 |
|
Wilford Begay - Silversmith: Wilford Begay is from the high desert area of Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. Born to the Red House Clan and for the Coyote Pass Clan, Wilford's heritage is strong in silversmithing. His great-great-grandfather, whom he knew well, was an accomplished silversmith, as is his father. Additionally, Wilford spent two years in post highschool classes in Tsaile, Arizona, at Navajo Community College; and Shiprock, New Mexico, earning a Silversmithing Certificate. Over the past five years he has won three first place awards in the Gallup Intertribal Indian Ceremonials with his distinctive and beautifully done Early Morning Kachina renditions.
Educated in Lukachukai, Arizona, in the heart of the Navajo homeland, Wilford Begay was steeped in Navajo tradition and culture. Surrounded by colorful sandstone, with scrubby cedar and pinion trees scarcely interrupting the landscape, he grew up knowing the stars in the heavens and the abundant silence of solitude.
Wilford made his first pair of silver earrings when he was about twelve years old, and continued dabbling in the jewelry business throughout high school and college. One of his most influential teachers was Tony Goldtooth.
After earning his Silversmithing Certificate, Wilford detoured into law enforcement and worked for the Navajo Police in Shiprock, New Mexico, and Chinle, Arizona. For four and a one-half years he was on the police force, all the while tinkering with silversmithing on the side. Then, with his wife's support, he got up the courage to quit his full time employment to do what he loves most- working with silver.
"It's a good job," Wilford testifies, and then, as a testimonial to his skill he adds, "It pays me a lot."
Although Wilford can do most anything another silversmith can do, he prefers working on Kachina dolls, which are his specialty. "I was told by my medicine man I'm not supposed to be doing the Navajo kachinas-the Yei bi Chei," Wilford explains. "Anything to do with the Navajo I don't do. Hopis I can do."
An Eagle Kachina was his all-time favorite piece, although the Early Morning Kachinas have won him acclaim. Working out of his home, Wilford first sketches the patterns he will use, then he cuts the body pieces. Working on one project at a time, Wilford molds the parts by soldering them together. Then he does his inlay work, using a variety of traditional stones, including turquoise to jet. He finishes each piece by putting a high polish on it.
Wilford is presently experimenting with a newly developed process called "silver sculpting," a combination of sand casting and carving. A touch of this may be on his more recent pieces. Wilford signs his work with a stamped arrowhead, usually found on the back of the kachina's head.
Every year Wilford's Medicine Man - his uncle- performs a three day Beauty Way ceremony for him, to cleanse his body, mind, and spirit; and to make him strong for the coming year's challenges. This strength is found in Wilford's distinctive kachinas.
When the wedding day arrived, we were late in getting started and so we missed the early morning rites when the hogan was blessed and the prayers for long life, happiness, and fertility had been sung over the young couple. There were the rites and prayers to banish all evil influences that might cause them trouble. Then they returned to the mother's hogan where the main part of the ceremony would take place. We arrived at midmorning and entered the hogan to find the young couple sitting with their backs to the west wall and dozens of friends and members of the two clans crowded into the room. The mother was nowhere to be seen as this family still adhered to the taboo that the bridegroom must never look his mother-in-law in the face on penalty of blindness. But we knew that she was in the nearby cookhouse where she could direct family procedure and observe all who came or went. We had interrupted the harangue of one of the bride's uncles, who had been appointed by her parents to deliver the wedding sermon. In other words, he was to expound the law as to the conduct and responsibilities of a married couple. After about an hour of instructions directed at the young couple, he turned his attention to the other young people in the room and to their parents. After a period of respectful silence, a messenger was sent to the cookhouse to tell the, that the speech was finished and it was time to bring the water and the mush. A younger sister came into the hogan carrying a large wedding basket filled with corn mush, the corn meal used for making this having been ground by this sister suing a cornstone and a metate. Following her came another girl with a bowl of water and a gourd dipper. Now the bride's father sprinkled a line of white pollen on top of the mush from east to west and then another from south to north. After this he placed lines of yellow pollen parallel to the white lines. White was for the groom and yellow was for the bride. Then he mixed the two colors of pollens and drew a circle around the edge of the bowl to indicate long life for both the bride and the groom. When the medicine man had finished blessing the mush and the water, both the basket of mush and the bowl of water were placed directly in front of the young couple. The groom, using his forefinger and thumb, took a large pinch of mush from the center of the basket and the bride's hand followed his in taking mush from the same place. This was repeated in taking pinches of mush from the south, the west, the north, and lastly from the east. The symbolism of this meant that she would follow his lead in all things. Then the basket was handed to her relatives who helped themselves to generous pinches, and then passed it to the guests, so it was sampled by everyone in the hogan and finally came back to the medicine man who ate the last fragments. While the basket was being passed around, The bride picked up the ladle and dipped it into the bowl of water to pour over the hands of the groom, then he did the same for her, indicating that they were willing to assist each other in all endeavors. There were no towels for drying their hands but a small amount of white corn meal was sifted over the groom's hands and yellow corn meal over the bride's. The empty mush basket, the water bowl, and the ladle were taken out by the two girls who had brought them, Then the groom and the bride gathered up armloads of gifts that had been brought to the hogan, and went to the home that awaited them. The medicine man in charge of the ceremony went with them, carrying the whirling-stick with which to start the first fire in the new house. With cliff rose cotton and pine splinters handy, the medicine man squatted by the central fire pit, deftly twirling the fire arrow and chanting hogan blessing songs. As soon as a spark caught in the tinder, he handed it to the bride to place under the wood in the fire pit, for this was her house and this was her fire, and the wood must not fail to burn.
