots of earrings, that would keep very busy. I must have made thousands of earrings and that is why I don’t like to do them now.

Perry Null Trading:

Are you just making pieces for Bonecutter at this time?

Sunshine Reeves:

Mostly, I would do a few pieces for some other dealers in Albquerque but not much.

Perry Null Trading:

Everyone seems to know Sunshine Reeves work, you didn’t get there by making earrings, how did it happen?

Sunshine Reeves:

My brothers really helped me. They would encourage me and make me do the work until it was good. Gary, Darrell Becenti, and I would work together all the time and that really improved my silversmithing. We made lots of silver and developed our styles. Plus, Sunshine, my name really helped early on because people could remember it and liked it.

Perry Null Trading:

Your known for these great boxes, canteens, just different pieces, when did this start?

Sunshine Reeves:

In the early 1990s I made a buckle box. It just got me interested in seeing if I could make different things, acquire the knowledge on how to work the silver and make the right hinges.

Perry Null Trading:

When did people start coming to you to collect this work?

Sunshine Reeves:

Just kind of happened. I had a guy fly from Phoenix to find me in Albuquerque to make some spurs. He brought the type of spur he wanted with him so I could have the measurements. I made him three pairs and numbered them. He bought them for around $1800 a pair, that was very good money then. I wish that I had numbered all of the spurs I have made, it is about a dozen now.

Perry Null Trading:

How about Indian Market, when did you start showing there?

Sunshine Reeves:

Elizabeth Abeita would let me share a booth with her and Tony Abeita would introduce me to some of his clients that he thought would be interested in my work. In 1990 I had my first booth as a New Artist. In 1997 a won the “Best of Show” with a Cowboy Coffee set and the next year “Best of Class” with a train.

Perry Null Trading:

I have seen your trains, those are amazing, where did your first train end up?

Sunshine Reeves:

Gertrude Zachary purchased the train and has it for sale in her shop. She is a great lady and always nice to deal with.

Perry Null Trading:

Today the industry has lots of Japanese interest, when did you first start dealing with Japanese customers?

Sunshine Reeves:

Around 1998 a Japanese dealer came around with an American translator and made some orders, his shop was Gods Trading. He would come back a couple times a year and make some orders each visit. Pretty soon lots of Japanese customers were coming around.

Perry Null Trading:

You and Gary were invited to Japan, how was that?

Sunshine Reeves:

Visiting Japan was such a great experience. We would do some demonstrations and teach some simple silversmithing techniques. The rest of the time we were shown around the Country. If I lived somewhere else it would be Japan.

Perry Null Trading:

What did you like about it so much?

Sunshine Reeves:

Everybody was so welcoming and appreciative that you had come to visit. Also, it didn’t seem like culture shock because the Navajo and Japanese look similar so you didn’t feel out of place. People came up to us all the time and would talk Japanese, thinking we were Japanese.

Perry Null Trading:

That is cool, so what is next for you?

Sunshine Reeves:

Just to keep making the different pieces and keeping up with my orders. I have been blessed and just want to keep making pieces that people want to collect and wear.

Abigail Smallcanyon

Abigail Smallcanyon began helping her mother when she was three years old. She says by age six she had the hang of it. That was when she sold her first rug to a trading company in Shiprock, New Mexico. Now she is in her early twenties and making beautiful rugs. Her process of naturally dying her wool is what makes her rugs stand apart from commercially dyed pieces. This process is very labor intensive, and Abigail has taken a series of pictures to show that process.

She begins by collecting things such as rabbit bushes, tree leaves, tree bark, white clay, and juniper as pictured above.

After she has collected the ingredients for dying her rugs she puts them into a pot and brings the water to a boil.

She then adds the wool to the pot and turns the wool so each side absorbs the color.

This turquoise color is achieved by mixing rabbit bush with thorns bullheads.

Sunflower seeds have created a shade of purple.

Sunflower seeds and red roots create this gorgeous pink color.

Many times the desired color can not be accomplished with natures ingredients and innovation is required. Here Abigail is testing Kool Aid packages for an orange color.

After the wool has been dyed it is taken from the water and rung out. Susie, Abigail’s mother is shown above taking the wool from the water. She will also shake the wool to get out the leaves, thorns, and other ingredients that have stuck to the wool during the dying process. The wool will then be hung to dry, after it is dry it will be untangled and rolled into balls.

