Native American jewelry
Encyclopedia
Native American jewelry is the personal adornment, often in the forms of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, pins, brooches, labrets, and more, made by the Indigenous peoples of the United States. Native American jewelry reflects the cultural diversity and history of its makers. Native American tribes continue to develop distinct aesthetics rooted in their personal artistic visions and cultural traditions. Artists create jewelry for adornment, ceremonies, and trade. Lois Sherr Dubin writes, "[i]n the absence of written languages, adornment became an important element of Indian communication, conveying many levels of information." Later, jewelry and personal adornment "...signaled resistance to assimilation. It remains a major statement of tribal and individual identity."
Metalsmiths, beaders, carvers, and lapidaries combine a variety of metals, hardwoods, precious and semi-precious gemstones, beadwork
, quillwork
, teeth, bones, hide, vegetal fibers, and other materials to create jewelry. Contemporary Native American jewelry ranges from hand-quarried and processed stones and shells to computer-fabricated steel and titanium jewelry.
into beads and pendants. Olivella shell beads, dating from 6000 BCE, were found in Nevada
; bone, antler, and possibly marine shell beads from 7000 BCE were found in Russell Cave in Alabama
; copper jewelry was traded from Lake Superior
beginning in 3000 BCE; and stone beads were carved in Poverty Point
in Louisiana
in 1500 BCE.
Necklaces of Heishe
beads, that is, shell ground into flat discs, have been discovered in ancient ruins. Remnants of the seashells they used to make beads were also found. Oyster shell, mother of pearl, abalone, conch and clam have been important trade items in the southwest for over a thousand years.
Native beadwork was advanced in the pre-Columbian era
. Beads were made from hand-ground and filed turquoise, coral, and shell. Carved wood, animal bones, claws, and teeth were made into beads, which were then sewn onto clothing or strung into necklaces. Turquoise is one of the dominant materials of Southwestern Native American jewelry. Thousands of pieces were found in the Ancestral Pueblo sites at Chaco Canyon. Some turquoise mines date back to Precolumbian times, and Ancestral Pueblo peoples traded the turquoise with Mesoamerica
ns. Some turquoise found in southern Arizona dates back to 200 BCE.
are most known for their beadwork. Beads date back on the Great Plains at least to 8800 BCE, when a circular, incised lignite
bead was left at the Lindenmeier Site
in Colorado
. Shells such as marginella
and olivella shells were traded from the Gulf of Mexico
and the coasts of California into the Plains since 100 CE. Mussel shell gorgets, dentalia, and abalone were prized trade items for jewelry.
Bones provided material for beads as well, especially long, cylindrical beads called hair pipe
s, which were extremely popular from 1880–1910, although still very common in powwow
regalia today. These are used in chokers, breastplate
s, earrings, and necklaces worn by women and men.
Porcupine quillwork
is a traditional embellishment for textiles on the northern Plains, but quillwork is also used in creating bracelets, earrings, hatbands, belt buckles, and hairclips, as well as umbilical cord
fetishes. Glass beads, first introduced to the Plains as early as 1700, were used in decoration in all the ways quillwork was used, but they never fully replaced quillwork, and several award-winning quillworkers are active in the art world today, such as Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty
(Assiniboine-Sioux
).
Metal jewelry came to the Plains through Spanish and Mexican metalsmiths and trade with tribes from other regions. Southern Plains adopted metalsmithing in the 1820s. They typically cut, stamped, and cold hammered German silver, a nickel alloy. Plains men adopted metal pectorals and armbands. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, members of the Native American Church
revealed their membership to others through pins with emblems of peyote
buttons, water bird, and other religious symbols. Bruce Caesar (Sac and Fox-Pawnee
) is one of the most prolific Southern Plains metalsmiths active today and was awarded the NEA's National Heritage Fellowship
in 1998. US Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell
(Northern Cheyenne
) is an accomplished silversmith.
Before European contact and at least 1500 years ago indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands produced barrel-shaped and discoidal shell beads, as well as perforated small whole shells. The earliest beads are larger when compared to later beads and those of wampum
, with hand drilled holes. The use of the more slender iron drills much improved drilling.
"Wampum" is a Wampanoag
word referring to the white shells of the channeled whelk
shell. The term now refers to both those and the purple beads from quahog clamshells. Wampum workshops were located among the Narragansett tribe, an Algonquian
people located along the southern New England coast. The Narragansett tribal bead makers were buried with wampum supplies and tools to finish work in progress in the afterlife.
Narragansett favored teardrop shaped shell pendants, and the claw pendants made of purple shell were worn by Iroquois in the Hudson Valley
, around the Connecticut River
. The Seneca and Munsee made shell pendants with drilled columns, decorated with a circular shell called a runtee. Whelk shells were carved into bird, turtle, fish, and other shaped pendants, as well as ear spools.
Carved stone pendants in the Northeastern Woodlands date back as far as the Hopewell tradition from 1—400 CE. Bird motifs were common, ranging from the stylized heads of raptors to ducks. Carved shells and incised animal bear, especially bear teeth, have been popular for pendants. Historically pearls are incorporated into necklace and bear teeth have been inlaid with pearls. Seneca and other Iroquois carved small pendants with human faces, believed to be protective amulets, from bone, wood, and stone, including catlinite
.
Iroquois
artists have carved ornamental hair combs from antlers, often from moose, since 2000 BCE. The combs are topped with anthropomorphic or zoomorphic imagery. These became more elaborate after the introduction of metal knives from Europe in the late 16th and 17th centuries.
In the Northeast Woodlands and Great Lakes regions, rectangular gorget
s have been carved from slate
and other stones, dating back to the late archaic period.
Copper was worked in precontact times, but Europeans introduced silversmithing to the northeast in the mid-17th century. Today several Iroquois silversmiths are active. German silver is more popular among Great Lakes silversmiths.
was an important material for carving bracelets and other items. In the 1820s, a major argillite
quarry was discovered on Haida Gwaii, and this stone proved easier to carve that ivory or bone and was adopted as a carving material. Venetian glass seed beads were introduced in great numbers by Russian traders in the late 18th century, as part of the fur trade
. Red and amber were the most popular colors, followed by blue. Historical Chinese coins with defenestrated section were strung as beads.
