Artisans of Nations Podcast

Taos Pueblo painter Brian Taaffe-Cordova joins the Season 2 premiere of Artisans of Nations to talk about painting Pueblo architecture as an act of respect and reclamation. From the multi-story adobe of Taos Pueblo (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) to the red figure that honors his late grandmother Rose Cordova, Brian shares how he tells his people's story from the inside, and why he paints the Pueblo full of color and life.

Recorded at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts Store Gallery in Santa Fe, where Brian also works.

00:00 "Buildings tell the story of the people"
00:46 Welcome to Season 2 (in partnership with MoCNA)
01:44 Meet Brian: Taos Pueblo, Santa Fe & Hawaii
02:14 What is Pueblo architecture? Adobe, flat roofs & Taos
04:05 Reclaiming the narrative from the Taos Founders
06:18 Painting with respect: honoring what's sacred
06:45 Why he paints buildings, not people
07:39 Quiet season & grandmother Rose Cordova
09:05 The red figure: honoring Grandma Rose
10:29 Finding his voice: mentors Jeff & Jim
12:24 The business hurdle: from introvert to gallery
14:15 A DJ & music background that transferred to art
15:11 Who inspired him: teachers & Manitou Gallery
18:48 Why mentorship matters
19:14 Working at the MoCNA Store: lifting up emerging artists
21:56 IAIA & earning his fine art degree
22:56 The ladder painting: ground to sky
25:17 Color as life
26:04 Where to find Brian
27:25 "New Beginnings, Vol. 1" & our partners

Find the artist, Brian: IG @wish161 • www.briantaaffe.com • Facebook: Brian Taaffe

📍 Recorded at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) Store Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Follow + Subscribe + Like Artisans of Nations: YouTube, Spotify & Apple @ArtisansOfNations • Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn @ArtisansOfNations | www.artisansofnations.com

📘 Learn more about the artist: Brian Taaffe-Cordova is on the cover of our coffee-table book New Beginnings, Volume One — available at the MoCNA Store and online.

🙏 Season 2 is produced in partnership with IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. We are grateful for our community partners who made this possible: City of Santa Fe Arts & Culture and Nusenda Credit Union.

For decades, a widely circulated book called the circular designs of Southeastern Indigenous art "sun circles." Muscogee artist and independent scholar Shelley Patrick says most of them are not sun circles at all. They are land-based, place-based, and rooted in Mvskoke ways of understanding time, direction, and existence.In this closing episode of Artisans of Nations, recorded live at the 5th Annual Msvkoke Art Market in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in partnership with Muscogee Nation, Shelley walks through the visual language of Muscogee iconography with the precision of a scholar and the perspective of someone who grew up surrounded by it.

Daughter of Muscogee artist Phyllis Fife, MFA candidate at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Disney Imagineering collaborator, and co-curator at the newly opened Mvskoke Waters Gallery in Jenks, Oklahoma. She is one of the most rigorous voices in this space, and this conversation reflects that.She covers how geometry shapes her art practice, why she learned Muscogee design traditions before European ones, what makes Southeastern iconography distinct from other Indigenous visual traditions, and what it means for Muscogee artists to now have their own tribally run gallery."Art is one of the very first languages to exist, if not the first language, visual language to exist."

Find Shelley at shelleypatrick.com and on Instagram at @ShelleyPatrickArt

A Mvskoke Artist Talk Series. Recorded Live at the 5th Annual Msvkoke Art Market hosted at River Spirit Casino Resort in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Produced in Partnership with Muscogee Nation and Artisans of Nations.

Learn More:

Artisans of Nations: ⁠www.artisansofnations.com⁠ | social media: ⁠@artisansofnations⁠

Muscogee Nation: ⁠www.muscogeenation.com⁠ | Instagram: ⁠@visitmuscogeenation⁠

Artisans of Nations is a storytelling platform honoring Indigenous voices through arts and culture.