Nowadays the principal importance of clan is that of limiting marriage choices: one may never marry within one's own clan nor that of one's father, although the latter is not considered as incestuous as it once was. The Navajos still look upon incest and the practice of witchcraft as the most repulsive of crimes and marriage within your own clan is thought of as incest. The traditional Navajo wedding ceremony is a complicated and colorful affair. To a great extent marriages are still arranged by a prescribed order of events. Once a boy becomes of marriageable age - usually in his late teens - his father begins to survey the local families in search of a suitable girl. Of course, nowadays the son has often already found the girl of his choice and, in any event, he is consulted on the choice of his father as are the rest of the adult members of the biological and sometimes the extended family. If the father knows of no family that has a suitable daughter of marriageable age, he might consult his relatives. Sometimes the entire matter is handled by the potential groom's maternal uncle. A maternal uncle is honored as a second father and traditionally he disciplined and taught his nephews. When the father or uncle has decided upon a girl to which there are no objections within the family group, a member of the boy's family is appointed to go to the prospective bride's family and ask for her hand in marriage. Once it has been decided who will act as the boy's emissary, the matter of dowry is discussed. In the old days a boy's family would offer up to twelve horses and several sheep, contributed by various members of the family and even by the boy himself. Nowadays it is more usual for jewelry or other goods, which may include livestock, to be offered. It is still not unusual for the prospective groom and bride to be strangers; in rare cases they may not have ever seen each other. When the emissary from the boy's family arrives at the girl's home he states his business to her mother, her father and perhaps to a maternal uncle. It is the duty of the emissary to overcome all objections to the boy that might crop up and to make the dowry offer. The mother of the girl usually has the final word as to whether the offer is accepted. She may, however, leave the decision up to the father or any other respected member of the family. The prospective bride is usually consulted in the matter today but she seldom was in the past. Once the bride's family decides to accept the marriage offer, a date is selected which is always an odd number of days five, seven, twenty-one or more away. Once the offer has been accepted and the date of the ceremony selected, the boy's representative thanks the family and returns home to make his report. The Bride's family notifies friends and relatives of the coming wedding. They in turn, give them gifts of food to help feed the expected guests. Then they usually build a separate hogan for the wedding and in which the bride and groom will reside. On the morning of the wedding the girl is bathed and dressed in her best clothing. The wedding feast is prepared and all is put in readiness for the guests. Meanwhile, the bridegroom is likewise undergoing a ritual cleansing and is dressed in his best clothing. His party leaves home so as to arrive at the bride's home at sundown. When they arrive they place the dowry livestock in the corral and / or give the bride's maternal uncle the dowry previously agreed upon. The bride's family inspects the dowry to see if it is as promised. In a rare case they might find the dowry wanting, then the wedding is immediately called off. The groom's party retires to the wedding hogan. When he enters the hogan, carrying his saddle, he proceeds "sunwise" south around the fire and takes his place in the rear opposite the entrance. The remainder of his party follows him in and they take their prescribed places to the north of the groom. Meanwhile the bride's mother is preparing unseasoned corn mush which she must cook in a clay pot. When it is ready she places it in a ceremonial woven basket. The other women of her family are getting the feast ready. A wicker jug is filled with water and a gourd ladle is placed beside it. A special dish of meat is prepared for the bridal couple also. Once the repast is ready, a master of ceremonies who may be a respected Singer or some favored member of the bride's family, carrying a bag of corn pollen and the jug of water, leads the bride's precession to the marriage hogan. The bride walks behind him, carrying the corn mush. Other members of her party follow her, carrying the food for the feast. The mother still usually remains behind. Mothers-in-law are not supposed to look upon their sons-in-law. This taboo what Lummis called the "mother-in-law joke" intrigues white people who have searched for a hidden significance that really doesn't exist. Navajo children, playing outside the hogan, will still warn a visiting grandmother that their father is approaching and she will take her leave. It would be considered bad manners for her to remain, just as it would be considered such if her son-in-law visited her hogan unannounced. Perhaps the only explanation for this custom is that given me by a Navajo friend who said, "It avoids a lot of trouble in the family." The bride's party enters the hogan and they take their prescribed places on the south. The bride places the basket of corn mush in front of the bridegroom and takes a seat to his right. The master of ceremonies puts the wicker jug in front of the bridal couple and gives the gourd ladle to the bride. He pours water into it and tells her to pour the water onto the groom's hands. After he has washed his hands, the bride gives him the ladle and he in turn pours water on her hands while she washes them. The master of ceremonies then takes out his bag of corn pollen. The basket of mush is placed so that the termination of the weaving faces the east and the fire. He takes a pinch of pollen and sprinkles it from east to west over the mush, then from north to south. Next he makes a clockwise pollen circle around the basket. Turning to the guests, he asks if there are any objections to his turning the basket halfway around, which is symbolic of turning the minds of the bride and groom toward each other. After turning the basket, he tells the groom to take a pinch of the corn mush at the edge where the pollen ends at the East. The groom places the mush in his mouth and the bride does the same. Next, with the groom preceding, they take pollen from the South, the West and the North and finally from the center where the two lines of pollen cross, and eat it. When they have finished, the master of ceremonies tells everyone to start eating the wedding feast. The woven basket used in the ceremony is usually given to the groom's mother. When the feast has been consumed one of the visiting party makes a speech, thanking the bride's people for the food and for their reception and also for the gift of the fine daughter. Then the master of ceremonies or some other respected member of one of the families selected for that purpose instructs the bride and groom as to their required future conduct toward each other and their connubial duties. The latter is frank and uninhibited and of a nature that would prove most embarrassing to a white bridal couple were it given to them in the presence of friends and relatives. It is then suggested that the bride and groom stay in the hogan for four nights and four days, and the wedding party leaves. Pgs. 20-23