Copper, initially traded from tribes near the Coppermine River
in the interior, was worked into jewelry since before European contact. Later silver and gold became popular materials for jewelry. Bracelets in particular are hammered and then carved with heraldic or mythic designs and given away at potlatch
es. Northwest Coast jewelers increasingly use repoussé techniques in metalworking. Charles Edenshaw
(Haida
, 1839–1920) and Bill Reid
(Haida
, 1920–1998) were highly influential Northwest Coast jewelers.
Dentalium shells have been traditional beads, used in necklaces, earrings, and other adornment. Kwakwaka'wakw
and Nuu-chah-nulth people used to harvest the shell from the waters off Vancouver Island
, but that stock is depleted and today most dentalia are harvested from southeast Asia. Abalone
shell provides beads and jewelry. High-ranking women traditionally wore large abalone shell earrings.
Today Haida and Tlingit basket weavers often create miniature red cedar
, yellow cedar, and spruce
root baskets to be worn as pendants or earrings.
of the Southeast, dating from 800 BCE to 1500 CE, clay, stone, and pearl beads were worn. Shell gorget
s were incised with bold imagery from the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
. These are still carved today by several Muscogee Creek, Chickasaw
, and Cherokee
jewelers. Long-nosed god maskette
s were made from bone, copper
and marine shells. These are small shield-shaped faces with squared-off foreheads, circular eyes, and large noses of various lengths. They are often shown on SECC representations of falcon impersonators as ear ornaments. Before Europeans brought glass beads to the southeast in the 16th century, pearls and Job's tears
were popular materials for necklaces. Ear spools of stone, or sometimes wood overlaid with copper foil, were popular, and many have been found at Spiro Mounds
from 1100-1400 CE.
European contact introduced glass beads and silversmithing technology. Silver and brass armbands and gorgets became popular among Southeastern men in the 18th and 19th centuries. Sequoyah
was an 18-19th century Cherokee silversmith. Until the 19th century, Choctaw
men wore horsehair collars when playing stickball. Choctaw women's dance regalia incorporates ornamental silver combs and openwork beaded collars. Caddo
women wear hourglass-shaped hair ornaments, called dush-toh
s when dancing.
, and petite point and materials of shell, gemstones and beads. While the Navajo favored the squash blossom necklace, they often also combined turquoise, coral, and other semi-precious gemstones
. They were set into silver scrolls, leaf patterns, and strung on cord for necklaces.
Heishe
necklaces have been made by several southwest tribes since ancient times. The word "heishe" comes from the Santo Domingo word for "shell." A single heishe is a rolled bead of shell, turquoise, or coral, which is cut very thin. Shells used for heishe included mother-of-pearl, spiny oyster, abalone, coral, conch and clam. Tiny, thin heishe was strung together by the Santo Domingo to create necklaces, which were important trade items.
Silverworking was adopted by Native Southwest artists beginning in the 1850s, when Mexican silversmiths had to trade their silverwork for cattle from the Navajo. The Zuni admired the silver jewelry made by the Navajos, so they began trading livestock for instruction in working silver. By 1890, the Zuni had taught the Hopi how to make silver jewelry.
men and women have traditionally worn a variety of jewelry. Earrings and bracelets were strung beads of shell and turquoise. Some bracelets are made of silver, and rings have been brass or silver. Apache women tend to wear more necklaces, from chokers to strung beads of abalone
and other shells, turquoise, jet, stones, glass beads, and certain seeds, such as mountain laurel seeds, and event plant roots. Necklaces often featured abalone shell pendants. When trade beads became available from Europeans and European-Americas, Apache women were many layers of string glass bead necklaces. Mirrors obtained from traders were worn as pendants.
An Apache jeweler can use any color but traditional favorite color combinations including black and white, red and yellow, or pale blue and dark blue. The beadwork of Plains tribes influenced eastern Apaches tribes. Even today, young Apache girls wear necklaces with scratching sticks and drinking tubes during their puberty ceremonies.
San Carlos Apache jewelers are known for their use of peridot
, a green gemstone, in silver bolo ties, necklaces, earrings, and other jewelry.
In 1946, Willard Beatty, director of the Indian Education for the US Department of the Interior, saw an exhibit of Hopi art and was inspired to develop a silversmithing program for Hopi veterans of World War II. The veterans learned cutting, grinding and polishing, as well as die-stamping and sand casting of stylized Hopi designs. The students then taught fellow tribesmen silversmithing, which they used to stylize traditional designs from the decorative patterns of old pottery and baskets.
The Museum of Northern Arizona
encouraged the early silversmiths to develop their own style, district from neighboring tribes. Victor Coochwytewa was one of the most innovative jewelers, who is often credited with adapting the overlay technique to Hopi jewelry, along with Paul Saufkie and Fred Kabotie
. The Hopi Silvercraft Cooperative Guild was organized by these early students. Saufkie's son Lawrence continued making silver overlay jewelry for more than 60 years.
Overlay involves two layers of silver sheets. One sheet has the design etched into it, and then is soldered onto the second sheet with cut out designs. The background is made darker through oxidation, and the top layer is polished where the bottom layer of silver is allowed to oxidize. The top un-oxidized top layer is made into a cutout design, which allows the dark bottom layer to show through. This technique is still in use today in silver jewelry.
Hopi jeweler Charles Loloma
(1921–1991) transformed mid-20th century Native American jewelry by winning major awards with his work that incorporated new materials and techniques. Loloma was the first to use gold and to inlay multiple stones within a piece of jewelry, which completely changed the look of Hopi jewelry.
, began working silver in the 19th century. Atsidi Sani
, or "Old Smith," (ca. 1828-1918) who may have been the first Navajo blacksmith and is credited as the first Navajo silversmith, learned to work silver from a Mexican smith as early as 1853.
The Navajo make buckles, bridles, buttons, rings, canteens, hollow beads, earrings, crescent-shaped pendants, called "najas", bracelets, crosses, powder chargers, tobacco canteens, and disks, known as "conchas", used to decorate belts from copper, steel, iron and, most commonly, silver.
