Native American jewelry

Native American jewelry normally reflects the cultural diversity and history of its makers, but tribal groups have often borrowed and copied designs and methods from other, neighboring tribes or nations with which they had trade, and this practice continues today.

Native American tribes continue to develop distinct aesthetics rooted in their personal artistic visions and cultural traditions.

Lois Sherr Dubin writes, "[i]n the absence of written languages, adornment became an important element of Indian communication, conveying many levels of information."

The earliest known examples of North American jewelry are four bone earrings found at the Mead Site, near Fairbanks, Alaska that date back 12,000 years.

[3] Beginning as far back as 8800 BCE, Paleo-Indians in the American Southwest drilled and shaped multicolored stones and shells into beads and pendants.

Carved wood, animal bones, claws, and teeth were made into beads, which were then sewn onto clothing, or strung into necklaces.

[15] In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, members of the Native American Church revealed their membership to others through pins with emblems of peyote buttons, water bird, and other religious symbols.

[16] Bruce Caesar (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.

The Narragansett tribal bead makers were buried with wampum supplies and tools to finish work in progress in the afterlife.

[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.

[24] In the Northeast Woodlands and Great Lakes regions, rectangular gorgets have been carved from slate and other stones, dating back to the late archaic period.

[27] Venetian glass seed beads were introduced in great numbers by Russian traders in the late 18th century, as part of the fur trade.

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.

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.

Both Apache men and women have traditionally worn a variety of jewelry, including earrings and bracelets with strung beads of shell and turquoise.

[40] Even today, young Apache girls wear necklaces with scratching sticks and drinking tubes during their 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.

The students then taught fellow tribesmen silversmithing, which they used to stylize traditional designs from the decorative patterns of old pottery and baskets.

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.

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.

[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.

Still later, railroad spurs, broken files, iron scraps and, later, piston rods became handmade stamps in the hands of these skilled artisans.

Molds, the matrix and die, cold chisels, scissors, pliers, files, awls, and emery paper also come into play.

The silversmith uses a grinding stone, sandstone dust, and ashes for polishing the jewelry, and a salt called almogen is used for whitening.

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 tabs were made from bone inset with a design in the traditional mosaic style, using bits of turquoise, jet and shell.

These include turquoise, jet, argillite, steatite, red shale, freshwater clam shell, abalone, and spiny oyster.

Wallace influenced Zuni art by encouraging the use of specific materials that sold well at his posts - such as coral - and discouraging others such as tortoise shell.

[62] Wallace provided large chunks of turquoise to Zuni artists, giving them the opportunity to carve figures in the round.