A. M. Stephen thus describes the wedding custom: "On the night set for the wedding both families and their friends meet at the hut of the bride's family. Here there are much feasting and singing, and the bride's family make return presents to the bridegroom's people, but not, of course, to the same amount. The women of the bride's family prepare corn meal porridge, which is poured into the basket. The bride's uncle then sprinkles the sacred blue pollen of the larkspur upon the porridge, forming a design. The bride has hitherto been lying beside her mother, concealed under a blanket, on the woman's side of the hogan (hut). After calling to her to come to him, her uncle seats her on the west side of the hut, and the bridegroom sits down before her, with his face toward hers, and the basket of porridge set between them. A gourd of water is then given to the bride, who pours some of it on the bridegroom's hands while he washes them, and he then performs a like office for her. With the first two fingers of the right hand he then takes a pinch of porridge, just where the line of pollen touches the circle of the east side. He eats this one pinch, and the bride dips with her fingers from the same place. He then takes in succession a pinch from the other places where the lines touch the circle and a final pinch from the center, the bride's fingers following his. The basket of porridge is then passed over to the younger guests, who speedily devour it with merry clamor, a custom analogous to dividing the bride's cake at a wedding The elder relatives of the couple now give them much good and weighty advice, and the marriage is complete." In Navaho ceremonies that I have witnessed the custom is somewhat different. The pollen is sprinkled and a pinch taken from each quarter and from the center by the shaman or medicine man and by him breathed upon and thrown to the corresponding cardinal points, N. W. S. E. and here, thus propitiating the powers of all the universe. Then, handing the bowl to the bride and bridegroom, they, in the presence of the assembled guests, begin at the point where the line touches the east, and each take a pinch of the porridge and eat it, the bride going one way and the bridegroom the other, until their fingers meet on the opposite side of the bowl. Then the marriage is complete, and the rest of the porridge is handed to the guests.
Mr. G. H. Pepper, of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, has seen a Navaho wedding ceremony conducted in a different manner from either of these described. On this occasion he learned that a little Indian girl was at the point of death, having been bitten by a rattlesnake while collecting pollen from growing corn. Pollen is the Navaho symbol of fertility, and its use in a marriage ceremony is naturally obvious. Although the child was so dangerously ill, Mr. Pepper says the marriage ceremony went on, regardless of her condition. A small amount of corn meal was taken and slightly moistened and then mixed together. This half dry, half wet meal was then sprinkled in four lines across the empty wedding basket, dividing it into four equal parts. At the end of each line a small ball of the meal was placed, as well as one in the center. This done, all was ready for the ceremony. The bridegroom, who up to this time had been outside the hogan with his friends, now came in and sat down. Then the mother of the bride brought to the groom a wicker or gourd bottle full of water, with which he advanced, and, as the bride held out her hands, he poured the water over while she washed them. This done, the bride took the water bottle and poured water over his hands. Now the couple sat down on the west side of the hogan, and in full view of all present. The bridegroom then took the wedding basket in his hands, holding it with the shipapu opening turned towards the east. Then, taking a small pinch of meal from the end of the line which terminated towards the east, he put it in the bride's mouth. The bride then took a pinch and fed the groom in like manner, after which groom and bride alternately took a pinch, each feeding it to the other, from each of the lines in succession, and finally from the center. This done, the ceremony was completed. In his preoccupation with the sick child Mr. Pepper does not remember whether the pinches of meal were taken from the lines beginning East and continuing North, West and South or the other way. It will be remembered that elsewhere I have called attention to the fact that as a rule the ceremonial circuit of the Indians of the Southwest is always East, North, West and South, which is describing a circle in the backward way from that generally followed by white men. Pgs. 36-37
A maiden becomes a wife after a very simple ceremony. The young brave sends a close relative, usually an uncle, as intermediary to the girl's parents with an offer of gifts consisting usually of horses. If acceptable, toward evening of a set date the bridegroom appears at the girl's home, where many guests have gathered to participate in the feast. During the day, his parents have brought the horses and other gifts to the girl's home. Meanwhile the girl's parents have been busily engaged in the preparation of dinner for the wedding party. At the appointed hour the bridegroom enters the hogan first. Then follows the bride led by her father. Bride and groom sit on a blanket at the northwest side of the building. the bride's father sits or crouches nearby to wait on them. Before them is a basketful of plain corn gruel and a small jar of water with a gourd ladle. The relatives and friends file in next and sit on each side. When everyone is inside, the bride's father makes a cross over the top of the gruel by dropping white corn pollen from east to west and from south to north. Then he makes a circle around the whole from the east.