Early Navajo smiths rocker engraved, stamped, and filed designs into plain silver melted from coins, flatware, and ingots. Later, sheet silver and wire acquired from European-American traders also was made into jewelry. The punches and stamps used by Mexican leather workers became the first tools used to create these decorations. Later, railroad spurs, broken files, iron scraps and, later, piston rods became hand made stamps in the hands of these skilled artisans. As commercially made stamps became available through contact with the larger American economy, these were used as well. Several other tools are employed and are simple to make. The bellows
consist of a skin bag about a foot long, held open with wooden hoops. It is provided with a valve and a nozzle. A forge
, crucibles, an anvil
, and tongs are used during the melting process. Molds, the matrix and die, cold chisels, scissors, pliers, files, awls
, and emery paper also come into play. A soldering
outfit, consisting of a blowpipe, and a torch made of oil-soaked rags, used with borax
, is manipulated by the skillful smith. The silversmith used a grinding stone
, sandstone dust, and ashes for polishing the jewelry, and a salt called almogen was used for whitening.Navajo jewelers began sand casting silver around 1875. Silver was melted and then poured into a mold, which was carved from sandstone. When cooled and set, the piece required a great deal of filing and smoothing. Sometimes cast jewelry was also engraved. Sterling silver
jewelry was soldered and surrounded by scrolls, beads and leaf patterns.
Turquoise is closely associated with Navajo jewelry, but it was not until 1880 that the first turquoise was known to be set in silver. Turquoise became much more readily available in ensuing decades. Coral and other semi-precious stones became common in 1900.
One of the most important forms of Navajo, and Native American, jewelry is the Squash Blossom Necklace. Most are made of a string of plain round silver beads, interspersed with more stylized "squash blossoms", and feature a pendant, or "naja", hung from the center of the strand. The squash blossom beads are copied from the buttons which held together the pants worn by Spanish and, later, Mexican cowboys. These buttons represent the pomegranates they are modeled after. Their identification as "squash blossoms", which they closely resemble, is an understandable, and oft repeated, mistake. The naja, which resembles an upside down horse shoe, completes the design. Their origin can be found a continent, and several millennium, away as part of Spanish horse halters.
In 1903, anthropologist Uriah Hollister wrote about the Navajo. He said, "Belts and necklaces of silver are their pride... They are so skillful and patient in hammering and shaping that a fairly good-shaped teaspoon is often made of a silver dollar without melting and casting."
is particularly known for heishe necklaces, as well as a style of necklace consisting of tear-shaped, flat "tabs" strung on heishe shell or turquoise beads. The tabs were made from bone inset with a design in the traditional mosaic style using bits of turquoise, jet, and shell. These beautiful, colorful necklaces are also sometimes identified as Depression jewelry, but they were certainly made earlier than that, and are still made today.
Gail Bird is a contemporary Santo Domingo jeweler, known for her collaborations with Navajo jeweler Yazzie Johnson and their themed concha belts.
With the exception of silver jewelry, which was introduced to Zuni Pueblo in the 19th century, most of the materials commonly worked by Zuni jewelry makers in the 20th century have always been in use in the Zuni region. These include turquoise
, jet
, argillite, steatite, red shale, freshwater clam shell, abalone, and spiny oyster.
Since precontact times, Zuni carve stone and shell fetishes, which they trade with other tribes and even non-Natives. Fetishes are carved from turquoise, amber
, shell, or onyx. Today, Zuni bird fetishes are often set with heishe beads in multi-strand necklaces.
Lanyade became the first Zuni silversmith in 1872. Kineshde, a Zuni smith of the late 1890s, is credited for first combining silver and turquoise in his jewelry. Zuni jewelers soon became known for their clusterwork.
Following the Sitgreaves Expedition
in 1854, Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves illustrated a Zuni forge, which was still in use in the early part of the 20th century. The forge was made from adobe
. Bellows were hand made from animal skins. made of two skin bags. Silver was cast in sandstone
molds, and finished by tooling as opposed to engraving
Thin sheets of silver were cut with scissors and shears.
The establishment of the railroad, with the accompanying tourist trade and the advent of trading post
s heavily influenced Zuni and other Southwest tribes' jewelry. In the early 20th century, trader C.G. Wallace influenced the direction of Zuni silver and lapidary work to appeal to a non-Native audience. Wallace was aided by the proliferation of the automobile and interstate highways such as Route 66
and I-40, and promotion of tourism in Gallup
and Zuni. Wallace employed local Zuni people as clerks, jewelry makers, and miners. He provided tools, equipment, and silversmithing supplies to the jewelers with whom he did business. Wallace influenced Zuni art by encouraging the use of specific materials that sold well at his posts, such as coral, and discouraging others, such as tortoise shell
.
Wallace provided large chunks of turquoise to Zuni artists, giving them the opportunity to carve figures in the round. Wallace also encouraged the increased production and improvement of small-stone techniques like needlepoint
and petit point in the hope that these styles would thwart the production of machine-made jewelry. He also urged jewelers to experiment with silver construction to satisfy his customers' preferences for lightweight jewelry.
Metalsmiths, beaders, carvers, and lapidaries combine a variety of metals, hardwoods, precious and semi-precious gemstones, beadwork
Beadwork
Beadwork is the art or craft of attaching beads to one another or to cloth, usually by the use of a needle and thread or soft, flexible wire. Most beadwork takes the form of jewelry or other personal adornment, but beads are also used in wall hangings and sculpture.Beadwork techniques are broadly...
, quillwork
Quillwork
Quillwork is a form of textile embellishment traditionally practiced by Native Americans that employs the quills of porcupines as a decorative element.-History:...
, teeth, bones, hide, vegetal fibers, and other materials to create jewelry. Contemporary Native American jewelry ranges from hand-quarried and processed stones and shells to computer-fabricated steel and titanium jewelry.
