Hopi Silvercraft Guild: History, Members & the Sun Mark

The Hopi Silvercraft Guild was formed in 1949 by Hopi men who had just finished a G.I.-funded silversmithing course for veterans (Wright 2003, p. 44; Bedinger 1973, p. 202). It gave them a shared workshop and a sales outlet, and it was also a school: in the words of Mark Bahti, who profiled working Hopi jewelers in Silver + Stone, it "trained generations of Hopi silversmiths until about 1992" (Bahti 2007, p. 152). One caution before anything else. Margaret Nickelson Wright, whose Hopi Silver is a full history and hallmark register of the craft, warns that "the names of Hopicrafts, a private business, and the Hopi Silvercraft Guild are easily confused" (Wright 2003, p. 46). They are two different organizations; Hopicrafts has its own entry.

In print it also appears as the Hopi Silvercraft Cooperative Guild and the Hopi Arts and Crafts Guild (Wright 2003, p. 44; Bahti 2007, p. 160); the Heard Museum library's 2024 authority file prefers "Hopi Arts and Crafts Silvercraft Cooperative Guild" (Heard Museum 2024).

Founding

It began with an exhibit. In the late summer of 1946, "Fred Kabotie and other villagers got together an exhibit of Hopi crafts" at Shungopavi; Willard Beatty, Director of Indian Education, attended, and the next day he "arranged for the G.I. training program for veterans to sponsor an eighteen-month silversmithing course for Hopi servicemen" (Wright 2003, p. 38). The program paid for the training and the tools, and "paid living expenses for the veteran and his family" (Wright 2003, p. 38).

"The classes started in February of 1947" (Wright 2003, p. 38). Paul Saufkie taught technique and Fred Kabotie taught design while also teaching art at Hopi High School in Kykotsmovi; the classes met at the school, then moved to a Quonset hut nearby (Wright 2003, p. 38). Margery Bedinger, whose 1973 Indian Silver surveys Navajo and Pueblo jewelers, counts "thirteen men, soon increasing to nineteen," and notes that "Students used copper to learn on, then silver as they became more competent" (Bedinger 1973, p. 202).

Graduation created the problem the Guild solved. The first class graduated in 1949, in January by Bedinger's account (Bedinger 1973, p. 202); "The subsistence payments to the men stopped at graduation, and they lacked any means of getting more silver to make into jewelry" (Wright 2003, p. 43). "With the help and encouragement of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board and the Hopi Government Agency, the Hopi Silvercraft Guild was formed in 1949," its stated purpose "'To produce, purchase, and sell handcrafts and to operate related activities'" (Wright 2003, p. 44). Through it the smiths borrowed $5,000 from the government for supplies and equipment (Wright 2003, p. 44).

A note on the date. 1947 is when the veterans' classes began, not when the Guild was formed. Every book in our library that dates the Guild gives 1949 (Wright 2003, pp. 44, 113; Bedinger 1973, p. 202; Bassman 1993, p. 2; Turnbaugh 2007, p. 62; Hougart 2022, p. 277).

Members worked in part of the Quonset hut, then took the whole building after the second veterans' class graduated on January 1, 1951 (Wright 2003, p. 44). "In 1962 ground was broken for a new guild building a mile northwest of the entrance to Shungopavi," with display and sales space as well as working space (Wright 2003, p. 45).

People

Bedinger records that the graduates chose "Bert Puhuey Estewa, president, and selected the Hopi sun shield as their trademark" (Bedinger 1973, p. 202). Fred Kabotie was elected secretary-treasurer, then was transferred to the Indian Arts and Crafts Board as the Guild's manager; his wife, Alice, took over as secretary-treasurer, and "In 1971 Kabotie retired as manager, but remained active in the guild" (Wright 2003, pp. 44–45). Theda Bassman puts it simply in The Beauty of Hopi Jewelry: the Kaboties "managed the Guild for more than twenty years" (Bassman 1993, p. 2). Bille Hougart, whose Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks catalogues makers' and shop marks, calls Paul Saufkie "Co-founder of the Hopi Silver Craft Guild in 1949" (Hougart 2022, p. 277).

Ties to the Guild were never uniform. Some older smiths "had no connection with the organization," others worked for it full time, and others worked at home "with or without ties to the guild" (Wright 2003, p. 45). "The guild supplied the silver for all jewelry made under its auspices and these pieces were marketed by the guild rather than by the individual craftsmen. However, the pieces were identified and sold as each smith's own work" (Wright 2003, p. 45). Gerald Lomaventema described the arrangement to Bahti: "The Guild would issue us silver, subtract the cost as the finished work came in, and pay us" (Bahti 2007, pp. 96–98). Victor Coochwytewa was affiliated with the Guild "but marketed his silver individually as well, even selling it to Hopicraft for re-sale" (Wright 2003, p. 57).