First the bride dips the ladle and pours water over the groom's hands; then the groom does the same thing for the bride. After they have washed their hands, the man dips his finger in the gruel where the line of pollen touches the circle at the east and eats a pinch of the gruel. The bride follows his example. Taking turns, both bride and groom continue eating pinches from different places - to the south, west, and north - where the pollen touches the circle. The wedding ceremony over, all present join in the feasting. The parents and other elders give advice for a happy married life. If a couple has been married for some time and things have not been going well and the wife wishes to divorce her husband, all she has to do, figuratively speaking, is to place his saddle outside the hogan. When he returns and sees it there, all he can do is to take it and walk away. He knows he is no longer wanted. But if the man wants a divorce all he can do is to leave home, as the children and practically all property belong to the wife. Pgs. 177-178
For a time,
the ever-ingenious Navajos found a way to secure additional supplies. Cardboard
ration tickets, which were used to obtain food supplies, were distributed among
the Navajos as they passed through a gate into a corral. They quickly learned
to forge the tickets and, when the government substituted stamped metal ration
tickets, those were also forged. A few Navajos had learned to work metal prior
to their arrival at Bosque Redondo and others apparently learned while there.
These men were undoubtedly responsible for at least some of the forgeries. It
was reported that at one time as many as three thousand extra tickets were being
passed around. The army finally sent to Washington for elaborate metal disks
that could not be copied.
In The Navajo, Ruth Underhill suggests, "When we look for the origin of
silverwork, perhaps this craft [the forgeries], developed under stress of hunger,
may point to an early inspiration." Prior to the coming of the Spaniards,
the Native Americans of the Southwest had no metal or livestock. The Navajos
were undoubtedly envious of the strange new enemies who rode horses and had
guns, bridle bits, tools, even silver-decorated bridles and saddles. And, even
though many of these items were procured through raids, the Dine' must have
wished for a steady and reliable source. Learning metalsmithing, however, would
have required tools and materials the Navajos did not have, and the Spaniards
were sworn enemies. Contact was far too brief to allow even the quick-learning
Dine' to acquire Spanish skills. At what time the Navajos actually learned to
work metal is debatable. Some say it happened before the Long Walk, while others
differ, but it is generally accepted that one of the first blacksmiths was Atsidi
Sani (Old Smith), or Herrera Delgadito (Little Slim Ironworker), as he was known
by the Mexicans. Margery Bedinger states in Indian Silver that "In about
1850 [Atsidi Sani] journeyed south to a Mexican settlement near Mount Taylor...
and persuaded one of the inhabitants, Nakai Tsosi (Thin Mexican), to teach him
how to form the black metal."
If not the first Navajo blacksmith, Atsidi Sani was the most prominent, and
probably the most proficient, of that era. Noted for making knives and bridle
bits, he would teach his craft to many Navajos, including some of the men at
Bosque Redondo. Most of the early metalwork was utilitarian, but buttons, rings,
earrings, belt pieces strung on leather, and a few bridle ornaments were also
made. Multiple bracelets of twisted metal were often worn on one arm; others,
hammered out of copper or brass, had lightly scratched, simple designs. Navajos
had worn silver ornaments and sported silver bridle decoration for at least
fifty years, but those articles were of Spanish origin, either traded or stolen
from Mexicans, or taken as spoils of war from Utes or Comanches. In 1853 (eleven
years prior to incarceration at Bosque Redondo), Indian Agent Henry Dodge moved
into a newly built stone house near Fort Defiance, made friends with the Navajos,
and eventually married a Navajo woman. It is also reported that he brought along
a blacksmith and a Mexican silversmith. Many years later, the agent's aged son,
Chee Dodge, would say that "Old Smith [Atsidi Sani] came to the agency
to look on and learned some things." The supposition is that Atsidi Sani
learned or perhaps improved his skills by watching these men, but whether his
skills included silverwork is unknown. Those years were particularly chaotic;
raiding and clashes with other tribes were at their height. Therefore, the times
were not particularly conducive to learning a new craft, and silver would have
been difficult to obtain.
Atsidi Sani's great-nephew, Grey Moustache, is quoted as saying, "It was
not until the Navajo came back [from Bosque Redondo] that he [Atsidi Sari] learned
to make silver jewelry." And Chee Dodge would add that "The Navajo
didn't make any silver of their own while they were at Fort Sumner. How could
they? They were locked up there like sheep in a corral. They had only a very
little silver in those days, which they bought from the Mexicans." Several
newspaper articles published in New Mexico during those years made claims of
Navajo silverwork. "Navajos at Fort Sumner are skilled enough to make good
bridle bits and other articles of horse equipage in iron and silver," one
reported. "Amongst the chiefs now on this reservation, many are dressed
in comfortable and even elegant style, in black cloth and buckskin, well-fitted
to their bodies and ornamented with silver buttons of their own execution and
design."
The silver buttons were most assuredly not of Navajo design; they had been procured
from Mexicans for years. Furthermore, this entire account seems doubtful considering
the deplorable state of Navajo life during exile. One might suspect that the
editors, possibly influenced by corrupt politicians who were noted for their
greed-and-graft mentality, were trying to make living conditions appear much
better than they were. Historic photographs show the Bosque Redondo Navajos
poorly dressed in cotton clothing or wrapped in blankets against the bitter
cold. It is unlikely that even "the chiefs" mentioned in the newspaper
article would have dressed as described. If any did, they must have been the
exception, and any silver ornaments they possessed were probably trade goods.