Origins
While Native artists continue to incorporate new materials and techniques into their work, jewelry in the Americas has an ancient history. Beginning as far back as 8800 BCE, Paleo-Indians in the Southwest drilled and shaped multicolored stones and shellsMollusc shell
The mollusc shell is typically a calcareous exoskeleton which encloses, supports and protects the soft parts of an animal in the phylum Mollusca, which includes snails, clams, tusk shells, and several other classes...
into beads and pendants. Olivella shell beads, dating from 6000 BCE, were found in Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
; bone, antler, and possibly marine shell beads from 7000 BCE were found in Russell Cave in Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
; copper jewelry was traded from Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
beginning in 3000 BCE; and stone beads were carved in Poverty Point
Poverty Point
Poverty Point is a prehistoric earthworks of the Poverty Point culture, now a historic monument located in the Southern United States. It is from the current Mississippi River, and situated on the edge of Maçon Ridge, near the village of Epps in West Carroll Parish, Louisiana.Poverty Point...
in Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
in 1500 BCE.
Necklaces of Heishe
Heishe
Heishe or heishi are small discs or tubes shaped beads made of organic shells or ground and polished stones. Its origins come from the Santo Domingo Pueblo Indians, New Mexico, before the use of metals in jewelry by that people...
beads, that is, shell ground into flat discs, have been discovered in ancient ruins. Remnants of the seashells they used to make beads were also found. Oyster shell, mother of pearl, abalone, conch and clam have been important trade items in the southwest for over a thousand years.
Native beadwork was advanced in the pre-Columbian era
Pre-Columbian era
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
. Beads were made from hand-ground and filed turquoise, coral, and shell. Carved wood, animal bones, claws, and teeth were made into beads, which were then sewn onto clothing or strung into necklaces. Turquoise is one of the dominant materials of Southwestern Native American jewelry. Thousands of pieces were found in the Ancestral Pueblo sites at Chaco Canyon. Some turquoise mines date back to Precolumbian times, and Ancestral Pueblo peoples traded the turquoise with Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
ns. Some turquoise found in southern Arizona dates back to 200 BCE.
Great Plains
Plains IndiansPlains Indians
The Plains Indians are the Indigenous peoples who live on the plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. Their colorful equestrian culture and resistance to White domination have made the Plains Indians an archetype in literature and art for American Indians everywhere.Plains...
are most known for their beadwork. Beads date back on the Great Plains at least to 8800 BCE, when a circular, incised lignite
Lignite
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, or Rosebud coal by Northern Pacific Railroad,is a soft brown fuel with characteristics that put it somewhere between coal and peat...
bead was left at the Lindenmeier Site
Lindenmeier Site
The Lindenmeier Site is a stratified multi-component archaeological site most famous for its Folsom component. It is located on the former Lindenmeier Ranch, now the Soapstone Prairie Natural Area, in northeastern Larimer County, Colorado, United States. The site contains the most extensive...
in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. Shells such as marginella
Marginella
Marginella is a genus of small tropical and warm-water sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Marginellidae, the margin snails. It is the type genus of the family.:...
and olivella shells were traded from the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
and the coasts of California into the Plains since 100 CE. Mussel shell gorgets, dentalia, and abalone were prized trade items for jewelry.
Bones provided material for beads as well, especially long, cylindrical beads called hair pipe
Hair pipe
A Hair Pipe is a term for a wide slim bead, more than 1.5 inches wide, which were popular with American Indians, particularly from the Great Plains and Northwest Plateau....
s, which were extremely popular from 1880–1910, although still very common in powwow
PowWow
PowWow is a wireless sensor network mote developed by the Cairn team of IRISA/INRIA. The platform is currently based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard radio transceiver and on an MSP430 microprocessor...
regalia today. These are used in chokers, breastplate
Breastplate
A breastplate is a device worn over the torso to protect it from injury, as an item of religious significance, or as an item of status. A breastplate is sometimes worn by mythological beings as a distinctive item of clothing.- Armour :...
s, earrings, and necklaces worn by women and men.
Porcupine quillwork
Quillwork
Quillwork is a form of textile embellishment traditionally practiced by Native Americans that employs the quills of porcupines as a decorative element.-History:...
is a traditional embellishment for textiles on the northern Plains, but quillwork is also used in creating bracelets, earrings, hatbands, belt buckles, and hairclips, as well as umbilical cord
Umbilical cord
In placental mammals, the umbilical cord is the connecting cord from the developing embryo or fetus to the placenta...
fetishes. Glass beads, first introduced to the Plains as early as 1700, were used in decoration in all the ways quillwork was used, but they never fully replaced quillwork, and several award-winning quillworkers are active in the art world today, such as Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty
Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty
Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty is an award-winning Assiniboine-Sioux bead worker and porcupine quill worker, who creates traditional Northern Plains regalia.-Background:...
(Assiniboine-Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
).
Metal jewelry came to the Plains through Spanish and Mexican metalsmiths and trade with tribes from other regions. Southern Plains adopted metalsmithing in the 1820s. They typically cut, stamped, and cold hammered German silver, a nickel alloy. Plains men adopted metal pectorals and armbands. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, members of the Native American Church
Native American Church
Native American Church, a religious denomination which practices Peyotism or the Peyote religion, originated in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and is the most widespread indigenous religion among Native Americans in the United States...
revealed their membership to others through pins with emblems of peyote
Peyote
Lophophora williamsii , better known by its common name Peyote , is a small, spineless cactus with psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline.It is native to southwestern Texas and Mexico...
buttons, water bird, and other religious symbols. Bruce Caesar (Sac and Fox-Pawnee
Pawnee
Pawnee people are a Caddoan-speaking Native American tribe. They are federally recognized as the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma....
) is one of the most prolific Southern Plains metalsmiths active today and was awarded the NEA's National Heritage Fellowship
National Heritage Fellowship
The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts...
in 1998. US Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Benjamin Nighthorse Campbell is an American politician. He was a U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1993 until 2005 and was during his tenure the only American Indian serving in the U.S. Congress. Campbell was a three term U.S. Representative from 1987 to 1993, when he was sworn into office as a...
(Northern Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
) is an accomplished silversmith.
