Cheyenne, Wyoming — The Native American Village of Cheyenne Frontier Days brings together many artisans eager to share their craft and culture with attendees

From traditional weaving demonstrations to horsehair pottery displays, mostly out-of-state vendors are CFD regulars looking forward to spending July in Cheyenne.

The village is located in the southeast corner of Frontier Park and is open today from 10am to 6pm.

De Los Angeles Weaving

Inside the De Los Angeles Weaving booth, Rick Biuv is focused in front of an upright loom. He slides soft, colorful threads of wool in and out of a wooden device, repeating the process over and over until patterns begin to form.

“When you start weaving, you have to have a plan,” says Biub, whose family owns a Yuma, Arizona-based textile business. “You have to make a plan and follow the design. It’s fun.”

Biub travels to various states, including Wyoming and neighboring Montana, to demonstrate traditional looms and sell handwoven mats from De Los Angeles. At the CFD, visitors can watch Biuvu create geometric designs using red, turquoise, yellow, blue and green threads that are hand-spun and dyed by their mothers. If a third-generation weaver worked uninterrupted, it would take him approximately two days to finish a 2-foot by 6-foot mat.

“It’s also like meditation,” he said. “I like weaving because my father was a weaver and I followed him when I was a child. We all love to weave.”

turquoise trail

Velma Wilson loves turquoise. She loves the feel of stones, what they represent and how she looks in bracelets and rings.

“For the Navajo, turquoise is a sacred stone and is for prosperity, so we use turquoise a lot,” she said. “I like stones and I am drawn to them.”

Wilson is the owner of Turquoise Trail, a small Arizona-based family business that manufactures turquoise jewelry such as rings, bracelets and necklaces. This stone comes from the Kingman He Turquoise Mine, which is one of the few remaining turquoise mines in the country. Originally from Gap, Coconino County, the Wilson family has been selling products on his CFD for 23 years.

Wilson said the popularity of jewelry varies depending on where you go. For example, in Sedona, Arizona, customers prefer small, dainty rings. But people from Cheyenne prefer something bigger and flashier.

“If you go to Cheyenne, they sell a lot of rings,” she said. “So I just focus on making the ring and make the ring in that mood.”

Jewelry making has been a lifelong hobby for the owner. In his early childhood, Wilson would spend the summers perfecting this craft with his grandmother. Wilson continued it as his side business into his adulthood. Eventually, she decided to quit her job as an accountant and run her business full-time.

“When I get up early in the morning, it’s my time and I work on it,” she said. “I’m having fun… being on such a big show has paid off.”

Bancroft Native Jewelery

Pale-colored pottery intricately designed with curly black wire lines neatly along the table in Bancroft’s native jewelry booth. The lines are made with horse hair rather than paint or clay.

Horsehair pottery is a traditional Navajo art form, said Juanita Bancroft, owner of an Arizona-based jewelry business. Mr. Bancroft crafts homemade items such as pottery, beadwork, sterling silver jewelry, heissi shells, hematite accessories, and homemade Navajo rugs, as well as his home in Tuba City. CFD Native She has sold her products and set up a booth in her village in the USA This is her 5th time.

Pieces of white clay are first molded by Bancroft into various designs such as vases, canoes, horse heads and turtles. She bakes the clay in a kiln at high temperatures for three hours, then removes it. Next she places 8-10 strands of hair around the pottery with her careful hands.

“When the hair sticks to the pottery, it begins to melt and create its own pattern,” she says. “No two are the same, each is different.”

Bancroft said horses are sacred creatures in the Navajo culture and this type of pottery cannot be made from the hair of other animals such as cats or dogs. That’s a fact she likes to share with her curious customers who come to her booth. Bancroft, a former teacher at Tuba City’s Head Start program, said she enjoys teaching others about Navajo culture.

“After retirement, I wanted to do something different and teach people about our culture,” she said. “That’s what I do now.”