Encounter the People

Navajo Silverwork & Jewelry

Atsidi Sani, who learned the craft from Mexican artisans in the late nineteenth century and then passed it along to other Navajo craftworkers, is recognized as the first Navajo silversmith. Because of this, early Navajo jewelry shows a pronounced Mexican influence in both design and technique.

Navajo silver jewelry is quite large and is often set with rather substantial turquoise stones. The flamboyance of the work reflects its function as an expression of the wealth and status of its owner. Concho belts and squash blossom necklaces are widely identified with the Navajo. However, both their designs originated in other cultures. Conchos, whose name is derived from the Spanish word for shell and which were originally crafted from Mexican and then American silver coins hammered to the desired thickness and shape, were originally modelled on the silver hair ornaments of Plains tribes, which consisted of long strips of leather bearing round German silver pieces attached at regular intervals. The original squash blossom necklaces, strung with silver beads fashioned from silver coins, also bore Spanish design elements. Their “blossoms,” which have come to be identified as from squash plants, Navajo Necklace
Photo (c) 2009 Michele Mountain
Museum of Northern Arizona are actually based on the pomegranate blossom beads found on Spanish men’s trousers. The distinctive pendant found on squash blossom necklaces, the najah, was derived from similar design elements on horse bridles that were intended to ward off the “evil eye.”

Chip inlay, consisting of small pieces of turquoise and coral set into silver, and heavy stone “chunk” necklaces, consisting of large chunks of roughly formed, polished turquoise are more characteristic of traditional indigenous Southwestern jewelry and represent the Navajos’ characteristic borrowing of the artistic traditions and designs of their neighbors to create distinctive forms.

Navajo jewelry served as an important form of trade currency in the trading post era. Individual or family-owned pieces of jewelry were often pawned at trading posts for food and household goods. In cases where the pieces’ owners were unable to retrieve them, the jewelry became dead pawn and entered the non-Native collectors’ and tourist markets. Such pieces have become among the most prized by collectors today.

Additional Information

Readings:

Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. University of Oklahoma Press, 1944.
Baxter, Paula A. Southwest Silver Jewelry. Schiffer Publishing, 2001.
Baxter, Paula. Native American Silver Jewelry: The First Century. Schiffer, 2001.
Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers . University of New Mexico Press, 1973.
Carter, William H. Metallic Ornaments of the North American Indians. Namind Printers and Publishers, 1973.
Contemporary Southern Plains Indian Metalwork. Oklahoma Indian Arts andCrafts Cooperative, 1976.
Feder, Norman. “Plains Indian Metal Working with Emphasis on Hairplates.” American Indian Tradition, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp.5576, 1962.
Harvey, Bryron III, et al. White Metal Universe: Navajo Silver from the Fred Harvey Collection. Cynthia J. Davies, ed. Heard Museum, 1981.
Jernigan, E. Wesley. Jewelry of the Prehistoric Southwest. University of New Mexico Press, 1983.
Lincoln, Louise, ed. Southwest Indian Silver from the Doneghy Collection. University of Texas Press for the Minnesota Institute of Arts, 1982.