Leslie Deer is a Muscogee and Italian fashion designer whose work does something most contemporary clothing does not: it carries the visual language of ancestral wisdom.A third-generation sewer from an urban background who came back to her ancestral designs through dance regalia, Leslie has spent over 10 years translating Muscogee (Creek) motifs: sun circles, wind designs, bandolier-bag silhouettes into contemporary women's wear. Her work is held by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and has been recognized with First Place in Best of Division at the Santa Fe Indian Market.This conversation explores why Southeastern Indigenous iconography is so rarely seen, what each motif communicates, and what it means to be a steward of a design tradition that could otherwise be forgotten.

"It is telling you information if you know how to read it."

Find Leslie at ladeerapparel.com and on Instagram @la.deer

A Mvskoke Artist Talk Series. Recorded Live at the 5th Annual Msvkoke Art Market hosted at River Spirit Casino Resort in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Produced in Partnership with Muscogee Nation and Artisans of Nations.

Learn More:

Artisans of Nations: www.artisansofnations.com | social media: @artisansofnations

Muscogee Nation: www.muscogeenation.com | Instagram: @visitmuscogeenation

Artisans of Nations is a storytelling platform honoring Indigenous voices through arts and culture.

Sandy Fife-Wilson is one of the most decorated Muscogee Nation artists, a Master Artist designee of the Five Civilized Tribes Museum, a co-founder of the landmark Fife Collection, and a practitioner of finger weaving, shell carving, Creek basketry, painting, and beadwork whose work spans more than five decades and sits in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.Sandy talks about growing up in a household where art was constant and technique was passed from hand to hand from her mother, trained at the Santa Fe Indian School, to Sandy herself, and now to her grandchildren. She walks through the mechanics of finger weaving, the meaning carried in Mvskoke sash patterns, and shell carving practice.

"Just because it hadn't been done before doesn't mean it can't."

Find Sandy on Facebook and Instagram at Sandy Fife Wilson.

A Mvskoke Artist Talk Series. Recorded Live at the 5th Annual Msvkoke Art Market hosted at River Spirit Casino Resort in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Produced in Partnership with Muscogee Nation and Artisans of Nations.

Learn More:

Artisans of Nations: ⁠www.artisansofnations.com⁠ | social media: ⁠@artisansofnations⁠

Muscogee Nation: ⁠www.muscogeenation.com⁠ | Instagram: ⁠@visitmuscogeenation⁠

Artisans of Nations is a storytelling platform honoring Indigenous voices through arts and culture.

Nelson Harjo Sr. is one of only two remaining Native American flute makers in Muscogee Nation. In this live artist talk, he shares why that distinction both humbles and motivates him.

This conversation covers Nelson's musical roots, his decision to walk away from formal training to protect his creative voice, and the deep spiritual connection he draws between breath, the Creator, and the sound of the Mvskoke flute.He also talks about playing for a loved one in a coma, the pre-Removal history of the flute in Mvskoke communities, and his ongoing effort to keep this tradition alive.

A Mvskoke Artist Talk Series. Recorded Live at the 5th Annual Msvkoke Art Market hosted at River Spirit Casino Resort in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Produced in Partnership with Muscogee Nation and Artisans of Nations.

Learn More:

Artisans of Nations: ⁠www.artisansofnations.com⁠ | social media: ⁠@artisansofnations⁠

Muscogee Nation: ⁠www.muscogeenation.com⁠ | Instagram: ⁠@visitmuscogeenation⁠

Artisans of Nations is a storytelling platform honoring Indigenous voices through arts and culture.

Harry Beaver has been carving shells for 20 years and the designs he brings to life are thousands of years older than that.A Muscogee Nation artist from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Harry works in lightning whelk, mother of pearl, and black lip shells to revive pre-Columbian motifs drawn from mound sites across the Southeastern United States. From runners and horned serpents to sacred ceremonial symbols.

