Bigfoot stories guide a silversmith’s most personal work
Special to the Times | Donovan Quintero
Window Rock silversmith Gino Antonio works at his table during the Gallup Arts Crawl July 11 in downtown Gallup.
GALLUP
The evening sun was still warm on the downtown storefronts July 11 as Gino Antonio sat behind his table at the Gallup Arts Crawl, polishing silver and talking about Bigfoot.
Special to the Times | Donovan Quintero
Window Rock silversmith Gino Antonio holds a hammered silver Bigfoot figure that will become the centerpiece of a k’eet’oh during the Gallup Arts Crawl July 11 in downtown Gallup.
A brown leather hide covered the table in front of him. Stamped bangles caught the last light beside a heavy cuff carrying a repoussé concho and turquoise cabochon. A strand of turquoise and white shell beads rested near loose stones laid out like a hand of cards.
Families, children with balloons and shoppers moved past the tents and the ceremonial office. Some stopped to lean over Antonio’s table and point at his work.
The piece the Window Rock silversmith reached for was not for sale.
It was a palm-sized figure of hammered and chased silver with a heavy brow, barrel chest and long arms hanging at its sides. Antonio has worked for about three years on the Bigfoot, or Big Man, figure that will become the centerpiece of a k’eet’oh, a traditional Diné bowguard.
To read the full article, please see the July 16, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow