From the Rez to Downtown Petaluma, Gallery Seeks to Shed Light on Native Art

For months, I had walked by gallery on Western Avenue and wondered what a Native American gallery was doing in a region with no significant Native presence (compared to Arizona, New Mexico and the Dakotas, for example.)

It wasn’t until the Warrior Mouse moved to Kentucky Street, joining forces with a children's clothing and toy shop to afford the rent, that I finally set foot inside the store and was astounded at what I saw there.

Owner Jacquelyn Bruni has roamed the country for years, moving from her native New York City to Ashland, Oregon to work at an adolescent treatment center where many of her patients were Klamath Indians.

After 18 years as a counselor and director of the center, the self-described gypsy moved to Jerome, Arizona and purchased a jewelry shop. It was in that former mining town-turned artist colony near the Navajo and Hopi reservations that Bruni began meeting Native American jewelers and being exposed to their art.

Many were superbly talented and all were desperate for a way to sell their creations to the world beyond.

Unlike older artists who primarily worked in silver and turquoise, the younger craftsmen used new materials like sugalite, a purple rock found in Tanzania, Sleeping Beauty turquoise, which contrary to its name is bright blue, or spiny oyster shell, which is bright orange.

The discovery blew Bruni away and prompted her to start buying as much Native art as she could afford.

“Even though I had spent all that time working with them in Ashland, I knew nothing about these people, who they were or what their culture was about,” Bruni says. “All I knew was that they were completely disregarded by the outside world and forgotten.”

She bought rings made of colorful stone, bracelets and necklaces with carved images of eagles and bears, both popular symbols in Native American art. At the nearby Zuni reservation, Bruni bought fetishes, small animal figurines carved from stone, each one representing a unique quality like wisdom, strength, calmness or peace.

Check out some of Warrior Mouse's treasures in our slideshow above

In return for bringing Native art to the masses, Bruni was invited to sit in at harvest celebrations, buffalo dances and other special rituals, a great honor for an outsider.

In 2006, Bruni left Jerome and opened another store in Newport, Oregon, before finally settling in Petaluma in 2010. (Her children bought her a condo so that she could finally stop traveling and be closer to them, she says.)

Still, the years she spent among Native jewelers left a lasting impact on this Jewish gal from New York City. Now, Bruni sees herself not so much as an ambassador of Native culture, but simply as someone who is giving tribal artists greater recognition.

“I want people to appreciate that an individual artist has created each piece and that people have put their souls into this art,” she says. 

Have you visited The Warrior Mouse?