It seems much more probable that the Navajos learned to work silver soon after
they resettled in their homeland. Atsidi Sari is generally considered the founder
of the silver craft, but whether he learned it from the same Mexican who taught
him metalwork or from another Mexican friend is unconfirmed. However, his first
students were his four sons who, in turn, taught others.
With peaceful conditions, Mexican smiths began traveling onto the reservation
to trade their silver for Navajo livestock. As the silversmith fashioned a piece,
the Navajo who ordered it would certainly have observed and perhaps even assisted
by working the bellows. Considering their propensity for acquiring new skills
easily, the Navajos must have recognized this as an excellent opportunity to
learn to craft their own silver ornaments. It has been recorded that they were
casting jewelry as early as 1870. Silver coins, acquired from soldiers at Fort
Defiance and Fort Wingate, were melted down, then poured into hand-carved molds
to create a particular design or a simple ingot, which was then cooled, hammered
into a thin sheet of silver, and trimmed to the proper shape. The learning process,
however, was still gaining momentum. In 1884 John Lorenzo Hubbell (the much-admired
Don Lorenzo of Hubbell Trading Post at Ganado) and his partner, C. N. Cotton,
hired Mexican smiths to teach silversmithing to the Navajos, and began furnishing
some of the coins used to fashion the silver ornaments. The first Navajo silverwork
was rather crude and quite heavy, but it showed a lot of promise. Designs were
symmetrical even though smiths had no precision implements; in fact, they had
few tools of any kind, often just a hammer, some files, and scissors or metal
snips.
Washington Matthews, a young army surgeon from Fort Wingate and the most noted
Navajo authority of the 1880s, recorded the tools and techniques used by Navajo
smiths. For anvils they acquired pieces of train rail, kingpins from wagons,
any old pieces of iron large enough, hard stones, or tree stumps. Forges were
made of mud or sandstone, the bellows from goatskin bags, and crucibles from
anything that worked stones with small hollows, tumbler-sized pottery pieces
made especially for that purpose, or iron pipes with one end flattened, turned
up, and sealed. A semicircle or V-shaped groove was sometimes cut into anvils
for shaping bracelets; the first molds were made from baked clay and discarded
after a time. Later molds were carved from iron, wood, or soft sandstone, which
was greased with mutton tallow to prevent sticking. Some of the first silver
items made by Navajo smiths were the buttons they had previously obtained from
Mexicans. Men's trousers, jackets, leather pouches, bridles, saddles, gun scabbards,
ketohs, or bow guards, the wide leather bands worn on the left wrist to protect
from the bowstring's recoil. and belts were adorned with these silver ornaments.
They also decorated the moccasins and leggings of both sexes, and women's blouses
had rows of them at the neck, across the shoulder, down the front, and running
the length of both sleeves.
Many bracelets were nothing more than narrow bands with notches cut on either
side; others were made of twisted wire or plain silver with simple designs scratched
in with a file. Conchas for belts were decorated with scalloped edges, punched
holes, and incised and stamped designs. Rings were simple decorated hands of
silver; earrings were large loops that passed through pierced ears. Silver replaced
the tin decorations on ketohs. Small silver canteen-shaped containers for carrying
tobacco were copied from rawhide ones carried by Mexicans. The headbands of
bridles were covered with wide strips of silver that almost concealed the leather.
Normally, a silver concha was added on either side, and a crescent-shaped ornament
called a naja hung from the forehead strap. Najas, adapted from those used by
the Spaniards, were worn on bead necklaces as well, and were often interchangeable
with those on bridles. Matthews also recorded the bead-making process which
began around 1870. By this time, the smiths were apparently turning from U.S.
coins to pesos for their silver; Matthews mentions that Mexican silver dollars
were used to form the beads. A peso was pounded into the desired thickness;
then a disk large enough to make half a bead was cut out with scissors. It was
trimmed and used as a pattern for the others. Half-circles were formed with
a mold and die; the pieces were strung on a stout wire in pairs forming full
circles and fastened tightly together. A mixture of borax, saliva, and silver
was applied to the seams of all the beads; they were put into the fire and all
soldered at one time. After cooling, the beads were blanched, filed, and polished.
Bead necklaces had become very popular by the 1900s. According to G. W. James
in Indians of the Painted Desert Region, "scarcely a man or woman of any
standing in the tribe does not possess a home-manufactured necklace of silver
beads." The "squash blossom" necklace was probably introduced
around the turn of the century. It was not mentioned by Matthews in the 1880s,
but was included in the Franciscan Father's Ethnologic Dictionary of 1910: "When
arranged upon a string or thong, each necklace contains from fifty to sixty
the finer, smaller specimens often number as many as one hundred beads. Usually
they have a large crescent-shaped pendant in the front center, and in the lower
half of the strand small silver crosses, and other flowerlike ornaments are
strung after every second or third bead. Necklaces of this kind are very much
prized by the Navajo and are certainly very ornamental." The most accepted
theory about the squash blossom design is that it symbolizes the Mexican pomegranate.
