Native American jewelry

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birch bark biter, 2011[1]

Native American jewelry refers to items of personal adornment, whether for personal use, sale or as art; examples of which include

Native American tribes continue to develop distinct aesthetics rooted in their personal artistic visions and cultural traditions. Artists may create jewelry for adornment, ceremonies, and display, or for sale or 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."[2]

Native American jewelry can be made from naturally occurring materials such as various metals, hardwoods, vegetal fibers, or precious and semi-precious

gemstones; animal materials such as teeth, bones and hide; or man-made materials like beadwork and quillwork
. Metalsmiths, beaders, carvers, and lapidaries combine these materials to create jewelry. Contemporary Native American jewelry ranges from hand-quarried and processed stones and shells to computer-fabricated steel and titanium jewelry.

Navajo silversmith, photo by George Ben Wittick
, 1883

Origins

Jewelry in the Americas has an ancient history. The earliest known examples of North American jewelry are four bone earrings found at the

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.[5]

Necklaces of

mother of pearl, abalone, conch, and clam
shells have been important trade items in the Southwest for over a thousand years.

Native beadwork continued to advance in the

Precolumbian times, and Ancestral Pueblo peoples traded the turquoise with Mesoamericans. Some turquoise found in southern Arizona dates back to 200 BCE.[6][8][9]

Great Plains

Nickel silver comb by Bruce Caesar (Pawnee-Sac and Fox, 1984) Oklahoma History Center

Plains Indians are most well known for their beadwork. Beads on the Great Plains date back to at least to 8800 BCE, when a circular, incised lignite bead was left at the Lindenmeier site in Colorado.[10] 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.[10] Mussel shell gorgets, dentalia, and abalone were prized trade items for jewelry.[11]

Bones provided material for beads as well, especially long, cylindrical beads called hair pipes, which were extremely popular from 1880 to 1910 and are still are very common in powwow regalia today. These are used in chokers, breastplates, earrings, and necklaces worn by women and men, and in ceremonial headdresses as well.[12]

Porcupine

Assiniboine-Sioux).[13]

Metal jewelry came to the Plains through Spanish and Mexican metalsmiths and trade with tribes from other regions. Southern Plains Native Americans adopted metalsmithing in the 1820s. They typically cut, stamped, and cold hammered

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.[17] US Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne) is an accomplished silversmith.[18]

Northeastern Woodlands

Wampanoag-Eastern Cherokee
)

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

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. Wampum was highly sought as a trade good throughout the Eastern Woodlands, including the Great Lakes
region.

Narragansett favored teardrop-shaped shell pendants, and the claw pendants made of purple shell were worn by Iroquois in the

ear spools.[20]

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.[21] Carved shells and incised animal teeth, especially bear teeth, have been popular for pendants. Historically, pearls are incorporated into necklace and bear teeth have been inlaid with pearls.[22] Seneca and other Iroquois carved small pendants with human faces, which were believed to be protective amulets, from bone, wood, and stone, including catlinite.[23]

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.[24]

In the Northeast Woodlands and Great Lakes regions, rectangular

archaic period.[25]

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.[26]

Northwest Coast

Haida silver bracelet featuring an American eagle, c. 1900, Seattle Art Museum
Further information: Northwest Coast art

In the past, walrus ivory 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 than ivory or bone and was adopted as a carving material.[27] 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.[28]

Copper, initially traded from tribes near the

repoussé techniques in metalworking.[30] Charles Edenshaw (Haida, 1839–1920) and Bill Reid (Haida
, 1920–1998) were highly influential Northwest Coast jewelers.

Nuu-chah-nulth people used to harvest the shell from the waters off Vancouver Island,[31] 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.[32]

Today Haida and Tlingit basket weavers often create miniature

yellow cedar, and spruce
root baskets to be worn as pendants or earrings.

Southeastern Woodlands

SWAIA
Winter Market, 2011
Eastern Band Cherokee
)

In the

Ear spools of stone, or sometimes wood overlaid with copper foil, were popular, and many have been found at Spiro Mounds from 1100 to 1400 CE.[34]

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 18th/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.[35] Caddo women wear hourglass-shaped hair ornaments, called dush-tohs when dancing.[36]

Southwest

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.[38]

Silversmiths dominate the production of jewelry centered in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. Early in the 1800s, Spanish and, later, Mexican, silver buttons, bridles, etc. became available in what is now Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and, Utah through acquisition and trade. Navajo (Diné) artists began working silver in the 1850s after learning the art from Mexican smiths. The Zuni, who admired the silver jewelry made by Navajo smiths, traded livestock for instruction in working silver. By 1890, Zuni smiths had instructed the Hopi as well.[39]

The centuries-old art of lapidary, preserved by clan and family tradition, remains an important element of design. Stone on stone mosaic inlay, channel inlay, cluster work, petite point, needle point, and natural cut or smoothed and polished cabochons fashioned from shells, coral, semi-precious and precious gems commonly decorate these works of art with blue or green turquoise being the most common and recognizable material used.