The home made loom pictured above is used by Abigail to string her warp, which is very tough sheep or goat wool. Once she has done that she ties it off and moves it to the loom she will use to weave her rug. The loom shown is very large and shows one of her rugs being started.

All of this hard work pays off. Her finished rug is amazing. If you wish to see the rugs by Abigail and her mother let us know. We will be happy to send pictures.

Edison Sandy Smith

Intro:

Some artists promote themselves and create work from being great salesmen. They will hit all the shows, dealers will put their work in their high dollar advertisements, and it just seems like everyone knows them. On the other hand you have artists like Edison Sandy Smith that aren’t concerned with making it a business, but are just really into what they do. Buyers pick up a piece of his work and just know that they want more and ask the question, who is this. Then one day everyone is looking for you and wants your work, well that is the Edison Sandy Smith story.

Perry Null Trading:

Thank you for doing this interview, didn’t think it would ever happen. Lets start with the beginning, where did you grow up?

Edision Sandy Smith:

Outside of Flagstaff, AZ the US Government has a army depot that produced ammunition during World War II. It employed lots of Navajo and Hopi people, including my parents. It was in Bellmont, AZ and that is where I was born.

Perry Null Trading:

Did you grow up at this army base?

Edison Sandy Smith:

Some, I went back in forth between Flagstaff and my Grandma’s house in the Steamboat area. My first schooling was in Steamboat, kindergarten. Then it was back to Flagstaff for 1st grade..

Perry Null Trading:

What childhood memories do you have?

Edison Sandy Smith:

I can remember being out on the Reservation with my Grandma and a goat coming into the pickup truck where I was sitting. On the mirror we had a clown hanging and the goat ate it, I remember being terrified and just crying.

Perry Null Trading:

Did you finish your schooling in Flagstaff?

Edison Sandy Smith:

No, I went back in forth between Flagstaff & Santa Fe. For 2nd thru 7th grade I went to Nativity Catholic in Flagstaff, it is now called St. Mary’s. Then in 8th grade I went to a Catholic boarding school in Santa Fe, St. Catherine’s Indian School. I stayed there until half way thru my senior year when I went back to Flagstaff High School and graduated there.

Perry Null Trading:

So, you went to all of these Catholic schools, how did you retain your Navajo language and culture?

Edison Sandy Smith:

I was a very average student and that was because of the language. At home all we talked was Navajo so that made school very difficult. Plus, when I was with my Grandma everything was in Navajo.

Perry Null Trading:

You are an average student concerning your grades, how about other school activities?

Edison Sandy Smith:

I think of myself as being athletic when I was young. I played basketball and ran for cross country and track. My best subject in school was art, I would do lots of painting and drawing.

Perry Null Trading:

How about jewelry making, did you learn that in school?

Edison Sandy Smith:

I was always interested in jewelry making because when I was a kid I can remember seeing my people wearing those beautiful silver and turquoise pieces. When I was around 12 years old I started experimenting with jewelry making, messing around with copper wires and making rings, simple stuff.

Perry Null Trading:

How about the complicated stuff, did a family member teach you?

Edison Sandy Smith:

At St. Catherine’s Indian School I was in art class. My teacher, Sister Angela Marie, taught us many different types of art. She was the teacher for all of the art classes. I would spend many evenings in her room just drawing because it kept me out of trouble and I liked doing art. She took an interest in me and really encouraged my art.

Perry Null Trading:

How about the jewelry, did she teach you that?

Edison Sandy Smith:

Sister Marie talked with the curator at Navajo Ceremonial Arts in Santa Fe. She was able to talk him into having my own show there. So I made Navajo scenery and figure paintings and was very excited about having my own show. They had these cases there at Navajo Ceremonial Arts that displayed these old pieces of Navajo jewelry and I shared with Sister Marie how I always wanted to make silver. This is when she shared with me how before she became a nun she went to Xavier University in New Orleans and had an art class that taught her to make gold jewelry, hands on.

Perry Null Trading:

So, Sister Marie taught you silversmithing?

Edison Sandy Smith:

Yes, after that show she bought silver and put together what tools she could and started teaching me how to make jewelry after school. This was when I was a sophomore, and there were other kids you wanted to learn too. So the next year the school made it an official class. We learned the basics like soldering, filing, sawing and then took these skills and would practice on or own. I was always in their making jewelry.

Perry Null Trading:

Those early pieces did you sell them?