This conversation covers Harry's process, his sources, and why he believes these designs must be felt — not just seen — to be truly understood."It feels like a greater piece of history too, touching pieces that have these designs that date thousands and thousands of years back."

A Mvskoke Artist Talk Series. Recorded Live at the 5th Annual Msvkoke Art Market hosted at River Spirit Casino Resort in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Produced in Partnership with Muscogee Nation and Artisans of Nations.

Learn More:

Artisans of Nations: ⁠www.artisansofnations.com⁠ | social media: ⁠@artisansofnations⁠

Muscogee Nation: ⁠www.muscogeenation.com⁠ | Instagram: ⁠@visitmuscogeenation⁠

Artisans of Nations is a storytelling platform honoring Indigenous voices through arts and culture.

Dan Beaver is the only Muscogee Nation citizen still making the traditional gunstock war club and he's been doing it for 25 years.A retired law enforcement officer and wood carver from Wetumka, Oklahoma, Dan has spent decades reviving the "Itonufkos", the traditional Mvskoke name for this weapon, using Southeastern Mississippian motifs: raging rivers, wind designs, horned serpents, and thunder patterns. His work is held by the Smithsonian Institution, Emory College Museum, and the Cowboy Hall of Fame, and a piece he made was once displayed in the White House.

In this opening episode of Muscogee Nation Artist Talks recorded live at the 5th Annual Msvkoke Art Market in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in partnership with Muscogee Nation, Dan talks about the history behind the weapon, why pre-contact Southeastern design matters today, and what it means to be the last person in your tribe keeping a tradition from disappearing.

"They didn't suffer through all that for me to forget about where we're from."

Find Dan on Facebook and Instagram under Red Hand Designs.

A Mvskoke Artist Talk Series. Recorded Live at the 5th Annual Msvkoke Art Market hosted at River Spirit Casino Resort in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Produced in Partnership with Muscogee Nation and Artisans of Nations.

Learn More:

Artisans of Nations: ⁠www.artisansofnations.com⁠ | social media: ⁠@artisansofnations⁠

Muscogee Nation: ⁠www.muscogeenation.com⁠ | Instagram: ⁠@visitmuscogeenation

Artisans of Nations is a storytelling platform honoring Indigenous voices through arts and culture.

In this episode, Artisans of Nations sits down with Cray Bauxmont-Flynn, a Native American designer, to talk about culture, creativity, and the role of Native storytelling in contemporary design. Cray shares his background, what inspires his work, and how he approaches designing products for the home and hospitality industries with purpose and cultural integrity.

The conversation explores Native design, Indigenous creativity, hospitality products, home goods, interior design, product design, and storytelling through design. Cray also reflects on why Native designers should lead Native stories and how thoughtful design can shape the way people experience culture in everyday spaces.

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Follow Cray Bauxmont-Flynn on his projects and podcasts

• Beyond the Art Instagram @beyondtheart_podcast
• Beyond the Design Instagram: @beyondthedesign_podcast
• Amatoya Instagram: @amatoya_co  
• Amatoya website: www.amatoya.com

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Follow Artisans of Nations

• Instagram: @artisansofnations
• YouTube: @artisansofnations
• Website: www.artisansofnations.com

"These weavings have prayers, songs, and medicine. This is what I'm offering to you."

When contemporary Navajo weaver Tasheena Littleben sat down at the loom after 20 years away, she thought she'd just be making a textile. Instead, she found herself face-to-face with frustration, impatience, and every life lesson her ancestors had woven into this sacred practice.

This conversation goes deep into what happens when you choose the slow path—processing raw sheep wool by hand, spinning it on a traditional spindle, and sitting for hours with only your thoughts and the rhythm of the loom. Tasheena shares why her 80-year-old grandmother inspired her to live closer to the land, what the Spider Woman origin story teaches about harmony with nature, and the profound moment her dad explained that weavings aren't just art—they're prayers you hand to someone else.