Apache

Both

trade beads became available from Europeans and European-Americas, Apache women began wearing several layers of string glass bead necklaces. Mirrors obtained from traders were also worn as pendants, or woven into vests and other clothing items.[40]

Apache jewelers use virtually any color, but do tend toward traditional favorite color combinations, including black and white, red and yellow, or pale blue and dark blue.

puberty ceremonies.[42]

San Carlos Apache jewelers are known for their use of peridot, a green gemstone, in silver bolo ties, necklaces, earrings, and other jewelry.[43]

Hopi

Phillip Sekaquaptewa's signature commesso bolo tie, circa 1988, contemporary Hopi silver overlay with stone and shell. At full magnification, note matting, characteristic minute, closely packed chisel strokes applied by the Hopi (and no one else) to the oxidized areas of the bottom silver sheet in overlay work.

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 encouraged the early silversmiths to develop their own style, distinct from neighboring tribes. Victor Coochwytewa was one of the most innovative jewelers - one 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.[45] 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.[46]

Navajo

Navajo jeweler, Santa Fe[47]

The

Navajo, or Diné, began working silver in the 19th century. Atsidi Sani, or "Old Smith" (c. 1828 – 1918),[48] 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.[44][49] Navajo metalsmiths 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" or "conchos
" - typically used to decorate belts - made 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 obtained from European-American traders. Later, sheet silver and wire acquired from American settlers were also made into jewelry. The punches and stamps used by Mexican leather workers became the first tools used to create these decorations. Still later, railroad spurs, broken files, iron scraps and, later, piston rods became handmade stamps in the hands of these skilled artisans.[50] As commercially-made stamps became available however, through contact with the larger American economy, they were also utilized. Several other traditional hand tools are employed, being relatively simple to construct.

The

grinding stone, sandstone dust, and ashes for polishing the jewelry, and a salt called almogen is used for whitening. Navajo jewelers began sand casting silver around 1875; silver was melted and then poured into a mold, which would be carved from sandstone.[50] When cooled and set, the piece normally required additional filing and smoothing. Cast jewelry was also occasionally 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 came into common use around 1900.

One of the most important forms of Navajo and Southwestern 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 the Spanish, and later, Mexican caballeros. These buttons represent - and are modeled after - pomegranates.[51][52][53] Their identification as "squash blossoms", which they closely resemble, is an understandable, and often repeated, error.[54] The naja, which resembles an upside-down horseshoe, completes the design. Their origin can be found a continent, and several hundred years away, as a traditional part of Spanish horse halters.[55][56][57]

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."[58]

  • Navajo bracelets with turquoise
    Navajo bracelets with turquoise
  • Navajo Squash Blossom Necklace
    Navajo Squash Blossom Necklace
  • silver overlay bolo tie, by Tommy Singer, c. 1980s. This is an example of a Navajo copy of Hopi silver overlay technique, evident from the absence of matting on the black oxidized surfaces of the bottom silver sheet, or small, repeated, closely packed chisel strokes, very taxing on the silversmith, especially the eyes.[59]
    silver overlay bolo tie, by Tommy Singer, c. 1980s. This is an example of a Navajo copy of Hopi silver overlay technique, evident from the absence of matting on the black oxidized surfaces of the bottom silver sheet, or small, repeated, closely packed chisel strokes, very taxing on the silversmith, especially the eyes.[59]
  • Silver Navajo belt buckle, Woolaroc
    Silver Navajo belt buckle,
    Woolaroc

Kewa Pueblo

Kewa Pueblo, formerly known as Santo Domingo, is located on the Rio Grande and is particularly known for heishi 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 and colorful necklaces are also sometimes incorrectly identified as "Depression Jewelry", however their origin certainly predates the Great Depression
, and they are still being made today in large quantities by Kewa artists.

Yazzie Johnson and their themed concha belts.[60]

Zuni

Further information: Zuni fetishes

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, as well as abrading tools made of wood and stone, sand for smoothing, and fiber cords for stringing.[61]

With the exception of silver jewelry, which was introduced to

spiny oyster.[62]

Since pre-contact times, Zuni carve stone and shell

Fetishes are carved from turquoise, amber, shell, or onyx. Today, Zuni bird fetishes are often set with heishe beads in multi-strand necklaces.[63]

Lanyade became the first Zuni silversmith in 1872.[44] Kineshde, a Zuni smith of the late 1890s, is credited for first combining silver and turquoise in his jewelry.[64] 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 as late as the early part of the 20th century. The forge was made from adobe, with bellows handmade from animal skins. Silver was cast in sandstone molds, and finished by tooling - as opposed to engraving. Thin sheets of silver were cut with scissors and shears.[65]

The establishment of the railroad, with the accompanying tourist trade and the advent of

tortoise shell.[62]

