New museum in Old Town to focus on Zuni fetishes

By this time next year, the Zuni Fetish Museum and Center for Indigenous Art Studies will open its doors in Albuquerque’s Old Town. Author of numerous books on the tiny carvings, Kent McManis and his partner, Yvonne Stokes, are opening the 2,500-squarefoot museum in the shops at Plaza Hacienda, beside the parking lot near the Albuquerque Museum.

Although some state and private museums feature Zuni fetishes in their collections, many of them are misidentified and often buried within more show-stopping displays of items such as jewelry, Stokes said.

“The ones that are on display are not properly displayed because they are so small,” she said.

McManis and Stokes are the owners of Grey Dog Trading, 400 San Felipe NW in Old Town.

Originally intended for ceremonial use, fetishes are used by all of the pueblos. The Zunis are considered the master carvers.

“When they’re going to do a hunt or curing ceremony, the fetishes are there,” Stokes said. “Almost all the Zunis keep a set at home.”

The carving of animals from stone and shell dates to prehistoric times.

A carver named Theodore Kucate was the first to sell his work for the commercial market. The Zunis traditionally produced bears, mountain lions, wolves, badgers, moles and eagles. Kucate was the first to carve animals outside that tradition, Stokes said.

The Zuni Museum will be the first dedicated to a single Native American art form, she said.

The museum will be privately funded, with its initial displays from the founders’ own collections, as well as its seven board members. Additional funding will come from admissions and gift shop sales, as well as private donations.

“We are not asking for government funds,” Stokes said.“We know where all the important pieces are, and we know what people we can borrow them from.”

McManis is a regular judge at the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market and the Gallup Ceremonial. Stokes is the former manager of Andrews Pueblo Pottery.