In A Brief History of Navajo Silversmithing, Arthur Woodward wrote: "It
is my contention that all of these beads were originally Spanish-American trouser
and jacket ornaments. . . . [The pomegranate] has been a favorite Spanish decorative
motif for centuries . . . it seems foolish to look farther afield for prototypes
of this highly popular necklace element. If one were to remove these buttons
or cape ornaments from the original garments and string them, the result would
be a fine 'old' Navajo necklace." The ornament was quite possibly misnamed
by a trader who thought it resembled a squash blossom.
The first decorations on silver were merely scratched in with a file. Later,
a stronger tool was used to cut deeper lines. The technique of "punching"
silver was adapted from the Mexican tooling of leather. Any sharp-pointed piece
of iron was used as a tool to punch dots into the silver. The first stamps were
made by cutting a piece of pipe in half to make the imprint of a semicircle.
Don Lorenzo brought steel dies, or stamps, to Hubbell Trading Post later, but
many smiths still made their own. The years from 1880 to 1900 have been called
the Classic Period in Navajo jewelry. The time of learning was over, but the
tourists had not yet entered the scene. There were numerous smiths on the reservation,
each making the items he wished to his own satisfaction. They used curved figures
and lines in their designs, and most used carved dies which they made themselves.
Many new, and much-improved, tools were available, such as tongs, pliers, cold
chisels, punches, awls, vices, and dies. Since the use of U.S. coins had been
declared illegal and the Mexicans had stopped exportation of pesos, most of
the smiths fashioned their silver ornaments from one-ounce squares of coin silver.
Silver jewelry had become a status symbol among the Navajos, the mark of wealth
and prestige. The "pawn system" allowed them to pawn their jewelry
to traders in exchange for food and other necessities. The jewelry was redeemed
when the owner had the money, usually from selling a rug or the wool from newly
sheared sheep. In the meantime, traders often allowed the owner to borrow the
jewelry for a ceremony or a fair, then return it the next day. Southwestern
tribes had used shell and turquoise beads in necklaces and earrings for centuries,
and the early Navajos wore these ornaments as well as turquoise nugget earrings.
The nugget necklaces so popular among the Navajos probably evolved through the
years. As turquoise became more available, it gradually replaced much of the
shell. Adding turquoise to silverwork was not a common practice until around
1900. Even then, one large stone was usually set into each classically simple
piece. Other stones, used to a lesser extent, included garnet, peridot, opal,
coral, smoky topaz, jasper, carnelian, chalcedony, agate, malachite, and jet,
to name a few. None ever enjoyed the popularity of turquoise. In the early 1900s,
the winds of change blew in with the coming of the railroad and the Fred Harvey
Company, which established accommodations along the route. Tourism was introduced
to Indian country, and tourists wanted silver jewelry. However, most of them
neither knew nor cared anything about quality; they wanted inexpensive pieces
adorned with garish designs, and shopkeepers were all too willing to please.
Items made strictly for tourists began appearing: ashtrays, watch bracelets,
letter openers, cigarette holders, and utensils.
Larger companies began mass-producing "Indian" jewelry; smaller shops
hired both non-Indians and Indians from various tribes to machine-stamp cheap,
tinny silver with designs such as lightning, clouds, arrows, Indian heads, snakes,
owls, swastikas, and thunderbirds, the last merely a figment of someone's imagination.
Lists of what these figures supposedly symbolized were given to tourists. At
that time, designs on authentic, handcrafted Indian jewelry were simply decorative.
To quote Carl Rosnek in Skystone and Silver: "A great deal of nonsense
was written or rumored concerning the 'meaning' of these symbols-when in fact,
with few exceptions, they had none for the Indians." Much of the tourist
jewelry was made of nickel and decorated with small imitation-turquoise stones.
Many of these items, sometimes referred to as "Route 66" jewelry because
of the proliferation of shops selling it along that highway, were stamped "nickel
silver." By 1937, laws were passed stating that only Indian-made jewelry
could be labeled as such, but circumvention became a favorite pastime. In 1940,
the Japanese even went so far as to name a town "Reservation," so
they could "legitimately" stamp Reservation Made onto manufactured
jewelry.