Recorded live at Sovereign Santa Fe during Santa Fe Indian Market 2025, this episode will make you rethink what it means to create something with your hands, why mistakes matter, and how indigenous knowledge survives in the modern world.

Perfect for: Anyone interested in traditional crafts, indigenous culture, mindfulness practices, or what happens when ancient wisdom meets contemporary life.

Guest: Tasheena Littleben | Third-generation Navajo weaver from Rock Point, Arizona
Host: Rachel | Artisans of Nations

Thank you to our sponsors: City of Santa Fe Arts & Culture, City of Santa Fe Office of Economic Development

🧵 Follow Tasheena on Instagram for custom weaving commissions and contemporary Indigenous art @tasheena_lilben

🔗 Explore more: www.artisansofnations.com

📸 Follow us on Instagram:⁠⁠ @ArtisansOfNations⁠⁠

🎥 Watch more on YouTube:⁠⁠ Artisans of Nations Channel⁠⁠

📖 Buy our NEWEST coffee table book: ⁠⁠Volume II: The Land Between Us⁠ ⁠

🎁 Use code PODCAST for 10% off

🎧 Subscribe & listen on YouTube and Apple Podcasts

@artisansofnations

New episodes featuring Indigenous artists and culture. Subscribe so you don't miss a story.

What does “home” truly mean—beyond walls, roofs, and property lines?

In this episode of the Artisans of Nations Podcast, host Rachel sits down with Dr. Chenoa Bah, Diné (Navajo) community advocate, educator, and cultural rights leader, to explore Indigenous housing justice, traditional lifeways, and how reconnecting to land, language, and ceremony restores wellness, dignity, and belonging.

Recorded during Santa Fe Indian Market weekend 2025 on sovereign Pueblo lands, this conversation centers Indigenous perspectives on home as body, spirit, kinship, and Earth, while examining how traditional knowledge informs modern healthcare, architecture, and community care.

00:00 — Welcome & Land Acknowledgment
Introduction to Artisans of Nations and the sacred context of Santa Fe Indian Market

02:10 — Introducing Dr. Chenoa Bah

Clan lineage, matriarchal teachings, and walking the path of Indigenous values

06:30 — What “Home” Means in Indigenous Worldviews
Home as body, language, land, and relational responsibility

11:45 — Indigenous Housing Justice & Unsheltered Relatives

Compassion-centered care, releasing judgment, and protecting the most vulnerable

17:40 — Street Medicine & Servant-Based Healthcare

Meeting people where they are with dignity, humility, and cultural care

23:10 — Language as Medicine

Diné greetings, cosmology, and why Indigenous languages carry belonging

28:50 — Teaching Youth, Ceremony & Rites of Passage
Language revitalization, sweat lodge, Kinaaldá, and intergenerational healing

34:20 — Traditional Architecture & Fire-Centered Living

Hóogans, octagonal homes, and how design shapes wellness

39:10 — Off-Grid Living & Sustainable Indigenous Futures

Solar power, mound homes, and returning to ancestral building practices

44:30 — Integrating Traditional Knowledge into Modern Systems

Healthcare, clinics, tribal colleges, and re-Indigenizing institutions

49:30 — How to Get Involved & Learn More

Southwest Indigenous Housing Justice Collaborative & community resources

52:00 — Closing Reflections

Gratitude, community, and carrying home forward

Part of an 8-episode live series celebrating contemporary Native artists during Santa Fe Indian Market 2025. 🙏 Sponsored by the City of Santa Fe Office of Economic Development & Arts and Culture.

🔗 Explore more: www.artisansofnations.com

📸 Follow us on Instagram:⁠ @ArtisansOfNations⁠

🎥 Watch more on YouTube:⁠ Artisans of Nations Channel⁠

📖 Buy our NEWEST coffee table book: ⁠Volume II: The Land Between Us⁠

🎁 Use code PODCAST for 10% off

🎧 Subscribe & listen on YouTube and Apple Podcasts

@artisansofnations