Edison Sandy Smith:

No, most of them we would leave in the class. In the late 1990s the school wanted to give back the art to the students. They contacted me and I went to pick up a couple of paintings. I asked about Sister Marie and learned that she was in Pennsylvania at that time, a few years later I learned she passed. I had never went back to visit with her after leaving St. Catherine’s.

Perry Null Trading:

You are into the jewelry now, what did you do after graduation?

Edison Sandy Smith:

I went to the Institution of American Indian Arts (IAIA) for a year and a half. Their I was able to take jewelry making and kept working on my art. You could use all the silver you wanted there, it didn’t cost you anything. If you wanted to make pieces to sell you could buy your own silver and use the shop tools. I made lots of stuff and it was when I began to start to take my work to shops for sale and begin buying turquoise.

Perry Null Trading:

Where would you sell these pieces and what kind of turquoise were you using?

Edison Sandy Smith:

I would go to a couple of different shops, don’t remember their names. My first sale was 2 overlay bracelets that I got $50 for. I really like Persian Turquoise and would pay $1 a carat which was a real steep price for turquoise back then, 1972-73.

Perry Null Trading:

What was your style of jewelry?

Edison Sandy Smith:

I always wanted to make the pieces I saw as a kid, real Navajo jewelry. I was about working the silver, traditional work, repousse and embossing.

Perry Null Trading:

After IAIA, what did you do?

Edison Sandy Smith:

I moved back to Flagstaff and was doing jewelry fulltime. It was making me a living. After a couple of years in Flagstaff I moved back to the Steamboat area in 1974 and have pretty much been there since, a little back in forth to Flagstaff.

Perry Null Trading:

Did dealers know you?

Edison Sandy Smith:

No, I went to a lot of different shops, they like my work and would buy it, but always looked at me like I had stolen it because of the way I looked and the traditional style of the pieces. The work was really good, not like they were use to seeing.

Perry Null Trading:

That had to be frustrating, thinking it wasn’t your work?

Edison Sandy Smith:

I started using a hallmark in 1977, that pretty much took care of it. I would tell the dealer see, ESS, I am Edison Sandy Smith let me show you my id. But I did things like heishe, hand shaped stones for cluster, things that lots of artists didn’t spend the time learning and makes a big difference in the quality of work.

Perry Null Trading:

Today, we have several customers ask for your work, when did you start to get lots of attention?

Edison Sandy Smith:

It started around 2000 – 2001 when a dealer put my work in an advertisement that ran in the Native Peoples Magazine. Collectors didn’t know what name to put to my work, this advertisement exposed me. It really changed my life.

Perry Null Trading:

How did it change your life?

Edison Sandy Smith:

I never made jewelry for money, it was always the art. These buyers would find me and want me to make all of these things for them it made things very difficult for me. This was around 2004, and my eyes started drying up and with all of the demands for my silver, I was now producing about a 1/3rd of the jewelry before 2000.

Perry Null Trading:

Have things changed for you?

Edison Sandy Smith:

I have just had to tell people no. My work is getting back to what I want to make, not filling orders. The quality has improved and I am still very interested in making jewelry. Now it is just my eyes, I have some really good days where if I am motivated I can get lots of work done, when they are bad I just don’t work.

Perry Null Trading:

Lets revisit your hallmark, people who collect your work would be interested in the different hallmarks and the periods you used them?

Edison Sandy Smith:

In 1977 I started with ESS, no sterling or star. In 1981 I used ESS with a sterling stamp, then in 1990 I changed to the hallmark I am still using, ESS w/a sterling stamp and a star.

Perry Null Trading:

Did you do any shows?

Edison Sandy Smith:

Some, but I really don’t enjoy the shows. I do some demonstrations that I really enjoy.

Perry Null Trading:

What kind of questions do you get asked?

Edison Sandy Smith:

Everyone always wants to know who taught me how to make jewelry, they are always surprised when I tell them a white Scandinavian Nun taught me silver making. I always have to reassure them this is the truth, not a family member.

Perry Null Trading:

Did anyone in your family make jewelry?

Edison Sandy Smith:

Yes, my father told us later he made jewelry but never was interested in teaching us. Plus, my cousins Ronnie & Pat Bedonie make jewelry and they are very well known.

Perry Null Trading:

What are your future plans?

Edison Sandy Smith:

Make the jewelry I want to make, not what others want from me.

Herman Smith

Perry Null Trading:

How old were you when you began making jewelry?

Herman Smith:

I started when I was 15 years old, now I am in my forties.

Perry Null Trading:

Did you have any teachers, or are you self taught?