Northeastern Woodlands
Wampum
Wampum are traditional, sacred shell beads of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of the indigenous people of North America. Wampum include the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell; and the white and purple beads made from the quahog, or Western North Atlantic...
, with hand drilled holes. The use of the more slender iron drills much improved drilling.
"Wampum" is a Wampanoag
Wampanoag
The Wampanoag In the 1600s when encountered by the English, the Wampanoag lived in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, as well as within a territory that encompassed current day Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket...
word referring to the white shells of the channeled whelk
Channeled whelk
The channeled whelk, Busycotypus canaliculatus, previously known as Busycon canaliculatum, is a very large predatory sea snail, a marine prosobranch gastropod, a busycon whelk, belonging to the family Buccinidae. This species is edible....
shell. The term now refers to both those and the purple beads from quahog clamshells. Wampum workshops were located among the Narragansett tribe, an Algonquian
Algonquian peoples
The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...
people located along the southern New England coast. The Narragansett tribal bead makers were buried with wampum supplies and tools to finish work in progress in the afterlife.
Narragansett favored teardrop shaped shell pendants, and the claw pendants made of purple shell were worn by Iroquois in the Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
, around the Connecticut River
Connecticut River
The Connecticut River is the largest and longest river in New England, and also an American Heritage River. It flows roughly south, starting from the Fourth Connecticut Lake in New Hampshire. After flowing through the remaining Connecticut Lakes and Lake Francis, it defines the border between the...
. The Seneca and Munsee made shell pendants with drilled columns, decorated with a circular shell called a runtee. Whelk shells were carved into bird, turtle, fish, and other shaped pendants, as well as ear spools.
Carved stone pendants in the Northeastern Woodlands date back as far as the Hopewell tradition from 1—400 CE. Bird motifs were common, ranging from the stylized heads of raptors to ducks. Carved shells and incised animal bear, especially bear teeth, have been popular for pendants. Historically pearls are incorporated into necklace and bear teeth have been inlaid with pearls. Seneca and other Iroquois carved small pendants with human faces, believed to be protective amulets, from bone, wood, and stone, including catlinite
Catlinite
Catlinite is a type of argillite , usually brownish-red in color, which occurs in a matrix of Sioux quartzite. Because it is fine-grained and easily worked, it is prized by Native Americans for use in making sacred pipes such as calumets and chanunpas...
.
Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
artists have carved ornamental hair combs from antlers, often from moose, since 2000 BCE. The combs are topped with anthropomorphic or zoomorphic imagery. These became more elaborate after the introduction of metal knives from Europe in the late 16th and 17th centuries.
In the Northeast Woodlands and Great Lakes regions, rectangular gorget
Gorget
A gorget originally was a steel or leather collar designed to protect the throat. It was a feature of older types of armour and intended to protect against swords and other non-projectile weapons...
s have been carved from slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
and other stones, dating back to the late archaic period.
Copper was worked in precontact times, but Europeans introduced silversmithing to the northeast in the mid-17th century. Today several Iroquois silversmiths are active. German silver is more popular among Great Lakes silversmiths.
Northwest Coast
In the past, walrus ivoryWalrus ivory
Walrus tusk ivory comes from two modified upper canines. The tusks of a Pacific walrus may attain a length of one meter. Walrus teeth are also commercially carved and traded. The average walrus tooth has a rounded, irregular peg shape and is approximately 5cm in length.The tip of a walrus tusk has...
was an important material for carving bracelets and other items. In the 1820s, a major argillite
Argillite
An argillite is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of indurated clay particles. Argillaceous rocks are basically lithified muds and oozes. They contain variable amounts of silt-sized particles. The argillites grade into shale when the fissile layering typical of shale is...
quarry was discovered on Haida Gwaii, and this stone proved easier to carve that ivory or bone and was adopted as a carving material. Venetian glass seed beads were introduced in great numbers by Russian traders in the late 18th century, as part of the fur trade
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...
. Red and amber were the most popular colors, followed by blue. Historical Chinese coins with defenestrated section were strung as beads.
Copper, initially traded from tribes near the Coppermine River
Coppermine River
The Coppermine River is a river in the North Slave and Kitikmeot regions of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in Canada. It is long. It rises in Lac de Gras, a small lake near Great Slave Lake and flows generally north to Coronation Gulf, an arm of the Arctic Ocean...
in the interior, was worked into jewelry since before European contact. Later silver and gold became popular materials for jewelry. Bracelets in particular are hammered and then carved with heraldic or mythic designs and given away at potlatch
Potlatch
A potlatch is a gift-giving festival and primary economic system practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and United States. This includes Heiltsuk Nation, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish cultures...
es. Northwest Coast jewelers increasingly use repoussé techniques in metalworking. Charles Edenshaw
Charles Edenshaw
Charles Edenshaw was a Haida artist from Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada. He is known for his woodcarving, argillite carving, jewellery, and painting.-Background:...
(Haida
Haida
The Haida are an indigenous nation of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Haida territories lie in both Canada and the United States, as do those of the Tlingit and Tsimshian. The Haida territories comprise the archipelago of Haida Gwaii in British Columbia...
, 1839–1920) and Bill Reid
Bill Reid
William Ronald Reid, OBC was a Canadian artist whose works included jewelry, sculpture, screen-printing, and painting. His work is featured on the Canadian $20 banknote.-Biography:...
(Haida
Haida
The Haida are an indigenous nation of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Haida territories lie in both Canada and the United States, as do those of the Tlingit and Tsimshian. The Haida territories comprise the archipelago of Haida Gwaii in British Columbia...
, 1920–1998) were highly influential Northwest Coast jewelers.
Dentalium shells have been traditional beads, used in necklaces, earrings, and other adornment. Kwakwaka'wakw
Kwakwaka'wakw
The Kwakwaka'wakw are an Indigenous group of First Nations peoples, numbering about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the adjoining mainland and islands.Kwakwaka'wakw translates as "Those who speak Kwak'wala", describing the collective nations within the area that...
and Nuu-chah-nulth people used to harvest the shell from the waters off Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
, but that stock is depleted and today most dentalia are harvested from southeast Asia. Abalone
Abalone
Abalone , from aulón, are small to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis...
shell provides beads and jewelry. High-ranking women traditionally wore large abalone shell earrings.