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

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.[62]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Roberts, Kathaleen. "Birch Bark Biting, One of the Rarest of Native American Art Forms, Will Be Featured at Showcase." Albuquerque Journal. 19 Nov 2007. Retrieved 22 Dec 2011.
  2. ISBN 0-8109-3689-5
    .
  3. ^ Mann, Charlotte (September 19, 2014). "TAIL-SHAPED BONE EARRINGS CARVED BY ANCIENT ANCESTORS ARE THE OLDEST EVER FOUND IN NORTH AMERICA". Mann's Jewelers. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  4. ^ Dubin 466
  5. ^ Dubin 29
  6. ^ a b Adair
  7. ^ Morgan, William Henry. League of the Ho-D-No-Sau-Nee or Iroquois. Volume 2. 1851
  8. ^ Anderson, Lee. (n.d.). "The History of American Indian Jewelry."
  9. ^ Margery Bedinger, Indian Silver, Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers, University of New Mexico Press, 1973. M.G. Brown, Blue Gold, The Turquoise Story, Main Street Press, Anaheim, CA, 1975.
  10. ^ a b Dubin 239
  11. ^ Dubin 241
  12. ^ Ewers, John C. "The Substitution of the Bone Hair Pipe." Hair Pipes in Plains Indian Adornment: A Study in Indian and White Ingenuity. (retrieved 6 Aug 2011)
  13. ^ Indyke, Dottie. Juanita Growing Thunder-Fogarty. Southwest Art. (retrieved 6 Aug 2011)
  14. ^ Dubin 284
  15. ^ Dubin 285
  16. ^ Dubin 291
  17. ^ "Lifetime Honors: Bruce Caesar." Archived 2012-09-24 at the Wayback Machine National Endowment for the Arts. (retrieved 6 Aug 2011)
  18. ^ Strogoff, Jody Hope and Ernest Luning. "InnerView with Ben Nighthorse Campbell." Colorado Statesman. 25 March 2011 (retrieved 6 Aug 2011)
  19. ^ Dubin 170-171
  20. ^ Dubin 169, 174
  21. ^ Dubin 157
  22. ^ Dubin 158
  23. ^ Dubin 168
  24. ^ Dubin 166-7
  25. ^ Bostrom, Peter A. "Two Hole Gorgets." 31 May 2007 (retrieved 4 August 2011)
  26. ^ Dubin 185
  27. ^ Shearar 16
  28. ^ Shearar 19
  29. ^ Shearar 30
  30. ^ Shearar 24
  31. ^ Shearar 37
  32. ^ Shearar 15
  33. ^ "Native American:Prehistoric:Mississippian". Illinois State Museum. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
  34. ^ "Stone Ear Spools." Oklahoma Archaeological Survey. (retrieved 23 April 2010)
  35. ^ Dubin 213
  36. ^ Dubin 217
  37. ^ Dubin 538
  38. ^ "Totems to Turquoise: Santo Domingo." American Natural History Museum. (retrieved 12 July 2011)
  39. ^ Hewett, Edgar. Native Peoples of the American Southwest. 1968
  40. ^ a b c Haley 104
  41. ^ a b "Tribal History: Jewelry." Fort Still Apache: Chiricahua-Warm Springs Apache. (retrieved 12 July 2011)
  42. ^ Dubin 512
  43. ^ "White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation." Arizona Handbook. (retrieved 4 August 2011)
  44. ^ a b c Dubin 483
  45. ^ "Hopi Silverwork & Jewelry." Northern Arizona Native American Cultural Trail. (retrieved 4 August 2011)
  46. ^ Dubin 534–5
  47. ^ "Fritz Casuse: Biography." Towa Artists. Retrieved 22 Dec 2011
  48. ^ Schaaf, Gregory and Angie Yan Schaff. American Indian Jewelry I: 1,200 Artist Biographies. Center for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Press, 2003. Page 278.
  49. ^ Adair 6
  50. ^ a b Dubin 484
  51. ^ Adair 44
  52. ^ Bedinger 82-85
  53. ^ Dubin 503
  54. ^ "Squash Blossom Necklace." Fernbank Museum of Natural History. (retrieved 7 Aug 2011)
  55. ^ Adair 41-43
  56. ^ Bedinger 73-77
  57. ^ Dubin 502-503
  58. ^ Hollister, Uriah. "Full Text of The Navajo and His Blanket." Internet Archive. (retrieved 18 April 2010)
  59. ^ Tommy Singer. Retrieved 22 Dec 2011.
  60. ^ "Many Beautiful Colors: Jewelry by Native American Artists." Archived 2011-06-29 at the Wayback Machine Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. (retrieved 23 April 2010)
  61. ^ Slaney, Deborah C. "The Evolution of Zuni Jewelry." Southwest Art. 1 August 1998 (retrieved 4 August 2011)
  62. ^ a b c d Cirillo, Dexter. "Southwestern Indian Jewelry". Abbeville Press, 1992.
  63. ^ Dubin 510-511
  64. ^ "History of Native American Turquoise Jewelry in the USA."] 9 September 2007 (retrieved 4 August 2011)
  65. ^ Smith, Harlan I. "Primitive Work in Metal." The Southern Workman. Hampton Institute. Vol. 40, Issue 12, 1911. Page 217.

References

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