In an effort to slow down the mass production of cheap imitation Indian jewelry
made in sweatshops (as they were commonly called), the government ordered that
only handmade jewelry could be sold at National Parks and Monuments, and some
schools began teaching silversmithing. However, these were troubled times and,
with war looming on the horizon, the government had other concerns. In 1941
it did form the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild to emphasize quality work and encourage
the casting of silver; consequently, the skills of many artists improved. The
project had to be dropped during World War II, but the Navajo Tribe was allowed
to take it over. Despite the problems facing the world and the degradation of
their craft during the early 1900s, there were many smiths who never lessened
their standards. Superb craftsmen continued to set high-grade stones in quality
silver, and some excellent jewelry of that period is considered classic. The
use of turquoise had increased through the years, and a few jewelers began adopting
the Zuni style of setting multiple stones close together in silver. A larger
piece of turquoise was surrounded by small stones, thus forming a cluster. This
"cluster style" was a change for Navajo silversmiths, but the Navajos
have always accepted change-when it benefited them. Experimenting with new techniques
and styles was a change they welcomed. Pgs. 9-28
The famous Navajo silverwork began in these hard years of reconstruction. It was a move made on the Indians' own initiative and, at first, without help from school or agent. For fifty years or so the Navajos had been wearing silver jewelry and bridle ornaments stolen or traded in Mexico. Why should they bother to make such things themselves? They were too busy with war and sheep raising. However, one medicine man called Etsidi Sani, or Old Smith, had at least been interested in ironwork. He had got a "Mexican" friend, which means New Mexican, to teach him how to make iron ornaments for bridles. Some have said he made silver as well as iron, but Old Smith's descendants are sure that the Navajos knew nothing about silverwork before going to Fort Sumner. At the fort, Old Smith had no chance to practice his art-unless, indeed, it was he who counterfeited those identification tags. "How could the Navajo work silver at Fort Sumner!" exclaimed their late chairman Chee Dodge. "They were locked up there just like sheep in a corral!" But when they returned to a poverty-stricken land, that was a different matter. Old Smith went back to his Mexican friend and, say his descendants, learned how to forge and hammer silver. He taught his four sons, using a forge made of baked mud, a bellows of goat skin, and tools out of any pieces of scrap iron begged or filched from the whites. Eagerly the Navajos seized this new means of trade and livelihood. The Zunis still tell how Ugly Smith, one of Old Smith's sons, came to their village in 1872. He came as a poor man, with nothing but his tools and the horse he rode. He stayed a year, teaching the Zunis to make bridle ornaments, belts, and bow guards. When he left, he was driving a herd of horses and sheep ahead of him. That was a bit later in Navajo history. Pgs. 157-158
Silversmithing
was learned even more recently. Woodward's data show that the Navahos started
to work silver at some time between 1853 and 1858. Techniques were probably
learned from whites, either directly from Mexicans or indirectly through other
Indian tribes. Much about metal-working may have been learned from the smiths
at Fort Sumner during the captivity in the sixties. Of design, Woodward says:
The ancestry of Navaho silver ornament forms has its roots in the silver trade
jewelry distributed to the tribes east of the Mississippi River after 1750,
and in the Mexican-Spanish costume ornaments and bridle trappings of the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The silver distributed to eastern Indians goes back to the traditions of the
great English smiths. Thus modern Navaho silver blends English and colonial
traditions with Spanish and (ultimately) Arabic. This explains why the solid,
simple pieces in the classical Navaho tradition often remind connoisseurs of
antique English silver. Pgs. 26-27
Navajo
silverwork has also been the subject of substantial scholarly research. Readers
interested in the various forms and stylistic changes of Navajo jewelry are
referred to the excellent studies by Margery Bedinger (1973), John Adair (1944),
and Arthur Woodward (1971). Our present study is concerned with the economic
implications of and technological changes in Navajo silversmithing. The Navajos
were wearing silver jewelry obtained from the Spaniards by the late eighteenth
century, and learned silversmithing from them in about the mid-nineteenth century.
Although many scholars have contended that the Navajos did not begin working
in silver until after Bosque Redondo it seems likely that they were learning
the rudiments of the trade in the previous decade. However, the evolution of
silversmithing as an economically important craft did not take place until after
1868. In 1869, Edward Palmer, who led several expeditions from the Peabody Museum
to the Southwest during the 1870s, wrote that the Navajos were making silver
buttons from Spanish and Mexican one real coins. According to Palmer, the buttons
were used as money. A one real coin was worth 12 1/2 or eight to the dollar,
and the buttons had the same value. Lack of proper tools limited the quality
and variety of items produced by early Navajo silversmiths. In 1871 the agency
requested and presumably issued a small number of anvils, vises, hammers, files,
file saws, and bellows to help Navajo blacksmiths, who usually worked as silversmiths
as well.
During the 1870s, the quality of Navajo silverwork improved as smiths acquired
a wider variety of tools from traders and learned to make tools themselves.
Matthews noted in the early 1880s that Navajo smiths purchased scissors, iron
pliers, hammers, awls, emery paper, fine files, and borax for soldering from
local traders. They had also learned to make goatskin bellows, anvils, dies
and bolts, sandstone molds for casting, tongs, and brass blowpipes.
As their equipment improved, the silversmiths could produce a greater variety
of items. By the early 1800s, they were making buttons, rosettes, bracelets,
bridle ornaments, and concha belts. Three or four of the smiths were fashioning
canteen-shaped tobacco cases. About 1880, some of the smiths in the Ganado area
started to make jewelry with turquoise sets. Silversmithing flourished during
the 1880s, when the Navajos prospered and began investing their wealth in silver
jewelry. In 1880, when Navajo employees of the agency were asking for their
pay in Mexican coins Manuelito decided to make bridles out of silver money.
Navajo silversmiths were finding a ready market for their work among their own
tribesmen, and a profitable trade in silver jewelry was evolving with local
whites and members of other tribes.
The development of the pawn system during the 1880s further encouraged silversmithing.
Silver ornaments, no matter what kind, could be pawned to traders in exchange
for other goods. The pawn system expanded the function of silver jewelry from
personal adornment to "savings" which could be used during times of
economic crisis. Bedinger thought that silversmithing probably started in the
Ganado area, and noted that most of the "pioneer" Navajo silversmiths
lived within twenty-five to forty miles of Ganado. The number of smiths rapidly
increased during this period, and by 1900 silversmiths lived throughout Navajo
country Nevertheless, in terms of technique, design, and skill, the Ganado smiths
continued to excel.