Today Haida and Tlingit basket weavers often create miniature red cedar
Red Cedar
- Trees :* Toona ciliata, an Australian / Asian rainforest tree* Juniperus virginiana, a North American juniper* Thuja plicata, a North American tree in the cypress family- Places :Canada* Red Cedar Lake , a lake in the Temagami region...
, yellow cedar, and spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
root baskets to be worn as pendants or earrings.
Southeastern Woodlands
In the Mississippian cultureMississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
of the Southeast, dating from 800 BCE to 1500 CE, clay, stone, and pearl beads were worn. Shell gorget
Shell gorget
A shell gorget is a Native American art form of polished, carved shell pendants worn around the neck. The gorgets are frequently engraved, and are sometimes highlighted with pigments, or fenestrated ....
s were incised with bold imagery from the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex is the name given to the regional stylistic similarity of artifacts, iconography, ceremonies, and mythology of the Mississippian culture that coincided with their adoption of maize agriculture and chiefdom-level complex social organization from...
. These are still carved today by several Muscogee Creek, Chickasaw
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
, and Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
jewelers. Long-nosed god maskette
Long-nosed god maskette
Long-nosed god maskettes are artifacts made from bone, copper and marine shells associated with the Mississippian culture and found in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast. They are small shield-shaped faces with squared-off foreheads, circular eyes, and large noses of...
s were made from bone, copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
and marine shells. These are small shield-shaped faces with squared-off foreheads, circular eyes, and large noses of various lengths. They are often shown on SECC representations of falcon impersonators as ear ornaments. Before Europeans brought glass beads to the southeast in the 16th century, pearls and Job's tears
Job's Tears
Job's Tears , Coixseed, Tear Grass, adlay, or adlai, is a tall grain-bearing tropical plant of the family Poaceae native to Southeast Asia but elsewhere cultivated in gardens as an annual. It has been naturalized in the southern United States and the New World tropics...
were popular materials for necklaces. Ear spools of stone, or sometimes wood overlaid with copper foil, were popular, and many have been found at Spiro Mounds
Spiro Mounds
Spiro Mounds is an important pre-Columbian Caddoan Mississippian culture archaeological site located in present-day eastern Oklahoma in the United States. The site is located seven miles north of Spiro, and is the only prehistoric Native American archaeological site in Oklahoma open to the public...
from 1100-1400 CE.
European contact introduced glass beads and silversmithing technology. Silver and brass armbands and gorgets became popular among Southeastern men in the 18th and 19th centuries. Sequoyah
Sequoyah
Sequoyah , named in English George Gist or George Guess, was a Cherokee silversmith. In 1821 he completed his independent creation of a Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible...
was an 18-19th century Cherokee silversmith. Until the 19th century, Choctaw
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
men wore horsehair collars when playing stickball. Choctaw women's dance regalia incorporates ornamental silver combs and openwork beaded collars. Caddo
Caddo
The Caddo Nation is a confederacy of several Southeastern Native American tribes, who traditionally inhabited much of what is now East Texas, northern Louisiana and portions of southern Arkansas and Oklahoma. Today the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma is a cohesive tribe with its capital at Binger, Oklahoma...
women wear hourglass-shaped hair ornaments, called dush-toh
Dush-toh
A dush-toh, also spelled dush-too, dush-tooh, or dush-tuh, is a traditional Caddo hair ornament worn by girls and women during dances, particularly the Turkey Dance....
s when dancing.
Southwest
The Southwest is especially known for its silverwork. Southwest jewelry includes designs of channel inlay, cluster, mosaicMosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
, and petite point and materials of shell, gemstones and beads. While the Navajo favored the squash blossom necklace, they often also combined turquoise, coral, and other semi-precious gemstones
Gemstones
Gemstones is the third solo album by Adam Green, released in 2005. The album is characterised by the heavy presence of Wurlitzer piano, whereas its predecessor relied on a string section in its instrumentation.-Track listing:#Gemstones – 2:24...
. They were set into silver scrolls, leaf patterns, and strung on cord for necklaces.
Heishe
Heishe
Heishe or heishi are small discs or tubes shaped beads made of organic shells or ground and polished stones. Its origins come from the Santo Domingo Pueblo Indians, New Mexico, before the use of metals in jewelry by that people...
necklaces have been made by several southwest tribes since ancient times. The word "heishe" comes from the Santo Domingo word for "shell." A single heishe is a rolled bead of shell, turquoise, or coral, which is cut very thin. Shells used for heishe included mother-of-pearl, spiny oyster, abalone, coral, conch and clam. Tiny, thin heishe was strung together by the Santo Domingo to create necklaces, which were important trade items.
Silverworking was adopted by Native Southwest artists beginning in the 1850s, when Mexican silversmiths had to trade their silverwork for cattle from the Navajo. The Zuni admired the silver jewelry made by the Navajos, so they began trading livestock for instruction in working silver. By 1890, the Zuni had taught the Hopi how to make silver jewelry.
Apache
Both ApacheApache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
men and women have traditionally worn a variety of jewelry. Earrings and bracelets were strung beads of shell and turquoise. Some bracelets are made of silver, and rings have been brass or silver. Apache women tend to wear more necklaces, from chokers to strung beads of abalone
Abalone
Abalone , from aulón, are small to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis...
and other shells, turquoise, jet, stones, glass beads, and certain seeds, such as mountain laurel seeds, and event plant roots. Necklaces often featured abalone shell pendants. When trade beads became available from Europeans and European-Americas, Apache women were many layers of string glass bead necklaces. Mirrors obtained from traders were worn as pendants.
An Apache jeweler can use any color but traditional favorite color combinations including black and white, red and yellow, or pale blue and dark blue. The beadwork of Plains tribes influenced eastern Apaches tribes. Even today, young Apache girls wear necklaces with scratching sticks and drinking tubes during their puberty ceremonies.
San Carlos Apache jewelers are known for their use of peridot
Peridot
-Chemistry:The chemical composition of peridot is 2SiO4, with Mg in greater quantities than Fe.-Etymology:The origin of the name "peridot" is uncertain...
