A native of Shiprock, New Mexico where his heritage is Navajo and Ute, Oreland Joe has become a highly recognized sculptor in the West of Indian figure subjects. He is the first Native American to be elected to the Cowboy Artists of America.

His favorite sculptor is Antonio Canova, an 18th-century Italian sculptor, whose work studied on a trip to Italy in 1986. Joe works primarily in stone including alabaster, marble, and limestone.

Oreland Joe was raised in a family with a musically talented mother and artistically inclined father who was a truck driver and jewelry maker. They encouraged his art interest, and one of his teachers, Mary L Peterson, realizing his talent, gave him alabaster to carve. After high school, he worked...