The Teaching Tree: How Southwest Silversmithing Spread

The Teaching Tree: How Southwest Silversmithing Spread

Southwest silverwork did not appear out of nowhere. It was taught — hand to hand, smith to student — and because early ethnographers and later historians wrote those relationships down, the line of teaching can be traced from the first named Navajo smith to artists working within living memory. What follows is that documented teaching tree, with every link cited to the book and page that records it.

The First Smith and His Teachers

Atsidi Sani — the Navajo smith most sources name first — began as an ironworker. He is recorded working iron and making bridle bits out of pieces of scrap iron[1], and as a blacksmith before and alongside his silverwork[2].

The books record that his teachers were Mexican smiths. A smith named Cassilio is documented teaching Atsidi Sani[3]; Nakai Tsosi is likewise recorded as his teacher[4]; and one account describes a Mexican smith taken prisoner near Socorro who taught him[5]. The accounts differ in their details — we present each as its source records it.

1883 Bureau of Ethnology engraving: Navajo man wearing silver ornaments, from Washington Matthews' Navajo Silversmiths
“Navajo Indian with silver ornaments” — plate from Washington Matthews, Navajo Silversmiths, Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1883. Public domain.
1883 Bureau of Ethnology engraving: Navajo silver objects including a tobacco canteen, beads and conchas, from Washington Matthews' Navajo Silversmiths
“Objects in silver” — a tobacco canteen, beads and buttons, from the same 1883 report: the very era of Atsidi Sani’s first students. Public domain.

The First Generation of Students

The books name Atsidi Sani's students directly. He taught his sons[6], and among named students the sources record Red Smith[7], Grey Moustache[8], Long Moustache[9], Slender Maker of Silver[10], Big Black, Little Smith and Burnt Whiskers[11], and Big Smith, Crying Smith, A-yon-'knezzi and Smith-Who-Walks-Around[12].

Five Documented Generations

One chain runs unbroken through the books, from the first named smith into the modern era:

Atsidi Sani → Slender Maker of Silver[10]

→ Fred Peshlakai[13]

→ Kenneth Begay[14]

→ Boyd Tsosie[15] and Deborah Silversmith[16]

Five documented generations — from a scrap-iron forge in the 1850s to artists working within living memory. Kenneth Begay's own chapter continues at White Hogan Silver[17], where a generation of smiths worked alongside him.

The Craft Crosses to Zuni — and Then to Hopi

The transmission was not only Navajo. Atsidi Chon is recorded teaching Lanyade, the first Zuni silversmith — one of the most heavily documented teaching relationships in our library, appearing in seven sources[18]. Within Zuni, Lanyade taught Balawade[19], who in turn taught others[20].

And from Lanyade the craft crossed a second border: he is recorded teaching Sikyatala, the first Hopi silversmith[21].

So one documented chain carries the craft across all three great traditions: Navajo (Atsidi Sani) → Zuni (Lanyade) → Hopi (Sikyatala) — every link on a cited page.

Why We Can Show You This

Every arrow above exists because a book recorded it and our verification system confirmed the page says what we cite it for. Where sources disagree — and on the earliest history they sometimes do — we show each account with its source rather than choosing one. Historical names are rendered as the books print them; some early names survive only in the orthography of their era.

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. If you carry knowledge of these makers — corrections, additions, family history — we want to hear it.

Sources

  1. Bedinger, Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers, p. 25; Adair, The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths, p. 10; Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry, p. 56
  2. Adair, p. 10; Bedinger, p. 31
  3. Navajo Silver: A Brief History of Navajo Silversmithing, p. 28; Bedinger, p. 31; An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language (1910), p. 276
  4. Encyclopedia, p. 56; Tanner & Koonce, Ray Manley's Portraits and Turquoise of Southwest Indians, p. 29; Frank & Holbrook, Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest, 1868–1930, p. 33; Bedinger, p. 24; Wright, Hopi Silver, p. 16
  5. Bedinger, p. 249
  6. Arizona Highways (1954), p. 27; Manley, p. 29
  7. Frank & Holbrook, p. 36; Bedinger, pp. 26, 36
  8. Bedinger, p. 38
  9. Bedinger, pp. 36, 38
  10. Encyclopedia, p. 56
  11. Bedinger, p. 26
  12. Bedinger, p. 36
  13. Adair, p. 17; Encyclopedia, p. 212
  14. Encyclopedia, pp. 63, 167; Hougart, Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks (5th ed.), p. 305
  15. Hougart 5e, pp. 378, 380
  16. Hougart 5e, p. 350
  17. Hougart 5e, p. 436
  18. Lund, Indian Jewelry: Fact and Fantasy, p. 94; Encyclopedia, pp. 39, 56, 147; Manley, p. 55; Bedinger, p. 155; Hougart 5e, p. 85
  19. Lund, p. 74; Encyclopedia, p. 147; Bedinger, pp. 156–157
  20. Bedinger, p. 156
  21. Encyclopedia, pp. 39, 147; Bedinger, pp. 180–181; June, Fred Harvey Jewelry, p. 6; Lund, p. 94

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