, a green gemstone, in silver bolo ties, necklaces, earrings, and other jewelry.
Hopi
Sikyatata became the first Hopi silversmith in 1898. Hopi Indian silversmiths today are known for their overlay technique used in silver jewelry designs. The scarcity of silver kept the primary jewelry components used by the Hopi to shell and stone until the 1930s and 1940s, and very few Hopi knew how to work silver.In 1946, Willard Beatty, director of the Indian Education for the US Department of the Interior, saw an exhibit of Hopi art and was inspired to develop a silversmithing program for Hopi veterans of World War II. The veterans learned cutting, grinding and polishing, as well as die-stamping and sand casting of stylized Hopi designs. The students then taught fellow tribesmen silversmithing, which they used to stylize traditional designs from the decorative patterns of old pottery and baskets.
The Museum of Northern Arizona
Museum of Northern Arizona
The Museum of Northern Arizona is a museum in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, that was established as a repository for Native American artifacts and natural history specimens from the Colorado Plateau.The museum was founded in 1928 by zoologist Dr. Harold S...
encouraged the early silversmiths to develop their own style, district from neighboring tribes. Victor Coochwytewa was one of the most innovative jewelers, who is often credited with adapting the overlay technique to Hopi jewelry, along with Paul Saufkie and Fred Kabotie
Fred Kabotie
Fred Kabotie was a celebrated Hopi painter, silversmith, and educator.-Background and education:Fred Kabotie was born into a highly traditional Hopi family at Songo`opavi, Second Mesa, Arizona, Kabotie. His father belonged to the sun clan and he belonged to the Bluebird Clan...
. The Hopi Silvercraft Cooperative Guild was organized by these early students. Saufkie's son Lawrence continued making silver overlay jewelry for more than 60 years.
Overlay involves two layers of silver sheets. One sheet has the design etched into it, and then is soldered onto the second sheet with cut out designs. The background is made darker through oxidation, and the top layer is polished where the bottom layer of silver is allowed to oxidize. The top un-oxidized top layer is made into a cutout design, which allows the dark bottom layer to show through. This technique is still in use today in silver jewelry.
Hopi jeweler Charles Loloma
Charles Loloma
Charles Loloma was an American artist of Hopi ancestry. He was born in Hopi Third Mesa to Rex and Rachael Loloma. He served in the military in 1941 to 1945, where he was stationed in the Aleutian Islands. Thanks to the GI Bill, Loloma was able to go the Alfred University in New York. In 1954 he...
(1921–1991) transformed mid-20th century Native American jewelry by winning major awards with his work that incorporated new materials and techniques. Loloma was the first to use gold and to inlay multiple stones within a piece of jewelry, which completely changed the look of Hopi jewelry.
Navajo
The Diné, commonly referred to as the Navajo peopleNavajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
, began working silver in the 19th century. Atsidi Sani
Atsidi Sani
Atsidi Sani was the first known Navajo silversmith.-Background:Atsidi Sani played an important role in the history of Navajo silversmithing. He is known by many to be the first Navajo silversmith, although his main focus was in blacksmithing; working with iron. Many agree that he learned...
, or "Old Smith," (ca. 1828-1918) who may have been the first Navajo blacksmith and is credited as the first Navajo silversmith, learned to work silver from a Mexican smith as early as 1853.
The Navajo make buckles, bridles, buttons, rings, canteens, hollow beads, earrings, crescent-shaped pendants, called "najas", bracelets, crosses, powder chargers, tobacco canteens, and disks, known as "conchas", used to decorate belts from copper, steel, iron and, most commonly, silver.
Early Navajo smiths rocker engraved, stamped, and filed designs into plain silver melted from coins, flatware, and ingots. Later, sheet silver and wire acquired from European-American traders also was made into jewelry. The punches and stamps used by Mexican leather workers became the first tools used to create these decorations. Later, railroad spurs, broken files, iron scraps and, later, piston rods became hand made stamps in the hands of these skilled artisans. As commercially made stamps became available through contact with the larger American economy, these were used as well. Several other tools are employed and are simple to make. The bellows
Bellows
A bellows is a device for delivering pressurized air in a controlled quantity to a controlled location.Basically, a bellows is a deformable container which has an outlet nozzle. When the volume of the bellows is decreased, the air escapes through the outlet...
consist of a skin bag about a foot long, held open with wooden hoops. It is provided with a valve and a nozzle. A forge
Forge
A forge is a hearth used for forging. The term "forge" can also refer to the workplace of a smith or a blacksmith, although the term smithy is then more commonly used.The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as a hearth, for heating metals...
, crucibles, an anvil
Anvil
An anvil is a basic tool, a block with a hard surface on which another object is struck. The inertia of the anvil allows the energy of the striking tool to be transferred to the work piece. In most cases the anvil is used as a forging tool...
, and tongs are used during the melting process. Molds, the matrix and die, cold chisels, scissors, pliers, files, awls
Stitching awl
A stitching awl is a simple tool with which holes can be punctured in a variety of materials, or existing holes can be enlarged. It is also used for sewing heavy materials, such as leather or canvas. It is a thin, tapered metal shaft, coming to a sharp point, either straight or slightly bent....
, and emery paper also come into play. A soldering
Soldering
Soldering is a process in which two or more metal items are joined together by melting and flowing a filler metal into the joint, the filler metal having a lower melting point than the workpiece...
outfit, consisting of a blowpipe, and a torch made of oil-soaked rags, used with borax
Borax
Borax, also known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid. It is usually a white powder consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water.Borax has a wide variety of uses...
, is manipulated by the skillful smith. The silversmith used a grinding stone
Grinding Stone
Grinding Stone is a 1973 debut album by Gary Moore, released under the "The Gary Moore Band" moniker.-Track listing:All songs by Gary Moore.# "Grinding Stone" – 9:38# "Time to Heal" - 6:19# "Sail Across the Mountain" - 6:58...
