Shops, Trading Posts & Guilds of Southwest Jewelry

According to Frank (1990, p. 4), from 1821 to 1846 Spanish and Mexican traders were the main source of trade goods in the Southwest: trade fairs flourished at Pueblo centers such as Taos and Pecos, and silver crosses, brass and copper ornaments and European glass beads came up from Mexico to the Pueblos, while the Navajo (Diné) both raided and traded at the fairs. ^[12]

Baxter (2000) dated the heyday of the posts:

“Trading posts date back to the early years of exploration and colonization in the seventeenth century, but their heyday came in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially in the American Southwest, when the transportation of goods was a difficult and often risky business.”

Baxter (2000), p. 179 AS OF 2000 ^[20]

According to Bedinger (1973, p. 17), Charles Crary opened a store near Ganado Lake in 1871 or 1872; 'Old Man' Leonard bought him out in 1875, renamed the post Pueblo Colorado and supplied local smiths with American half-dollars; John Lawrence Hubbell set up nearby in 1873, bought out Leonard three years later and named his store Ganado. ^[11]

And of the Mexican pesos, Woodward (1946):

“Mexican silver pesos were furnished for the first time by Chah-leh Sani (Old Charley), Charles Crary, who opened and operated the first trading post in the Navajo country near Ganado Lake in 1871-1872.”

Woodward (1946), p. 51 AS OF 1946 ^[21]

Woodward's (1946) summary named the first source of American silver:

“The first American silver used by the Navajo was obtained from silver dollars furnished by the soldiers at Fort Defiance and new Fort Wingate.”

Woodward (1946), p. 51 AS OF 1946 ^[21]

Bedinger (1973) on what Hubbell supplied:

“Don Lorenzo imported Mexican pesos, which the silversmiths preferred to American coins because their higher silver content made them easier to work.”

Bedinger (1973), p. 17 AS OF 1973 ^[11]

According to Bassman (1997, p. 5), silversmiths at first melted down silver coins; when the United States government banned the practice in 1890 they turned to Mexican pesos supplied by trader John Lawrence Hubbell at Ganado, Arizona, and when the pesos were in turn banned for export, the traders began supplying silver themselves. ^[15]

Agent C. E. Vandever reported on June 30, 1890, as Woodward (1946) quoted him:

“They melt from a third to a half of the coin they receive to make into silver ornaments, but for gold they have no appreciation.”

Woodward (1946), p. 70 AS OF 1946 ^[21]

According to Adair (1944, p. 14), the trader J. W. Bennett, then the longest-active man in the business, said the Navajo were already wearing turquoise set in silver when he opened his post at Houck, Arizona, in 1882. ^[19]

Another trader, Robert B. Prewitt, wrote in a letter that Adair (1944) quoted:

“I went to Farmington in 1883. At that time there was considerable silver being made and they were putting some turquoise in the rings and possibly the bracelets.”

Adair (1944), p. 14 AS OF 1944 ^[19]

According to Baxter (2000, p. 81), Thomas Keam, licensed to trade with the Hopi by 1875, and Douglas Graham, the first trader to open a store at Zuni Pueblo (in 1881), were representative of the new breed of Indian trader. ^[20]

Adair (1944) on the posts of the 1880s and 1890s:

“During the eighties and the nineties more trading posts were established on the Navajo reservation. The traders imported an ever-increasing supply of tools for the Navajo silversmiths.”

Adair (1944), p. 24 AS OF 1944 ^[19]

In 1883, Matthews recorded which tools Navajo smiths bought and which they had not yet been offered:

“Ordinary scissors, purchased from the whites, are used for cutting their metal after it is wrought into thin plates. The metal saw and metal shears do not seem as yet to have been imported for their benefit.”

Matthews (1883), p. 174 AS OF 1883 ^[22]

Matthews (1883) went on:

“Their iron pliers, hammers, and files they purchase from the whites.”

Matthews (1883), p. 174 AS OF 1883 ^[22]

Chambless & Ryan (2021) give the scale of the licensed post system:

“In 1875, seven trading posts were licensed on the Navajo Reservation alone. This number rose steadily after 1900, reaching 154 in 1930.”

Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 181 AS OF 2021 ^[8]

Woodward (1946) wrote of the trading posts before the tourist boom:

“The ornaments taken into the trading posts prior to 1900, which more or less marks the boom of the tourist trade, were often treated as bullion by the traders.”