Herman Smith:

My mother Mary C. Yazzie taught me. I have three sisters and four brothers, she taught all of us how to make jewelry. Only one of us does not work with silver for a living.

Perry Null Trading:

Do your brother and sisters make the same style as you?

Herman Smith:

I am the only one to do my own style. They work for jewelry houses doing piece work.

Perry Null Trading:

You come from a good size family, what size is your own family?

Herman Smith:

I have 2 boys and five girls, the oldest is 21 the youngest is 3. My wife and I have been together for the last 22 years.

Perry Null Trading:

Your mother worked with silver, what did your father do?

Herman Smith:

He was the Pastor at Inscription House where I grew up in the church.

Perry Null Trading:

Do you still go to church?

Herman Smith:

Every Sunday, we drive 70 miles to go to our church in Ganado. It is a good church and has a nice size membership.

Perry Null Trading:

What are the different techniques you will use when making jewelry?

Herman Smith:

I will use plate and sometimes cast my pieces. I always use a heavy silver with my work.

Perry Null Trading:

Now to your favorite subject, Hunting. Been on any good hunts this year?

Herman Smith:

Just the usual, bow and rifle for Elk and Deer on the Reservation. I did do a coyote calling contest, me and Calvin Martinez got one.

Perry Null Trading:

Will you be making jewelry for the next 27 years?

Herman Smith:

I hope so.

Kirk Smith

Perry Null Trading:

How did you get started making jewelry?

Kirk Smith:

My grandfather made jewelry and began teaching me in the 1960s. He kept his workshop away from the house and was very secretive about it. In a canyon away from their hogan he had dug out the earth, and then placed brush and tree limbs over the top. This his the workshop, and you would not see it unless you knew it was there.

Perry Null Trading: What would you do for your Grandfather?

Kirk Smith:

At first I helped him with soldering. I would use the bellow used to heat the charcoal to a high tempature while my grandfather worked with the jewelry over the heat. After that I remember working with bracelets, beads, and necklaces.

Perry Null Trading:

Did your Grandparents raise you?

Kirk Smith:

I stayed with them until I was around 9 years old. Than I went to live with my Mother in Crownpoint.

Perry Null Trading:

Did you continue to work with jewelry?

Kirk Smith:

I would make cast pieces for my Uncle Johnny. He would pay me by getting me clothes and shoes. I did this for about four years.

Perry Null Trading:

After working for your uncle did you stop making jewelry?

Kirk Smith:

Around 1972 I went out on my own. Started making my first pieces and would sell to Gilbert Ortega. The work was all silver, and was sand cast work. However, when silver got high around1974 I stopped making jewelry and went to work for the mine. I did lots of different stuff, even worked for a refinery around Galveston. Did these different jobs for the rest of the 1970s.

Perry Null Trading:

So it is the 1980s and you are making jewelry again, what brought you back?

Kirk Smith:

My mother had gotten sick and I wanted to be around her.

Perry Null Trading:

What did you do different this time?

Kirk Smith:

My sister was married to Harry Morgan, and he really taught me how to design a piece. Before I never really paid much attention to the style, that changed because of Harry. He also had a big name and was well known, I wanted to be one of those people. My Grandfather told me, “when you leave something here you name will always be here”.

Perry Null Trading:

Lots of people know your name, is that still what keeps you motivated?

Kirk Smith:

Now I try to give back to my people. I taught some of the Martinez family, Fred Brown, Dean Brown, and Anthony Skeet to name a few. Hoping that they can in return take care of their families. Our family meets every Saturday to see if we can get money together to help different families. People know that our family does this and they come to us with their problems. After that we see if we can raise the money they need. That is why we are thank ful for the traders and tourist, because we get the majority of our money when we sell our jewelry.

Perry Null Trading:

You do this through the family, not church?

Kirk Smith:

I am more traditional, we do this by ourselves to help our people.

Perry Null Trading:

Thanks, any thing new from you in the future?

Kirk Smith:

I will always change, more design in my pieces.

Aaron Toadlena

Intro:

Creation is perhaps the single word that best describes the talent of Aaron Toadlena. He and Eve, his wife of twenty-one years and their two daughters, two sons, and grandson, live with the four sacred mountains of his people the Dine' in the southwest highlands of Arizona.

Aaron, understands that his talent is a blessing from the Holy People, with this gift he has sustained the livelihood of his family. All of the jewelry made by Aaron are stamped with a hand print, which is symbolic of the creators five finger clan. The ideas and creation of his jewelry evolve when his mind, heart, eyes and hands work in concert.

