The History of Pawn
Collectors of Native American crafts and jewelry sometimes come across an item being sold as “dead pawn”. The name indicates the item has been part of a quasi-banking system that has been around for thousands of years. It has existed in a variety of cultures and has been the choice of both kings and peasants when cash was needed. This type of trade has historically offered a way for many Native Americans to use their crafts as collateral for needed cash. Even today, pawn shops offer a type of trade that people in need can take advantage of.
Pawn transactions are fairly straightforward. Someone looking to pawn an item leaves the item as collateral with a pawn broker in exchange for a fixed term loan. If the person pays off the loan by the end date and returns for the item, it is theirs again. Should they not pay and return, the item becomes the property of the pawn broker and the loan is cancelled.
The concept behind pawning shows up in the recorded histories of ancient Greece and Rome. It is said that the Spanish Queen Isabella pawned royal jewels to finance the journeys of Christopher Columbus. In Europe during the fifteenth century, pawn shops were referred to as “monti de pieta”, which translates to “banks that take pity”.
In spite of the fact that historically pawn has been used by both rich and poor, over time the practice has become associated with a venue for those in need. Pawnshop loans were available for a wide variety of items, from the everyday to the special. Some historical pawn records show an apron being taken as collateral. This willingness to loan money on even possessions without a great deal of value made pawnshops a means for low wage workers to provide necessities for their families. As one source puts it, “just after WWII, there were 5000 pawn shops in the British Isles and Ireland, lending against anything from clothing to diamond tiaras”.
The concept of pawn found its way onto the reservations as well, particularly the Navajo reservation. With the interest in their crafts and jewelry, the Navajo had items which would bring them needed cash during slow times of the year. They could pawn items such as their jewelry then pay off the loan with the wool from their sheep. It became a system that offered a low interest loan without the necessity of applying to a bank. As with the trading post system, there were both beneficial and not so beneficial results. Over its long history the practice has evolved and changed, with some pawn shops still existing today on the edges of the reservations.
In the early days of the trading posts, pawning items depended on which post accepted the practice. Some were open to taking pawn and some were not. Loaning money on a item as pawn was more complicated and less profitable than trade. Some objected to the practice due to the belief that it caused arguments. One government Indian agent tried to put a stop to the practice altogether. Agent S.S. Patterson in 1887 brokered an agreement with the traders to not accept pawn at all at their posts, using as his argument that the practice was “frequently the cause of a vast amount of trouble and angry disputes”. In spite of Patterson’s agreement, pawn continued to be a source of income for the Navajo.
As with other types of business transactions, pawn shops had their unscrupulous dealers. In the 1960s, due to complaints by the Navajo about practices they found unethical, the Federal Trade Commission held hearings about the business dealings of pawn shops on the reservation. Their three year investigation resulted in new regulations for the shops, a change that led to some of them abandoning the business.
In spite of the difficulties of new regulations, pawn shops did not disappear. Today the practice still offers a way for many to find money without going to a bank. Pawn shops still exist although on the edges of the reservation rather than inside it. The banks with pity are still there for those who need them.
Resources:
http://scribol.com/anthropology-and-history/the-history-of-pawn-shops
From the Library: Welch, Indian Jewelry (1973)
1973 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1973, not today.
Writing in 1973, Welch described pawn as it then worked on the Navajo reservation:
“Silver and turquoise of all types are pawned at the trading posts. Sometimes the Indians pawn it for safe-keeping; sometimes because they need cash.”
— Welch (1973), p. 49 [1]
Welch (1973, p. 49) summed up what such jewelry did for its owner: it decorated, it displayed wealth, and it served as collateral against which the owner could borrow. [1]
From the Library: Adair, The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths (1944)
1944 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1944, not today.
Grey Moustache, recalling for Adair (1944) the silver-mounted bridles he made in the 1880s, said that by the late 1930s:
“You don't see many of those today except on the pawn racks in the trading posts.”
— Adair (1944), p. 8 [2]
He also told Adair (1944), of the same era:
“I used to pawn my bridle for eighty dollars in the trading post.”
— Adair (1944), p. 8 [2]
Writing in 1944 about the late 1930s, Adair described where most silver bridles spent the year:
“Bridles are frequently made of braided buckskin, and most of the silver-mounted bridles are kept for the greater part of the year on the pawn racks of the trading posts, where the owners have pawned them for credit or cash.”
