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Review Of The Poem The Living Exhibit Under The Museum's Portal

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In “The Living Exhibit Under The Museum’s Portal” poem written by, Santa Clara Nora Naranjo-Morse it talks about how all the Indians from different tribes like the Cochiti, Zuni, and the Navajos come together to sell all their handmade items such as Blankets, jewelry, pottery or pretty much anything that they make. Most often these people go to jewelry shops and sell their stuff as a wholesale, but that’s if they’re lucky because now a days it is so hard to sell jewelry due to all the competition out there. There are so many people out there in different tribes that are very talented. They have unique ways of making their stuff but sometimes a lot of people make pretty much the same thing. If people can’t sell their stuff they usually end …show more content…

Well that’s not the way things go with the Indian people. Selling their homemade stuff is something they live for. Sometimes it’s the only way people make their living, feed their families, put clothes on their children’s back, or just basically survive. I for one, come from a family of Jewelry makers, and fetish carvers. Seeing my family make jewelry was always so interesting but when it came to sell, it was hard. Zuni is a very small community with very little businesses so most time we have to travel to Gallup to sell stuff, but even though Gallup is full of businesses, there is a lot of them that will turn down your jewelry or try to make your price very low, and if your desperate enough, you negotiate with the buyer on the selling price. If you are not looking to sell at such a low price, you must drive all around Gallup to find a buyer that will give you decent sell. Yes, it is true as it says in the poem “We bargain back and forth with tourists and among ourselves… we must love to bargain”. I think the biggest reason why people don’t give selling their items is because that is the only way they know how to financially support their family. They might not have anything else such as no high school diploma, no working experience, and no skills that would help them obtain a job that will help them be better financially supported. I look up to …show more content…

It amazing to see how these things are passed on from generation to generation, and how many people are willing to take on the challenge of trying to recreate something that was made years before. It would be nice to keep my mother’s sun face earrings and bracelet making legacy alive when she is no longer able to do so. It think it would be a huge challenge because from the times that I’ve seen her do her jewelry, it seems like a lot of hard work and skills. Skills that I don’t think I have, but it would be nice to certainly try. I’m pretty sure that I will fail miserably at trying to make the jewelry my mother does because I am not a creative type of person and I’ve never been good at these type of things. I hope she will teach me everything that I would need to do in order to make her sun

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