Woodward (1946), p. 70 AS OF 1946 ^[21]

Bedinger (1973, p. 23), citing Woodward, reports that early Navajo silver was so little valued by white buyers that in 1898 C. N. Cotton shipped eight hundred dollars' worth of Navajo silver jewelry to the Denver mint as bullion. ^[11]

According to Bedinger (1973, p. 73), much early silverwork was lost because ornaments that went out of fashion were often melted down and remade, and because traders sent articles that had been pawned and never reclaimed to the Denver mint. ^[11]

According to Frank (1990, p. 27), the core of the Smithsonian's pre-1900 jewelry, the largest such group then available, came from about half a dozen people, among them Thomas V. Keam, trader, settler and founder of Keam's Canyon Trading Post in Hopi country, who exhibited his considerable collection at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. ^[12]

According to Wright (2003, p. 4), at the end of the nineteenth century Hopi men did the household weaving, there was a large trade in Hopi textiles with the Pueblos of New Mexico, and those textiles were the main goods Hopis traded to obtain the silver jewelry they wore before 1890. ^[14]

According to Wright (2003, p. 13), after the railroad reached Williams, Arizona, Andrew Humiquaptewa rode the train there and walked on to trade the silver bracelets he made with the Havasupai for buckskins, sometimes setting them with colored glass because turquoise was too scarce to use. ^[14]

According to Turnbaugh (2007, p. 46), until the late 1890s the Navajo (Diné) made jewelry mainly for themselves or for other Indians; from about 1900 they also made it for commercial sale, and styles became more standardized under the influence of traders, trading posts, tourists and the railroads. ^[13]

On the trader's part in the jewelry itself, Chambless & Ryan (2021) write:

“Traders played a key role in jewelry production because they often provided the turquoise and silver necessary for the designs, and suggested styles and items the marketplace favored.”

Chambless & Ryan (2021), p. 181 AS OF 2021 ^[8]

Jacka (1995, p. 32) also writes of the traders: "They often suggested design or color changes, and they furnished most of the necessary materials." ^[18]

Ryan & Chambless (2020) on the traders' place in the turquoise trade after the 1907-1908 recession:

“Those licensed for trade with the Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi played a significant role in the turquoise trade, providing a source of material to the jewelers as well as a market for the finished product.”

Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 44 AS OF 2020 ^[16]

As of 1915, Pogue reported:

“The present-day Indians, however, carry on little systematic mining for turquois, obtaining their material through barter with other Indians or by purchase from white traders.”

Pogue (1915), p. 104 AS OF 1915 ^[7]

According to Schiffer (2008, p. 5), white traders who encouraged jewelry making also imported turquoise, and from 1890 Juan Lorenzo Hubbell obtained Persian turquoise for the silversmiths at his trading post at Ganado. ^[10]

Turnbaugh (2007, p. 23) records a trader supplying stone as well as silver:

“Between 1895 and 1900 the Indian trader Don Lorenzo Hubbell capitalized on the popularity of the bright bluestone by importing Persian turquoise for trade to the Navajo.”

Turnbaugh (2007), p. 23 AS OF 2007 ^[13]

According to Frank (1990, p. 159, Fig. 194), glass trade beads imported from Czechoslovakia, known as Hubbell beads, were introduced into the Southwest around 1900 by Lorenzo Hubbell of the Hubbell Trading Post in Arizona; less cherished than native turquoise, they were consistently vivid blue streaked with black, much like spider turquoise, and were set in bracelets and rings as well as strung. ^[12]

Writing in 1997, Bassman described how the trader relationship widened in the 1920s:

“During the 1920's the traders also supplied them with wire, sheet silver, and coral. Thus began the tradition, carried out to this day, of traders supplying stones and silver to the Navajos for making jewelry.”

Bassman (1997), p. 6 AS OF 1997 ^[15]

According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 185), drawing on Joseph E. Tanner of Tanner's Indian Arts in Gallup, his grandfather Joseph Baldwin Tanner mined turquoise and took the stone and silver to Navajo, Hopi, Zuni and Santo Domingo bead and jewelry makers, with the makers keeping half the finished goods. ^[8]

According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 185), C.G. Wallace began working for Charles Kelsey at Zuni in 1919 and by 1928 was running his own trading post, with a workshop in the back for Native silversmiths, supplying turquoise, silver and design suggestions and marketing the finished work. ^[8]

Writing in 1975, Arizona Highways editor Joseph Stacey described how the traders of the classic era divided the work:

“The real traders used Navajos for silversmithing, Zunis for lapidary expertise and Santo Domingos for heshi spacers. Theirs was an unincorporated guild system which produced many of the masterpieces shown in our Classic Editions and is the system basically used by many modern traders who supply silver, gold, turquoise and materials under limited contract arrangements.”