— Adair (1944), p. 43 [2]
Writing of the late 1930s, Adair (1944) summed up what a Navajo's jewelry did for its owner:
“Thus the Navajo's jewelry serves three functions: as decoration, to display his wealth, and as collateral against which he can borrow at the trading post.”
— Adair (1944), p. 99 [2]
Adair (1944) also recorded what happened before a big gathering:
“He will wear all of the jewelry he has at his hogan, and he will redeem silver which is in pawn at the trading post if he can possibly get the necessary cash to do so.”
— Adair (1944), p. 98 [2]
Writing in 1944 of the trading posts he knew in the late 1930s, Adair described how each pawned piece was recorded:
“Each article bears a tag on which is listed the name of the owner, when it was pawned, and how much credit or cash was advanced on the particular article.”
— Adair (1944), p. 108 [2]
According to Adair (1944, p. 108), what a trader advanced then depended both on the piece itself, for jewelry the amount of turquoise and silver in it, and on the owner's record of paying his account; a good customer might get more than the piece was worth, but usually the trader advanced much less than its value. [2]
In the late 1930s, Adair (1944) found that pawned pieces could wait a long time for their owners:
“Some pieces stay on the rack for as long as five or six years before they are redeemed. Pawn is redeemed with cash.”
— Adair (1944), p. 108 [2]
Adair (1944, p. 108) added that the law then required traders to hold pawn for only thirty days, but that no trader would dare foreclose that soon, because a family who found its silver sold would likely never trade at that post again. [2]
According to Adair (1944, p. 109), pawn then moved with the sheep year: Navajo families settled their store accounts twice a year, after selling their wool in spring and their lambs in fall, and redeemed their pawn when the sales covered the bill, so the racks were nearly empty in summer and early fall and filled again from November through the winter. [2]
Adair (1944) also recorded what traders of his day meant by dead pawn:
“"Dead" pawn, that which will probably not be redeemed, the traders sell at a considerable profit to Navajo and to white men.”
— Adair (1944), p. 109 [2]
Adair (1944) found that pawn worked differently at Zuni Pueblo by the time of his 1940 fieldwork:
“The traders at Zuñi gave up the pawn rack as a method of extending credit to the Indians over seven years ago. The pawn rack was never an essential part of the trading economy at Zuñi, or in any of the other pueblos, as it was on the Navajo reservation.”
— Adair (1944), p. 170 [2]
According to Adair (1944, p. 170), Zuni credit then rested on a family's past trading record, its flock and its grain crop rather than on jewelry, so Zuni people wore their silver all year round, without the seasonal trips between owner and pawn rack seen on the Navajo reservation. [2]
Writing in 1944, Adair contrasted the Navajo pawn rack with the Rio Grande pueblos:
“Dead pawn in the trading posts on the Navajo reservation has been well picked over, and fine old pieces of silver are becoming increasingly rare. The Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande never pawned their silver.”
— Adair (1944), p. 186 [2]
From the Library: Lund, Indian Jewelry: Fact and Fantasy (1976)
1976 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1976, not today.
According to Lund (1976, p. 1), from about 1875 to 1900 a few licensed traders who lived on the reservations were the main outside market for Navajo and Pueblo silver. The trader served as store manager, banker and advisor, and because cash was scarce he often took jewelry in payment or as collateral for a loan. [3]
Lund (1976, pp. 1-2) dated the first release of old pawn to the tourist trade to around 1910, when traders began putting parts of their pawn collections into circulation as the railroad brought visitors and souvenir shops to the Southwest. [3]
According to Lund (1976, p. 116), regulations of the Bureau of Indian Affairs had once limited the sale price of unredeemed pawn to the debt owed plus ten percent, which is how pawn earned its name as a bargain; by 1976 the law let traders sell at market value, and she wrote that the bargains no longer existed. [3]
Lund (1976) on how much old pawn was left:
“In other words, the pawn system has been steadily dwindling since WWII, and for a buyer to expect to find great quantities of "Old Pawn" lying dusty and forgotten in some trading post is naive.”