The masculine
counterpart of the squaw's art of rug weaving is silversmithing. In recent years,
however, the women have been taking up silversmithing, and it is estimated that
today there are nearly a hundred women silversmiths on the reservation. Since
there are no silver mines on the reservation, the Navajo had to obtain his metal
from outside. He used to melt down dollars, but he is now able to buy from the
traders squares of silver known locally as "slugs." The Navajo silversmith
is a true artist who will work incessantly for many hours and even without food
until he has finished his piece of jewelry. Though he borrowed the craft from
the Spaniards only about eighty years ago, he has developed it to a high degree
of perfection, despite a lack of proper tools. His rings, belt buckles, bracelets,
and necklaces, frequently set with native turquoise and adorned with die-work,
are worn by both Navajo men and women. They are also treasured by the white
people of our country and visitors from abroad. Navajo bracelets have no clasps.
Each bracelet has a small gap through which one's wrist slips. If the gap is
too big, the ends can be pressed together after the bracelet is on. An expert
can slip over his wrist a bracelet even with a very small gap by pressing one
end into the depression between the two forearm bones about two inches above
the wrist joint.
At one time, only the Navajo men wore silver earrings. The women had to be satisfied
with a loop of turquoise beads. The men's earrings were so tremendous that when
they rode a horse they had to tie them to the back of their necks to avoid excruciating
pain. Most of the silver ornaments sold in stores or to tourists are made by
Navajo men who practice their craft in the railroad towns or their vicinity.
The Navajo of the interior works with silver for his own pleasure. He does not
have the tools of his commercialized urban brother - the anvil, blow torch,
solder, compass, steel stamps, vise, nipper, pliers. For an anvil, he used a
hard stone or a piece of iron from a plow or wagon. Instead of a blow torch,
he has mud and sandstone forge with a hole in its bowl shaped bottom through
which air is pumped from a goatskin bellows to keep the fire smoldering. His
smelting fuel is charcoal made from juniper logs. His crucible in which he melts
his silver is made of poor clay that is porous and brittle. He greases his sandstone
molds before he pours his molten silver into them. To solder, he directs the
flame from a wick through a piece of tubing to the desired point on his fine
piece of silver. His solder consists of borax, saliva, and silverdust. When
he has finished his work of art, which by now is tarnished from flame and handling,
he dips it into a concoction of "rocksalt" in boiling water. He does
this before ornamenting it with turquoise, so that he will not damage the precious
stone.
Despite the simplicity and crudeness of his equipment, the Navajo silversmith
of the interior is able to produce round hollow silver beads and many other
ornaments of unsurpassed quality. His hollow beads are made by soldering together
two semispherical pieces of silver which have been hammered on hard wood marked
with indentations of various sizes and designs. The solid or raindrop bead is
made without the use of a mold. He blows air through a piece of tubing on a
bit of melted silver to give it the shape of a raindrop. A more recent method
is to take a small snip of silver and heat it over a small indentation in charred
wood, or on the so-called sandstone, which actually is pumaceous tuff. The snip
of silver turns into a small ball. By this technique dozens of balls may be
made at the same time. His engraving on a flat silver ornament is done with
the aid of sharply pointed knives, wires, and chisels. The commercial jewelry
has a lot of punched or stamped silver in it, but the Navajo prefers for himself
the simpler designs.
It is really astonishing what a stolid, uninspired-looking Navajo can do with
a few simple tools. My wife wanted a silver compact made for her like the one
she already had a machine-made object, the product of precision tools. To our
amazement though it took him a whole day because of the primitive nature of
his tools before our eyes he reproduced the whole thing in every detail, including
the old-style trunk hinges, by melting chunks of crude silver and pounding it
into the desired shapes. In addition he decorated it with Navajo designs and
turquoise. The compact is a piece of art far superior in value and beauty to
the original from which it was copied.
The white purchasers expect all sorts of symbolism in their designs, so the
Navajos give it to them. some Navajo designs are natural developments from pieces
of silver that have come into their possession. For example, tubular beads were
first made from silver buttons taken from Spanish soldiers whom they had killed
in battle. And the pronged pieces in the beautiful so-called squash blossom
necklace are the buttons which were sewed along the outside seams, from hip
to ankle, of Spanish army officers' pants. They really represent the pomegranate
blossom. The horseshoe-like piece hanging in the center of this necklace is
taken from a device meaning "Godspeed" that was used on old Spanish
bridles. It rested on the horse's forehead, ending in two palms turned inward.
The Navajo borrowed the design and replaced the hands with two turquoise stones.
The Navajo began combining turquoise with silver, it is said, some fifty years
ago. It is a poor Navajo who has no turquoise. Turquoise us found in Turquoise
Mountain in Arizona; Los Carrillos, New Mexico; Sand Bernardino County, California;
and Nye County, Nevada. It is also imported from Persia and Egypt. Turquoise
is a basic phosphate of copper and aluminum. The copper gives it its bluish
tone. The color of turquoise varies from greenish-gray, yellowish-green, apple-green,
and greenish-blue to sky-blue, the latter being the most valuable. Its color
fades in time and is destroyed by heat. Perspiration also affects it. A restoration
of its natural color can be effected by treating it with ammonium. Bone and
fossil turquoise, known as odontolite, is not true turquoise. It consists of
fossil bones or teeth, colored blue by vivionite, a hydrated iron phosphate.
Ammonia will not improve the color of odontolite. Pgs. 167-170