, sandstone dust, and ashes for polishing the jewelry, and a salt called almogen was used for whitening.Navajo jewelers began sand casting silver around 1875. Silver was melted and then poured into a mold, which was carved from sandstone. When cooled and set, the piece required a great deal of filing and smoothing. Sometimes cast jewelry was also engraved. Sterling silver
Sterling silver
Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by mass of silver and 7.5% by mass of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925....
jewelry was soldered and surrounded by scrolls, beads and leaf patterns.
Turquoise is closely associated with Navajo jewelry, but it was not until 1880 that the first turquoise was known to be set in silver. Turquoise became much more readily available in ensuing decades. Coral and other semi-precious stones became common in 1900.
One of the most important forms of Navajo, and Native American, jewelry is the Squash Blossom Necklace. Most are made of a string of plain round silver beads, interspersed with more stylized "squash blossoms", and feature a pendant, or "naja", hung from the center of the strand. The squash blossom beads are copied from the buttons which held together the pants worn by Spanish and, later, Mexican cowboys. These buttons represent the pomegranates they are modeled after. Their identification as "squash blossoms", which they closely resemble, is an understandable, and oft repeated, mistake. The naja, which resembles an upside down horse shoe, completes the design. Their origin can be found a continent, and several millennium, away as part of Spanish horse halters.
In 1903, anthropologist Uriah Hollister wrote about the Navajo. He said, "Belts and necklaces of silver are their pride... They are so skillful and patient in hammering and shaping that a fairly good-shaped teaspoon is often made of a silver dollar without melting and casting."
Santo Domingo Pueblo
Santo Domingo Pueblo, located on the Rio GrandeRio Grande
The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
is particularly known for heishe necklaces, as well as a style of necklace consisting of tear-shaped, flat "tabs" strung on heishe shell or turquoise beads. The tabs were made from bone inset with a design in the traditional mosaic style using bits of turquoise, jet, and shell. These beautiful, colorful necklaces are also sometimes identified as Depression jewelry, but they were certainly made earlier than that, and are still made today.
Gail Bird is a contemporary Santo Domingo jeweler, known for her collaborations with Navajo jeweler Yazzie Johnson and their themed concha belts.
Zuni
Zuni jewelry-making dates back to Ancestral Pueblo prehistory. Early Zuni lapidaries used stone and antler tools, wooden drills with flake stone or cactus spine drillbits, abrading tools of wood and stone, sand for smoothing, and fiber cords for stringing.With the exception of silver jewelry, which was introduced to Zuni Pueblo in the 19th century, most of the materials commonly worked by Zuni jewelry makers in the 20th century have always been in use in the Zuni region. These include turquoise
Turquoise
Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula CuAl648·4. It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gem and ornamental stone for thousands of years owing to its unique hue...
, jet
Jet (lignite)
Jet is a geological material and is considered to be a minor gemstone. Jet is not considered a true mineral, but rather a mineraloid as it has an organic origin, being derived from decaying wood under extreme pressure....
, argillite, steatite, red shale, freshwater clam shell, abalone, and spiny oyster.
Since precontact times, Zuni carve stone and shell fetishes, which they trade with other tribes and even non-Natives. Fetishes are carved from turquoise, amber
Amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin , which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents...
, shell, or onyx. Today, Zuni bird fetishes are often set with heishe beads in multi-strand necklaces.
Lanyade became the first Zuni silversmith in 1872. Kineshde, a Zuni smith of the late 1890s, is credited for first combining silver and turquoise in his jewelry. Zuni jewelers soon became known for their clusterwork.
Following the Sitgreaves Expedition
Sitgreaves Expedition
The Sitgreaves Expedition was a combined American scientific and military mission to explore the Zuni River, the Little Colorado River and the Colorado River in 1851. Setting out from northern New Mexico, the expedition traveled west across Arizona and then south along the Colorado to Fort Yuma in...
in 1854, Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves illustrated a Zuni forge, which was still in use in the early part of the 20th century. The forge was made from adobe
Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
. Bellows were hand made from animal skins. made of two skin bags. Silver was cast in sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
molds, and finished by tooling as opposed to engraving
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
Thin sheets of silver were cut with scissors and shears.
The establishment of the railroad, with the accompanying tourist trade and the advent of trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
s heavily influenced Zuni and other Southwest tribes' jewelry. In the early 20th century, trader C.G. Wallace influenced the direction of Zuni silver and lapidary work to appeal to a non-Native audience. Wallace was aided by the proliferation of the automobile and interstate highways such as Route 66
U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66 was a highway within the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926 -- with road signs erected the following year...
and I-40, and promotion of tourism in Gallup
Gallup, New Mexico
- Demographics :As of the census of 2000, there were 20,209 people, 6,810 households, and 4,869 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,513.7 people per square mile...
and Zuni. Wallace employed local Zuni people as clerks, jewelry makers, and miners. He provided tools, equipment, and silversmithing supplies to the jewelers with whom he did business. Wallace influenced Zuni art by encouraging the use of specific materials that sold well at his posts, such as coral, and discouraging others, such as tortoise shell
Tortoiseshell material
Tortoiseshell or tortoise shell is a material produced mainly from the shell of the hawksbill turtle, an endangered species. It was widely used in the 1960s and 1970s in the manufacture of items such as combs, sunglasses, guitar picks and knitting needles...
.
Wallace provided large chunks of turquoise to Zuni artists, giving them the opportunity to carve figures in the round. Wallace also encouraged the increased production and improvement of small-stone techniques like needlepoint
Needlepoint
Needlepoint is a form of counted thread embroidery in which yarn is stitched through a stiff open weave canvas. Most needlepoint designs completely cover the canvas...
and petit point in the hope that these styles would thwart the production of machine-made jewelry. He also urged jewelers to experiment with silver construction to satisfy his customers' preferences for lightweight jewelry.
See also
- Native American artNative American artVisual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present...
- Native American beadwork
- List of indigenous artists of the Americas
- BracerBracerA bracer is a strap or sheath, commonly made of leather, stone, or plastic that covers the inside of an archer's arm to protect it while shooting. Bracers keep the inside of the archer's forearm from getting hurt by the string of the bow or the fletching of the arrow; they also prevent loose...