THE FIRST SILVERSMITHS

Sometime around the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries small bands of nomadic Athabascan people wandered into what is now the Southwestern part of the United States. They were hunters and gatherers living off of the land. They found people who were farmers, weavers and potters living in villages of stone. They settled in the Colorado plateau region in what is now Arizona and New Mexico. They began to take and learn much from the pueblo peoples around them and slowly began to dominate the area. They called themselves Diné, but to the Spanish they were known as the Navajo.

It was once said that if one undressed a Navajo the first layer of clothing would be Levi's, wool shirt and hat of the Anglo American culture; next a baize shirt of the Pueblos with decoration of Spanish design. Finally a breech cloth of deerhide that was common to the Navajo in the fifteenth century. Of all American Indian groups the Navajo have, through history, learned to take the best of a foreign culture and combine it with their own. From the Pueblos and Spanish they learned farming, weaving and fully mastered the art of silversmithing. By the mid 1850's a few Navajos had learned from their Mexican neighbors how to work silver, learning to make headstalls for their horses, and simple belts with silver conchas.

The First Silversmiths Of The Southwest

By the time the Navajos were removed to Bosque Redondo in the late 1860's there were a few smiths working with copper and brass. Silver was expensive and only a few could afford it. In 1868 the Navajos returned from Bosque Redondo a defeated and broken people in appearance but not in spirit. Several silversmiths started teaching others and soon the art of working silver became a prestigious craft.

Atsidi Sani, Big Smith, Crying Smith, Smith-who-walks-around, Slim Old Smith, Very Slim maker of Silver and Atsidi Clion were some of the better known Navajos pioneering an art form that was to give their people distinction among artisans throughout the world.

The tools before the turn of the century were anything with which the craftsman could work. The first "smiths" decorated their work with simple tools by scratching or punching designs into the silver with a file or scissors. Most silversmiths could barely afford to buy silver and in many areas even simple tools were not available. A broken file could serve as a stamp for simple designs. A nail, a bolt, railroad spike, or leather stamp borrowed from a Mexican neighbor were all of great value to the ingenious craftsman. At approximately the same time a few men in the Pueblos of the Rio Grande were learning to work silver. By 1870 several men at Isleta were making bridles and crosses. By 1880 the craft was flourishing at Zuni, Acoma and Laguna.

Prior to 1885 the fashioning of one concha for a belt was a major task. First the smith would have to acquire either American or Mexican silver coins. He would then hammerthe coins into the desired shape. For an anvil he would use a section of railroad track fastened to a cottonwood stump. A hammer purchased from the trading post for the fortunate, a rock was the tool for others. Since the early smiths had no solder with which to fasten the back on a concha, the first belts were open in the center so the leather could be laced through. Generally ten to fourteen days would be required to complete a belt. The belt could then be worn by the maker or sold to a fellow Navajo for two or three sheep, a horse, or possibly five to fifteen dollars.

By the 1880's the craftsmen were using other items to ornament their work. Trade beads, marbles, glass, and various stones were set into the silver. Turquoise, highly valued by the Indians, was used by the smiths fortunate enough to be able to afford the blue and green stones. When hand polished and set in a silver bezel, the turquoise accentuated the silver work and added a new concept in design.

Silver buttons on clothing pouches and moccasins became popular. Necklaces of silver beads with a silver crescent (Naja) soon came into style. Later pomegranates were interspaced between the beads, which became known as squash blossom necklaces.

So it began; the artist with the desire to create, centuries of design concepts learned from the peoples before them, combined with the availability of materials started the craft that would change the lives of future generations. It was this metal called silver that brought out the aesthetic genius of the Indian craftsman.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Adair, John THE NAVAJO AND PUEBLO SILVERSMITHS: University of Oklahoma Press: 1944 Bedinger, Margery INDIAN SILVER, NAVAJO AND PUEBLO JEWELERS: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1973 El Palacio, QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO: Volume 77 Mera, Harry P. INDIAN SILVERWORK OF THE SOUTHWEST: Volume 1, Dale S. King, Globe, Arizona, 1959 Woodward, Arthur A BRIEF HISTORY OF SILVERSMITHING: Bulletin no. 14, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, 1938 Wright, Margaret HOPI SILVER: THE HISTORY AND HALLMARKS OF HOPI SILVERSMITHING: Northland Press, Flagstaff, 1973

Tools, Dies and Molds Determine The Art Form

The product of classic Navajo silversmithing is the total of the artist's skill and the character and number of the handmade dies at his disposal. These dies bear the same relationship to the finished work as do the character and number of instruments in the quality of an orchestration. Each die is basically simple and small no one a complete design in itself. Designs, borders and patterns are worked up from several of the units. Discarded files, drills, broken tools, any form of workable steel is used.

Blunted chisels and nail sets are keystone tools. Large Cottonwood stumps are used for forming and general shaping. Most silverwork begins with a sheet of flat silver (below). The surface pattern then evolves according to the range of symbols and patterns in the master's kit. The photographs on these pages were taken in the White Hogan, Scottsdale, during the late 1950's where Navajo grand masters Kenneth Begay and the late Allen Kee produced more award winning classics than any other artists of the period.

Kenneth Begay is currently engaged in instructing aspiring artists and craftsmen at Navajo Community College, Tsaile, Navajo Nation, Arizona, U.S.A. Students get an introduction to Navajo silversmithing with emphasis on design, materials and skills including stone cutting and the use of copper, silver and turquoise in preparation for advanced craftsman status.

Ribbon winning silver overlay, below, by Manuel Hoyungawa (Strong Rain). From Tanner's Indian Arts, Scottsdale. TED HILL RAY MANLEY PHOTOGRAPHS: From Private Collection, Tucson, Arizona