The 1881 Record: Turquoise and Silver in the First Bureau of Ethnology Reports

In 1880 and 1881, two men working for the Bureau of Ethnology wrote down what they saw of turquoise and silver in the Southwest. James Stevenson catalogued the objects collected at Zuni in 1881; Washington Matthews watched Navajo smiths at work and described their metal, their tools and the ornaments they made. This page gives what each man recorded, in his words where we can quote him.

KEY POINTS

Some Zuni hunting amulets collected in 1881 had turquoise set in for eyes. ^[1]
Stevenson catalogued small Zuni crucibles for melting silver and copper to make ornaments. ^[1]
The Navajo smiths Matthews watched around 1880 worked their silver from Mexican dollars. ^[2]
Matthews' smiths decorated silver with files, chisels and awls. ^[2]
The only die in his account shaped beads and buttons. ^[2]
Matthews understood the Navajo silver cross as a symbol of the morning star. ^[2]

Engraving of turquoise being drilled with a pump drill, Stevenson 1885, Pl. XLII — FIG. 1 · PLATE XLII, STEVENSON 1885Drilling turquoises.Plate XLII, James Stevenson, “Illustrated Catalogue of the Collections Obtained from the Pueblos of Zuñi, New Mexico, and Wolpi, Arizona, in 1881” (1885). Public domain.

This page branches from Turquoise in Culture & History, which tells the longer story. It holds the two earliest firsthand reports, kept together so they can be read as what they are: what two government observers saw, written down at the time.

Turquoise in the Zuni collections of 1881

Stevenson's catalogue lists each object by material, form and name. Among the hunting amulets he recorded a large stone figure of a mountain lion with turquoise eyes, named the Hunter God of the North. ^[1] A smaller amulet of white spar had small pieces of turquoise set in for eyes. ^[1] A very large figure in dark sandstone carried white shell, coral and an arrow point bound to its back and sides. ^[1]

One figure bore traces of a blue stone, which Stevenson names: carbonate of copper, “the sacred blue medicine stone of the Zunis.” ^[1] Turquoise appears in his entries under its own name. The catalogue does not run the two together, and neither does this page.

The catalogue also notes how some of these figures were used. We give the objects as they were described and leave those notes out.

Silver at Zuni: the crucibles

In the same collections Stevenson listed “small crucibles of native manufacture for reducing silver and copper in the manufacture of ornaments.” ^[1] It is one catalogue line. It dates metalworking for ornament at Zuni to 1881 or before, and it names no smith. See the Teaching Tree for what the books record about who taught whom.

The Navajo smith's silver, about 1880

1883 Bureau of Ethnology plate: a crucible and two sandstone molds cut with grooves and hollows for casting silver — FIG. 2 · PLATE XVIII, MATTHEWS 1883Crucible, and sandstone molds for shaping silver objects. The crucible shown is Navajo; Stevenson's Zuni crucibles are not pictured.Washington Matthews, “Navajo Silversmiths,” Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1883). Public domain.

For a powder charger, the smiths Matthews watched “melted two Mexican dollars—one for the bowl or receptacle, and one for the handle.” ^[2] For hollow beads they didn't melt the coin at all. They beat a Mexican dollar out thin, annealing it in the forge as they went. ^[2] In this record the coin is the smith's raw metal. For when U.S. and Mexican coin went in and out of use, see Coin Silver vs. Sterling.

How the silver was worked and marked

1883 Bureau of Ethnology engraving: a Navajo silversmith's workshop with forge, bellows and hand tools, and a piece of old horseshoe with the doming die beside it — FIG. 3 · PLATE XVII, MATTHEWS 1883Workshop of Navajo silversmith. By Matthews' own key, the piece of old horseshoe at lower right holds matrices for doming beads and buttons, and the die beside it is the one used with them.Washington Matthews, “Navajo Silversmiths,” Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1883). Public domain.

Files did more than file. Their shanks served as punches and their points as gravers, “with which figures are engraved on silver.” ^[2] The rectangles on one bracelet were cut with a cold chisel and finished with a file. ^[2] Designs were laid out by hand, often from a paper pattern traced onto the silver with an awl. ^[2]

Matthews describes one die. It is a round-pointed bolt for raising hemispheres for beads and buttons in a hollow matrix, and he noted that these tools “are always made by the Indians.” ^[2] He pointed to it in his workshop plate: the piece of horseshoe with its matrices, and the die beside it. ^[2] For stamped work, see Stampwork.

The cross and the morning star

1883 Bureau of Ethnology plate: a Navajo man in a striped blanket wearing a concha belt and a necklace hung with silver crosses — FIG. 4 · PLATE XX, MATTHEWS 1883Navajo Indian with silver ornaments. The crosses on his necklace are the ones Matthews describes below.Washington Matthews, “Navajo Silversmiths,” Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1883). Public domain.

The man in Matthews' Plate XX wears single and double crosses on his necklace. Matthews reported what he had been told they meant. The cross, he wrote, was not meant as the Christian cross but as a symbol of the morning star. He added his own guess that the longer lower arm was probably copied from the Christian form. ^[2] The first is what he understood from others; the second is his own reading. The full passage is below.

Field Notes by Mateo James

Matthews gives two readings of the same cross in consecutive sentences. Its meaning, as he understood it, is the morning star. Its shape, by his own guess, follows the Christian cross. He doesn't choose between them, and I don't either. Both readings are printed here.

From the Library

The passages from the two reports, grouped by topic. Every passage names its report and page; full references are under Sources.

These are outside observers' records, made in 1880 and 1881. The Zuni (A:shiwi) and Navajo (Diné) are the authority on their own history.

Turquoise in the Zuni amulets, 18814 passages · 1 book

Among the hunting amulets collected at Zuni in 1881, Stevenson (1885, p. 527) catalogued a large stone mountain lion figure with “turquoise eyes,” recorded as the Hunter God of the North. ^[1]

Another amulet in the group, carved of white spar, had “small pieces of turquoise inserted for eyes,” according to Stevenson (1885, p. 528). ^[1]

Stevenson (1885, p. 528) recorded one of these figures as bearing traces of “carbonate of copper, or the sacred blue medicine stone of the Zunis.” ^[1]

Another, a very large figure of dark sandstone, was listed by Stevenson (1885, p. 529) “with white shell, coral, and arrow point bound to back and sides.” ^[1]

Crucibles at Zuni, 18811 passage · 1 book

In the 1881 Zuni collections, Stevenson catalogued:

“Small crucibles of native manufacture for reducing silver and copper in the manufacture of ornaments.”

Stevenson (1885), p. 574 AS OF 1881 ^[1]

Silver from Mexican dollars, c. 18802 passages · 1 book

Mexican silver was already the smith's raw metal when Matthews watched in about 1880. For a powder charger, he recorded in 1883,

“they melted two Mexican dollars—one for the bowl or receptacle, and one for the handle—and poured each one into its appropriate mold.”

Matthews (1883), p. 176 AS OF 1880–81 ^[2]

For beads the coin was not even melted. Matthews (1883):

“In making the hollow silver beads they did not melt the silver, but beat out a Mexican dollar until it was of the proper tenuity—frequently annealing it in the forge as the work advanced.”

Matthews (1883), p. 177 AS OF 1880–81 ^[2]

Files, chisels, awls and the one die5 passages · 1 book

In Matthews' 1883 account, decoration was done with the file itself:

“Files are used not only for their legitimate purposes, as with us, but the shanks serve for punches and the points for gravers, with which figures are engraved on silver.”