I know this area of the docs needs some work, and I'm working to improve it as soon as possible. We're also going to clean up and improve the API docs.
The Role model inherits all of the CRUD methods from the base DataModel object: http://apidocs.strongloop.com/loopback/#datamodel-new-datamodel. So, for example, Role.create() is the same as DataModel.create()
The same is true for the REST API. The Role REST API is documented here: https://docs.strongloop.com/display/public/LB/Role+REST+API. You'll notice that each endpoint in this doc links to the "Model REST API" article which provides more detail.
-Rand
Technical Writer, StrongLoop