Navajo Jewelry Culture Research Paper

Navajo Jewelry Culture The North American Indian’s loved their jewelry, and even used it to divide tribes, social class, religion, and many other things. One tribe that was big into jewelry making, was the Navajo tribe. They are very popular for their work with turquoise rocks, and silver. The Navajo’s began adorning themselves from conquest and trades, because they felt that adornments separated men from animals. Their jewelry constantly featured animals, or something from nature to represent different things. Turquoise was by far the most popular stone to work with in the Navajo tribes, and was found in abundance around Arizona, Mexico, etc. “To the Navajo tribe, the color turquoise represents happiness, luck, and health” (History of Turquoise). It was considered a gift from the sky, and was used for ceremonial purposes and even found embedded in breastplates of warrior armor. These stones often contained black, white blue, and green which represented the colors of the natural world.

They learned silversmithing in the mid to late nineteen hundreds from the Spanish and Pueblos. “Early Navajo silversmiths melted down silver coins, candlesticks and the likes for their work. Mexican currency was the easiest to work (.90275 fine) and special orders that brought sterling silver wares -teapots, candlesticks, household antiques- (.9025 fine) were the next most desirable for use. U.S. coins were the least desirable to work with, (.900 fine) and by 1890 illegal to melt down” (Hartman). Different techniques began being used, such as soldering, using dies, and other methods to transform silver into beautiful