Used with permission.
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| Graphic from National Indian Law Library
Used with permission. |
Do you have any special treasures that remind you of past experiences? I think jewelry might be one treasure that people hold precious to them. I have several memorable pieces of jewelry that I was given as presents, or that I bought myself.
Jewelry is a kind of high-priced thing; however, people buy it as treasure because it's so attractive and fascinating. I'm particurally interested in Native American indian jewelry. When I saw it for first time, I just liked the color of turquoise, then I gradually know and love it. The reasons why I feel this way are it's all handmade, and there are spirits of Native Americans behind it. Because they respect their nation, they know what a nation is, and how to live with defferent groups side by side that many people have forgotten. These feelings and beliefs have influenced on their jewelry.
In my paper, I will tell you about background of several indian tribes in the southwestern the U.S., history of their jewelry and materials, and differences of each the tribal design.
Background of Southwestern Indians
I will introduce three tribes, the Hopi, the Navajo, and the Zuni. They each has a lot of different histories, cultures, social methods, and indivisual tribal characteristics. However I will tell you about them briefly in my paper.
According to several authers(Bahti, 1968; Dutton, 1983; Griffin-Pierce,2000) those tribes are living in southwestern the United States that includes Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Hopi and Zuni are categorized Pueblo group. In 1600's, Spanish explores came to hteir land from Mexico. People who originally lived were making house unites as villages. Spaniard called each settlement "a pueblo".
The Hopi in the Rio Grande, northwestern Arizona has been occupied their land for ghousands of years. Their original name is Hopitub Shi-nu-mu means "the peaceful people", which is briefly called Hopi. Their villages were located high-land mesas that protected from natural enemies. They don't have a tribal government, and each village runs its own community individually. The relation of clans are stronger among the Hopi than the other pueblo groups.
The Zuni has been living their land, Gallup, New Mexico, for eight hundred years or so. The Zuni is one of large population (about 7,200 people) of the pueblo indians. In their society, two units can be found that north and south people, or summer and winter people. The summer clan is considered to be speaker to the sun, and winter clan is rain priest. Bands of kins are also thought much of their tribe like the Hopi. Those two pueblo groups were invaded by Spaniard someways.
On the other, the Navajo, was recognized as a part of Apache group, indians who were raiders and attacked Spaniard and the pueblo. They have been living in southwestern Colorado. They moved from east to west according their folklore. Their culture was more advanced than the pueblo, they varied hanting and gathering life to horticultural life style and raising corn. They have a lot of myths and legends which are religious and it has influenced on their jewelry.
History of Indian jewelry and its materials
Indian jewelry is mainly produced by the Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi. Frank (1990) mentioned the root of their jewelry is silver bridle of a horse outfitted that on the horse's head as an adornment. In the 1700s, the horse was introduced to the Navajo by Spanish explores. Horses were good for Navajo's mobility in their life as seminomads. In the 1850s, since horses were considered the worthy and admired by their owners, their silver bridle were supposed to be deluxe. Navajo learned about silversmith from the Mexican people. They used melted U.S. coins and Mexican pesos in 1850s to fashion jewelry. By this time, the Navajo taught this trade to the Zuni.
Conroy(1975) explained the types of indian jewelry that the earlier polish work of making silver jewelry was done by hammering the silver as smooth as possible. Also, rough and irregular stones were used on the jewelry because sand paper wasn't available until the 1880s. In the 1900s, thick jewelry was preferred. Smith melted more coins and combine them with sheet and scrap silver. During this period, stones were barely put to silver jewelry. Sterling silver began to be used in the 1940s. Now, a few craftmen, who are trying to develop the original design of Indian jewelry art, are using gold and first-class materials such as diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. Besides, most craftmen use many domestic and imported materials like stones (turquoise, garnet, opal jet, serpentine, obsidian, and so on), shells (red abalone, white spiny oyster, mother of pearl, tortoise, cowry, clam and so on), and other materials (walrus and elephant ivory, ironwood, onyx). However, I think that the representative symbol of Indian jewelry is turquoise. Navajo Indians are proud of turquoise as their spirit of nation.
"Green turquoise in a dry, yellow land;
Green and blue lost in a giant's space;
Green fertility woven into myth;
Green, soft stone the reincarnation of a dead bloom;
Green reflecting the sky's underwater flow;
Green-blue stone on a somber, dark-earthed Navajo;
Green thoughts withered on the land of his face;
Green tipped and blue bodied run the rare storm drops;
Green turquoise in a dry, yellow land." Frank (1990)
Difference of each tribal design
Most of indian jewelry is made from silver and stones, however, there is a lot of indivisual designs that each tribal has. As I mentioned above, they have several symbolic stones. And also they have symbolic marks.
Hopi: Their designs are a little different from Navajo's and Zuni's. They barely use stones and use plain silver with drawing by overlay technique.
Navajo: They usually deal with heavy massive pieces of simple designs, however, It has become lighter and more elaborated disigns.
Zuni: In the zuni tribe, mostly men do the silver works and women do the lapidary works. The originally have three styles of designs.
Conclusion
The broad age groups of people from different countries took my survey, and 33% of people like to wear earings, 13% like necklesses, 13% bracelets, and 26% of people don't like to wear jewelry. Most of them know about indian jewelry someways. A few of them answered that they really don't know about this topic, but they know what turquoise is and how indian jewelry looks like. However, it has become well-known gradually as the surveir of southwestern area of the U.S. I hope it's known by people all over the world not only for survenir. It's simply beautiful but also sacred and profound. I'd like people to know more and also I'm going to learn more about indian jewelry.
References
Conroy. K.(1975).What you should know about Authentic Indian Jewelry. Denver, Colorado: The Gro-Pub Group.
Frank. L.(1990).Indian Silver Jewelry Of The Southwest 1868-1930. West Chester, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
Bahti. T.(1968). Southwestern Indian Tribes. Flagstaff, Arizona: KC Publications.
Griffin-Pierce. T. (2000). Native Peoples of the Southwest. Alberquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press.
First created:03/05/02
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