— Lund (1976), p. 116 [3]
Lund (1976, p. 116) passed on a warning from Martin Link about fake pawn: a man in Gallup was then making a living printing pawn tickets for dealers to tie onto jewelry they could not sell, and in California "old" squash blossom necklaces were being made from 1941 dimes aged with chemicals. [3]
Lund (1976) cautioned that genuine pawn was not always good jewelry:
“Often the Indians pawned their mediocre pieces and kept the good ones.”
— Lund (1976), p. 116 [3]
Her first rule for buying pawn, Lund (1976) wrote, was never to buy a piece just because it is pawn:
“The piece should stand on its own merits.”
— Lund (1976), p. 117 [3]
Lund (1976) timed the pawn year a little differently from Adair:
“By December the pawn racks were almost empty.”
— Lund (1976), p. 115 [3]
From the Library: Baxter, Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry (2000)
2000 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2000, not today.
According to Baxter (2000, p. 81), after 1950 reservation traders were forbidden to use pawn as collateral, though the practice continued off-reservation, particularly in border towns such as Gallup, New Mexico, and Winslow, Arizona. [4]
According to Baxter (2000, p. 131), most traders held pawn for a year or more, or even indefinitely, but unredeemed pawn could be offered for sale as dead pawn after a set time limit, such as 30 days under New Mexico state law, and unscrupulous dealers had misrepresented some pieces as “dead pawn” to attract sales. [4]
Baxter (2000) cautioned about the label itself:
“Another term subject to mislabeling is old pawn, which has been often applied to native jewelry made before 1930, although this date has been extended at times to 1950.”
— Baxter (2000), p. 131 [4]
Baxter (2000) added a warning for buyers:
“Pawn tickets of varying sizes and colors can be attached to a piece of jewelry; these items cannot be trusted to be genuine because a pawn ticket could be taken from any source and placed on an object, regardless of its real status.”
— Baxter (2000), p. 131 [4]
Her advice, in 2000:
“Reliance on a reputable dealer or trader, and some education by the consumer, are the best defenses against misrepresentation.”
— Baxter (2000), p. 131 [4]
From the Library: June, Fred Harvey Jewelry 1900–1955 (2013)
2013 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2013, not today.
June (2013, p. 25) wrote that jewelry changed hands like cash, that traders lent against pawned jewelry, and that, according to a study he cited, trading-post Indians remained outside the cash economy as late as 1937. [5]
June (2013) summed up the post's place:
“For most Navajo before 1950, the trading post was the center of life.”
— June (2013), p. 26 [5]
From the Library: Tanner, Navajo Silver Craft (1954)
1954 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1954, not today.
Tanner (1954, p. 26) called the pawn rack the basis of the understanding between trader and Navajo: a family that needed food, or a woman who wanted calico and velveteen for a new dress, left a silver belt, a squash blossom necklace or another piece at the post and redeemed it after the spring shearing or the fall lamb sale. [6]
Tanner, writing in 1954, explained how Navajo owners regarded their jewelry:
“Navajos look upon all forms of jewelry, silver, turquoise, shell, and coral, as “hard goods,” for indeed they are a medium of exchange to these folk.”
— Tanner (1954), p. 27 [6]
Tanner (1954) added:
“They are as sound as any bank account, sounder than some have been in the past.”
— Tanner (1954), p. 27 [6]
The August 1954 Arizona Highways issue that carried Tanner (1954, p. 18) printed a Laura Gilpin photograph of pawn hanging in the Bruce Bernard Trading Post at Shiprock, New Mexico. [6]
Field Notes by Mateo James
Adair, describing the late 1930s, has the pawn racks filling again from November, while Lund, writing in 1976, has them almost empty by December and refilling in January. Both tie the cycle to the spring wool and fall lamb sales. I show both timings rather than choose one.
Sources
- Welch, Frankie. Indian Jewelry: How To Wear, Buy and Treasure America's First Fashion Pieces. McLean, VA: EPM Publications, Inc., 1973. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1973.
- Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. The Civilization of the American Indian Series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1944.
- Lund, Marsha Mayer. Indian Jewelry: Fact and Fantasy. Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 1976. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1976.
- Baxter, Paula A., with Allison Bird-Romero. Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry: A Guide to History, People, and Terms. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 2000. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2000.
- June, Dennis. Fred Harvey Jewelry 1900–1955. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2013. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2013.
- Tanner, Clara Lee. “Navajo Silver Craft.” Arizona Highways 30, no. 8 (August 1954): 16–33. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1954.
