Jewelry made from turquoise, coral, wood, leather, bone, antler, jet stone, crystal, and the shell has been founded in ancient sites throughout the Americas. In the southwest, the confluence of Native American, Spanish, and Mexican cultures brought metalwork to the Navajo and Pueblo people. Atsidi Sani, old silversmith is believed to be the first Navajo to learn metalworking. He first learned the art of blacksmithing from a Mexican man named NakaiTsosi in the mid-1800s, and then later studied silversmithing around 1865. Check out some gorgeous Navajo silver cuff bracelets!
During the 1870s, other Navajos learned their trade from regional blacksmiths and tinsmiths and used their skills to create items for everyday use, such as bridles, bandolier bags, buttons, and bells, and more. Native American art jewelry soon followed. Slender Maker of silver learned from his brother Atsidi Sani, and became known for his innovation and refinement of the art, especially during the 1880s through the 1890s. His son learned silversmithing and worked for years in his workshop at Olvera Street in Los Angeles. Their pieces are highly valued even today.
Grey Moustache, another notable figure, also learned silversmithing from Atsidi Sani and some of the local smiths. Atsidi Chon, who learned silversmithing from his brother-in-law, Grey Moustache, is thought to be the first Navajo to set turquoise in silver. The skills of silversmithing spread to Zuni and then First Mesa of Hopi in the 1880s. Not long after, traders such as the Fred Harvey Company, Wallace, and many others provided the Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, and Rio Grande Pueblo artists with the raw materials of silver turquoise, shell, jet, and coral to create thousands of pieces for trading posts and the newly developed rail concessions in the southwest. This trade continues to be a huge part of the economy of the region today!
This was a brief insight into the Navajo jewelry making and notable artists who made the work extremely popular throughout America and elsewhere. For more posts on Navajo art and culture, keep checking with us!
