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]
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
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
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
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.
I notice that the Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 271) placed Matthews' observations of the Navajo smiths in the early 1870s. This page follows the date of his report, published in 1883 in the Bureau of Ethnology's annual report for 1880-81. We show both dates as the sources give them.
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.”
Matthews (1883), p. 174 AS OF 1880–81 [2]
On a bracelet in his Plate XIX, Matthews (1883) noted:
“The re-entrant rectangles on the bracelet represented in Fig. 4, Pl. XIX, were cut with a cold-chisel and finished with a file.”
Matthews (1883), p. 174 AS OF 1880–81 [2]
Designs were laid out by hand, as Matthews described in 1883:
“Awls are used to mark figures on the silver. Often they cut out of paper a pattern, which they lay on the silver, tracing the outline with an awl.”
Matthews (1883), p. 174 AS OF 1880–81 [2]
The only die in Matthews' 1883 account is a doming tool for beads and buttons:
“Metallic hemispheres for beads and buttons are made in a concave matrix by means of a round-pointed bolt which I will call a die. These tools are always made by the Indians.”
Matthews (1883), p. 174 AS OF 1880–81 [2]
And it is the die he points to in the workshop plate (Matthews, 1883):
“In the picture of the smithy (Pl. XVII, in the right lower corner beside the tin-plate), a piece of an old horse-shoe may be seen in which a few matrices have been worked, and, beside it, the die used in connection with the matrices.”
Matthews (1883), p. 174 AS OF 1880–81 [2]
The cross and the morning star1 passage · 1 book
In 1883, Matthews described the crosses on the necklace of the man in his Plate XX and reported what he had been told they meant:
“The cross is much worn by the Navajos, among whom, I understand, it is not intended to represent the ‘Cross of Christ,’ but is a symbol of the morning star. The lengthening of the lower limb, however, is probably copied from the usual form of the Christian emblem.”
Matthews (1883), p. 178 AS OF 1880–81 [2]
More from the libraryRecently added passages
As of 1910, Hodge (ed., 1910, p. 44) reported that the Diné (Navajo) had for many years had silversmiths among them, who made handsome ornaments with very simple tools. [3]
On where the craft came from, the Handbook (Hodge, ed., 1910) described them as smiths
“who undoubtedly learned their art from the Mexicans, adapting it to their own environment.”
— Hodge (1910), p. 44 [3]
Hodge (ed., 1910, p. 573) reported that when Europeans arrived, silver had not come into general use among Native peoples north of Mexico; native silver occurred only sparingly, notably as small bits with native copper in the Lake Superior region, probably the source of a limited supply. [3]
By 1910, according to Hodge (ed., 1910, p. 573), some Native nations had taken up silverworking under white influence, among them the Diné (Navajo) and some of the Pueblos in Arizona and New Mexico. [3]
W. H. Holmes, writing in Hodge (ed., 1907, p. 849), counted the Diné (Navajo) and some Pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico among the skilful metal-workers of his day, and wrote that the Diné art, as Washington Matthews had described it, was adopted from the Spaniards. [4]
According to the Franciscan Fathers (1910, p. 271), Lieutenant James H. Simpson, who crossed the Navajo country with an expedition in 1849, described peach orchards, farms, herds of ponies, flocks of sheep and waterproof blankets but said nothing about silverwork; the Franciscans took his silence to mean the craft had grown up within the sixty years before they wrote. [5]
Writing in 1910, the Franciscan Fathers set their own account of the smith's tools beside the one Matthews had published:
“In the following paragraphs a description is given, first of the tools and implements used by the Navaho silversmith as Dr Washington Matthews found them in the early seventies, and as they are to-day, and secondly of some of their work.”
— Franciscan Fathers (1910), p. 271 [5]
On the forge bellows, the Franciscan Fathers (1910) added a detail about the earliest forges:
“In the original forges two of these bellows were employed, which secured an even and continuous draught”
— Franciscan Fathers (1910), p. 273 [5]
By 1910, the Franciscan Fathers reported, the blowpipe had become a store item:
“The Blowpipe is now purchased, but was formerly made by hammering out a piece of brass or copper wire, which they then bent into a tube with a curved, tapering end.”
— Franciscan Fathers (1910), p. 274 [5]
Polishing had changed too. The Franciscan Fathers wrote in 1910:
“For polishing and smoothening they use sandpaper or emery paper purchased at the stores, which has taken the place of the sandstone, sand and ashes of former days, and buckskin.”
— Franciscan Fathers (1910), p. 275 [5]
And of the rest of the kit, as of 1910, the Franciscan Fathers wrote:
“Beside the already mentioned tools they use shears, hammers, vices, nippers, pliers, tongs, punches, steel stamps, etc., all of which are of comparatively modern introduction, and can easily be obtained at the trading posts.”
— Franciscan Fathers (1910), p. 275 [5]
Frequently asked questions
Did Zuni carved animal figures have turquoise eyes in 1881?
Yes. Among the hunting amulets collected at Zuni in 1881, Stevenson catalogued a stone mountain lion with turquoise eyes and a white spar figure with small pieces of turquoise set in for eyes. [1]
What silver did Navajo silversmiths use around 1880?
In Matthews' account, Mexican dollars. The smiths he watched melted two of them to cast the parts of a powder charger, and beat another out thin, without melting it, for hollow beads. [2]
Did Navajo silversmiths use stamps in 1880?
Matthews' 1883 account describes decoration with files, cold chisels and awls. The only die he describes is a doming tool for beads and buttons, made by the smiths themselves. [2]
What does the Navajo silver cross mean?
Matthews understood it as a symbol of the morning star, not the Christian cross. He thought its longer lower arm was probably copied from the Christian form. [2]
A note on accuracy. We strive for accuracy, and this page is continuously updated with new information from the artists, their families, and the community. Corrections welcome.
Back to the Southwest Jewelry Guide.
Sources
- Stevenson, James. “Illustrated Catalogue of the Collections Obtained from the Pueblos of Zuñi, New Mexico, and Wolpi, Arizona, in 1881.” Extract from the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 511–594. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1885. Public domain (U.S. government publication). Statements describe conditions as of 1881.
- Matthews, Washington. “Navajo Silversmiths.” In Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880–81, pp. 167–178, plates XVI–XX. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1883. Public domain. Statements describe conditions as of 1880–81.
- Hodge, Frederick Webb, ed. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Part 2 (N–Z). Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1910. Public domain (U.S. government publication). Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1910.
- Hodge, Frederick Webb, ed. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Part 1 (A–M). Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1907. Public domain (U.S. government publication). Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1907.
- Franciscan Fathers. An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language. Saint Michaels, Arizona: The Franciscan Fathers, 1910. Public domain (U.S. publication before 1931). Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1910.