The stones and shells which he works with have a very special meaning. Just as his progenies have done, his people continue to make their offerings of white shell, turquoise, abalone shell, and jet near the natural streams for goodness of life.

With the same thought in mind the precious stones and shells are complemented with silver and gold. Aaron creates the melody of fine craftsmanship in the late evening or early dawn, when the ideas echo from the well of his soul. In the language of his people Toadlena translates into "where the streams come together."

Perry Null Trading:

When did you start making silver jewelry?

Aaron Toadlena

My brother worked for John Kennedy who owned Gallup Indian Trading Company. He would work in his shop making jewelry and after school I would go there and do odd jobs and buff jewelry.

Perry Null Trading:

Who taught you, your brother?

Aaron Toadlena:

No, I would just watch my brother and the other silversmiths make pieces. I picked it up from watching them.

Perry Null Trading:

Did you go to Gallup High School?

Aaron Toadlena:

No, I went to Tohatchi High School. My brother would pick me up after school and we would head to Gallup to work at Kennedy’s shop.

Perry Null Trading:

Did any of your relatives have a workshop where you lived?

Aaron Toadlena:

My Uncle, Ernest Baloo, had a shop and would do sandcast work. He would let me help him, but this was after I was already doing stuff at home in Toh-la-kai.

Perry Null Trading:

Once you started working in the shop did you know that you wanted to be a silversmith, as a career?

Aaron Toadlena:

I liked it, but you also have to do what makes you a living.

Perry Null Trading:

What other work have you done?

Aaron Toadlena:

I have always done silver, just not fulltime. I have worked for several different companies driving truck, including for the Navajo Tribe. When the Navajo Housing Authority was building lots of homes on the Reservation I worked for them. Also, I worked for Ray Tracy making traditional style jewelry. When I lived in Albuquerque I worked for a couple of shops including the Silver Nugget.

Perry Null Trading:

Did you like living in Albuquerque?

Aaron Toadlena:

Everything was convenient. Where I live now I have to drive a long way just to get the essentials.

Perry Null Trading:

When you worked for Ray Tracy where you influenced by any of the other artists in the shop?

Aaron Toadlena:

He had lots of artists working in his shop, good ones, like Benson Manygoats and Randy Boyd. So you got to see some nice things being made, but I always did my own style of work.

Perry Null Trading:

Why do you like to do the old style Navajo silver?

Aaron Toadlena:

Today you have so much stuff being made and a lot of it is cast. To me traditional jewelry is when you do it all, hammer the silver, that is the way I think jewelry should be made.

Perry Null Trading:

Have you ever done any art shows?

Aaron Toadlena:

A couple, one time in the 1987 I did a show in California for Armand Ortega. Also, in 1995 I did a show at the Governors Museum in Santa Fe, and another in 1997 at the St. Louis Art Musueum. Just recently I was contacted by a museum in Boston.

Perry Null Trading:

What did the museum want?

Aaron Toadlena:

They have a piece of mine that they wanted to know if it was ok to publish. Once you get in books it looks good. I have had my pieces in advertisements in the Cowboys & Indians magazine plus Oprah’s magazine, I had good reactions from those advertisements.

Perry Null Trading:

So you are doing silver fulltime now, what else are you doing?

Aaron Toadlena:

My son Kamrin is graduating from high school this year and that has kept me busy. He is wanting to go into law enforcement like his older sister. I still have two at home, one is in high school. My oldest daughter is a police officer.

Perry Null Trading:

You like to hunt too, right?

Aaron Toadlena:

Yes, I do hunts on the Navajo Reservation and State lands. Always trying to draw for the trophy areas on the Reservation. I will hunt deer, elk, and turkeys each year. Plus we have a bow club for the Tohalakai area.

Perry Null Trading:

What is that all about?

Aaron Toadlena:

We sponsor three events a year, shooting at 3D targets. I just won 3 gold and 1 silver at a tournament in Tucson. The bow keeps me pretty busy.

Perry Null Trading:

Do you think any of your children will follow in your footsteps making silver?

Aaron Toadlena:

I don’t push them and right now none of them show an interest. If they do I would be happy to show them.

Perry Null Trading:

What are your favorite pieces to make?

Aaron Toadlena:

Bracelets. I want to build a bunch of different stuff that no one has ever seen before, like the planet bracelet I brought Perry.

Perry Null Trading:

Thanks.