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| Navajo Turquoise and Silver Squash Blossom Necklace. Photo source Internet. |
Though I have grown up in the world of Indigenous Adornment via my Navajo and Pueblo matriarchs, the oral history stories I have heard are somewhat personal. I found this interesting article from a New Mexico museum site that does a good job on the concepts of Native Peoples stories and beliefs of turquoise.
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Real or Fake?
Ancients to moderns have sought to capture the color of turquoise. And in some cases, the color meant more than the material.
Wooden pendants dating to 1200 AD were covered with green malachite paint. Anasazi pottery, decorated with parallel, diagonal lines, told the viewer to imagine blue-green where there was none. To improve the stone’s blue quality, Navajos soaked it in sheep’s tallow.
By the 1920s, demand for the stone outpaced supply. Hubbell Trading Post met the high demand among tourists discovering the Southwest by having Venetian glass created to look like the prized stone. Native American jewelers would use the beautifully colored, false stone when the real thing wasn’t available.
Just as ancients painted wooden pendants to imitate the desired color, synthetic turquoise now reflects the beauty of the sought-after authentic prize, at a much lower cost. If the color captures the ideal, it is a treasure. But conscientious shoppers who are concerned about whether they are buying a quality stone should remember: Caveat emptor.
Color, Meaning, Value
Turquoise’s color reflects its environment. Nearby aluminum turns turquoise green. Zinc creates a yellowish green. Turquoise of the highest quality, holding the best colors, lies near the surface. Exposed to sunlight and weather, turquoise lightens.
Regardless of the color, turquoise holds prestige and power. Native American deities carry weapons and live in homes made of turquoise. The Apache believe turquoise filled the pot at the end of the rainbow. Zuni ceremonies include turquoise-colored face, mask, and body paint to represent Awonauilona, the sun’s life-giving power.
Its power is so great that no horseman would ride while carrying turquoise; it would tire the horse. Similarly, hunters drew lines with turquoise between the tracks of game to slow the game down. Hanging from bags in households, turquoise protects against misfortune.
Turquoise bracelets, necklaces and rings are wearable bank accounts; in the past, Native Americans used pieces as deposits for goods needed from traders. When they sold their crops or wool, the traders were paid and jewelry was reclaimed.
Mining History
It is estimated that Native Americans had been working with turquoise about 1200 years before the Spanish arrived, with the heaviest mining taking place between AD 1350 and 1600. Roughly 200 mines have been discovered throughout the Southwest, most believed to have been started by Native Americans, who used shaped stone hammers, mauls and adzes to chisel the pieces of sky out of the rock.
The largest ancient turquoise mine was found at Mount Chalchihuitl, near Cerrillos, NM. Some turquoise found at Chaco Canyon came from mines in the Cerrillos area, more than 150 miles to the southeast.
Native, Spanish and Moorish influences
Turquoise jewelry evolved as a companion of conquest.
In their 800-year reign of Spain, the Moors introduced crescent moons and the shape of pomegranate blossoms into Spanish culture. The Spaniards, seeking gold and silver, rode into Native American communities on horses wearing bridles bedecked with crescents.
The Navajo, especially, liked the symbol. They traded for it or captured it. The shape of the crescent became a naja at the base of a squash blossom necklace. Pomegranate blooms, a pattern used widely by the Spanish, inspired the squash blossoms themselves.
It is widely believed that the first recognized Native American blacksmith, Atsidi Sani, learned the craft from a Mexican blacksmith while touring “Navajo Land” with an American Indian agent in 1853. He may have added silversmithing to his skills during or after he was held prisoner at Fort Sumner, after he and his people were forced to relocate from Arizona.
Atsidi Sani and his students spread the skill. Zuni craftsmen learned the skill from Navajo teachers. Over the years, techniques and styles comingled, in lavish ways such as Navajo silver-stamped boxes decorated with Zuni inlay work.
Contemporary Artistic Expressions
Because of the work of contemporary Native art founders Charles Loloma, Kenneth Begay and others, current Native American jewelers no longer have to meet the expectations of viewers who only know Native American art as “traditional.”
Instead, they are free to merge their own inspirations with the skills and traditions they have learned throughout their lives.
Among them are Angie Reano Owen (Santo Domingo) – who, looking for a new avenue for creation amid the traffic jam of 1970s heishi, revived inlaid jewelry traditions – and Na Na Ping (Pascua Yaqui), whose elegant inlaid jewelry bears the work of a true lapidary, with stones that are meticulously cobbled together.
Both also took their paths away from tradition to reach their artistic vision. Owen merges the old (such as using wood as the backing for a bracelet) with the new (the black matrix that outlines each stone in her mosaics). Ping cuts stone with the skill taught to him by his uncles, but combines the stones in modernistic blends of color and angularity.
Like many modern Native jewelers, both are able to express their traditions in a contemporary voice.
Source: http://www.indianartsandculture.org/
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