Other smiths the sources place at the Guild:

  • Wallie Sekayumptewa, "An early innovator in overlay technology" there in the late 1940s, G.I. class of 1949–1951 (Hougart 2022, p. 282).
  • Lawrence Saufkie, who worked with the Guild in 1953 and adopted his bear hallmark there (Hougart 2020, p. 84).
  • Michael Kabotie, who worked with the Guild on Second Mesa in the 1970s (Hougart 2022, p. 165).
  • Farron Naka'waywisa, who joined the class the Guild started in 1991, learned from Charleston Lewis, Shannon Lamson and Steve Kuyvaya, and worked for the Guild until 1994 (Bahti 2007, pp. 120–121).
  • Elmer Satala Jr., a member of the last graduating class (Bahti 2007, p. 152).
  • Raymond Sequaptewa, about seven years at the Guild after his time at Hopicrafts (Bahti 2007, p. 160).

Marks and what to look for

Wright is precise here: "Silver produced under Hopi Silvercraft Guild auspices is marked with its insignia, the sun symbol, as well as with the individual smith's mark" (Wright 2003, p. 69). Bedinger calls the same device the sun shield, and her caption for three 1949 bracelets in the Museum of Northern Arizona points to "the Hopi Guild symbol (sun shield) and the makers' marks" inside (Bedinger 1973, p. 203). Hougart lists the Guild's mark as "Sunface (various versions)" (Hougart 2022, p. 361). The stamps vary because "Each smith has his own Guild stamp. Consequently, none are exactly alike" (Wright 2003, p. 113).

Read the two marks for what each one says. The sun names the organization; the smith's own mark names the maker. Hallmarks themselves spread with this program: "Hallmarks became widely used on Hopi silver during the veterans' classes in 1949" (Wright 2003, p. 69), and Kabotie and Saufkie "encouraged each silversmith to design and use a hallmark, frequently based upon a clan symbol or using the smith's initials" (Bahti 2007, p. 136).

A missing sun does not settle anything. Because ties to the Guild came and went, "in the same time period one might buy jewelry with both the guild mark and the smith's stamp, as well as pieces with only the smith's mark" (Wright 2003, p. 69). Hougart records Paul Saufkie's own mark appearing with "no Hopi guild stamp--perhaps after he left the Guild" (Hougart 2022, p. 277). None of our sources describes the sun mark as a certificate of anything beyond Guild auspices.

The Guild as a school

"After the veterans' classes ended, new smiths learned their trade by working at the Hopi Guild" (Wright 2003, p. 71). Wright's register of Hopi smiths lists dozens who learned there, from Ted Wadsworth, who began in 1954, to Belvin Yuyaheova in 1991 and Kendrick Lomayestewa in 1992 (Wright 2003, pp. 80, 107, 108). Among them: Mark Lomayestewa, McBride Lomayestewa, Billie Ray Hawee, Vernon Mansfield, Willard Nuvayaouma, Bernard Dawahoya, Patrick Lomawaima, Norman Honie, Andrew Saufkie, Elliot Koinva, Marcus Lomayestewa, Dwayne Lomayestewa, Ruben Saufkie, George Phillips, Fermin Hawee and Del Fred Masawytewa (Wright 2003, pp. 80–112).

Satala's account of the last class shows how it worked. "There were eighteen in the class when we started, but only seven graduated"; at the end "They gave you a two-by-six sheet of silver to make a ring, bracelet, a pair of earrings, and pendants" (Bahti 2007, pp. 152–153). Bahti ties the end of the training, about 1992, to a mission "largely accomplished," with most new smiths "now learning from practicing silversmiths" (Bahti 2007, p. 152).

Wright's verdict: "Without it, the benefits of the veterans' classes would not have had such lasting effects" (Wright 2003, p. 46).

Each source dates its own "now." Bedinger wrote in 1973 that "The Hopi Silvercraft Guild continues to be active" (Bedinger 1973, p. 209). Wright's hallmark table, as of her 2003 revised edition, runs the Guild from 1949 to "present" (Wright 2003, p. 113). William and Sarah Turnbaugh's Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest (2007) described it as "a mecca for visitors" and "a major outlet for jewelry and other arts which Hopi artisans create" (Turnbaugh 2007, p. 63). Our sources don't record whether it still operates, trains or sells today.

Sources

  1. Wright, Margaret Nickelson. Hopi Silver: The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing, revised edition, 2003. Pp. 38, 43–46, 57, 69, 71, 80–113.
  2. Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers, 1973. Pp. 202–203, 209.
  3. Bahti, Mark. Silver + Stone: Profiles of American Indian Jewelers, 2007. Pp. 96–98, 120–121, 136, 152–153, 160.
  4. Turnbaugh, William A., and Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh. Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest, 2007. Pp. 62–63.
  5. Bassman, Theda. The Beauty of Hopi Jewelry, 1993. P. 2.
  6. Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th edition, 2022. Pp. 165, 277, 282, 361.
  7. Hougart, Bille. 100 Collectible Native American Silversmiths and Their Hallmarks, 2020. P. 84.
  8. Heard Museum, Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives. Native American Artists Resource Collection thesaurus, generated August 30, 2024.

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