Stacey (1975), p. 1 AS OF 1975 ^[17]

According to Wright (2003, p. 28), by 1900 trading posts stood close enough to all the Hopi towns that some blacksmithing tools were available to any Hopi smith who could afford to trade for them, but a silversmith still had to make some of his own tools or buy them from someone who could. ^[14]

According to Wright (2003, p. 28), A. F. Wing's 1941 Hopi Crafts Survey found that one of the old Hopi smiths at Hotevilla still had a bellows bought in the early 1900s from the Volz Trading Post. ^[14]

Bedinger (1973, p. 117) stressed the trader's hand in style: traders influenced designs by buying or rejecting them, smiths often discussed new ideas with their trader, and so the silver a smith made for his own people might differ from what he made for the trader. ^[11]

As of 1997, Bassman (1997, p. 6) reported that the traders had great influence on the style of Navajo jewelry, and that silversmiths discussed their ideas freely with them, which led to new designs. ^[15]

On the arrows and swastikas of turn-of-the-century silver, Adair (1944) wrote:

“These designs were introduced to the Navajo by the traders, who knew that the white man preferred to have designs on silver jewelry which were, to his mind, typical of Indian art.”

Adair (1944), p. 26 AS OF 1944 ^[19]

Adair (1944) described the trader's hand in the silver of about 1940:

“Frequently the silver is modified in form, because of this influence of the trader, through whose hands most of the silver passes which is sold to the white man.”

Adair (1944), p. 154 AS OF 1944 ^[19]

He found traders pulling in opposite directions, as Adair (1944) put it:

“There are traders who tell the Zuñi smiths to copy the Navajo designs and ask the Navajo smiths to copy Zuñi silver, if that happens to be the type of silver which they need at the time. On the other hand, I have met traders who would not buy a Zuñi-style bracelet from a Navajo smith.”

Adair (1944), p. 154 AS OF 1944 ^[19]

Turnbaugh (2007, p. 48, caption) reported that traders encouraged Navajo (Diné) smiths to make flat buttons instead of the earlier domed ones, because flat buttons sold better to tourists and were easier to sew to garments. On a velveteen blouse of about 1940, they dated the flat buttons to after 1940 and the domed buttons earlier. ^[13]

According to Bedinger (1973, p. 102), J. B. Wheat of the University of Colorado found an entry in the records of Hubbell's trading post for a silver hatband pawned in 1907, among the earliest dated evidence for the form. ^[11]

According to Bedinger (1973, p. 103), Mera linked the popularity of silver hatbands in the northwestern reservation to a trader, or traders, there who between 1910 and 1920 sold off a large shipment of low-crowned, broad-brimmed black felt hats; by the mid-1920s many young men had added a silver band that looked striking against the black. ^[11]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 106), once Navajo weavers found a rug earned more than raw wool and could be sold year-round, traders such as Hubbell at Ganado and J. B. Moore at Crystal introduced new dyes and designs based on oriental motifs for the eastern floor-covering market. ^[16]

According to Adair (1944, p. 114), in the late 1930s smiths usually did not buy their silver and turquoise outright: the trader farmed the materials out to the smiths who worked for him and paid them for making the jewelry, at a rate then fairly uniform across the reservation of fifty cents per ounce worked, with ten or fifteen cents extra for each turquoise set. ^[19]

Writing in 1944 of that late-1930s rate, Adair traced a quality problem to it:

“As a result of this price system, many Navajo make silver of a mediocre quality, silver that is just good enough to be accepted by the trader.”

Adair (1944), p. 114 AS OF 1944 ^[19]

Adair (1944, p. 114) added that the few traders who paid a bonus for good work got better silver, but that very few did so, and that most traders paid smiths in credit slips good for goods at the store, only occasionally in cash. ^[19]

Bill Stewart, the trader at Pine Springs, told Adair (1944) in the late 1930s what he had learned from rushing his smiths:

“The slower a silversmith is, the better he is.”

Adair (1944), p. 114 AS OF 1944 ^[19]

In his 1940 survey for the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, Adair (1944) found that only a minority of traders had silver made:

“Only a relatively small number of traders have silver made up for them. There are approximately thirty (18 per cent) of the total number (170) of traders that "work" a "string" of silversmiths.”

Adair (1944), p. 203 AS OF 1944 ^[19]

According to Adair (1944, p. 203), in 1940 fifty-nine of the seventy-four Navajo smiths who answered were paid by the ounce, an average of fifty-one cents and a range of twenty to seventy-five cents, plus ten cents for setting a small stone and twenty-five for a large one; forty of the fifty-nine worked for store credit only, with no cash at all. ^[19]

According to Adair (1944, p. 204), during the 1930s traders increasingly built living quarters and shops for smiths near their posts; by 1940 the trader at Smith Lake had a large shop behind his post where more than twenty-five silversmiths, living in nearby hogans, came to work every day. ^[19]

According to Adair (1944, p. 115), in 1938 Smith Lake, northeast of Gallup, was the second-largest silver center, with 120 smiths selling to its trader that spring, and Gallup, counting the trading posts within ten miles of it, had the greatest concentration of silversmiths in the Southwest. ^[19]

According to Turnbaugh (2007, p. 24, caption), many traders of the late 19th and early 20th centuries paid Native artisans in tokens for jewelry, rugs, baskets and other crafts, and the tokens were then spent on food and supplies the post stocked; the tokens they picture date ca. 1865-1935. ^[13]

According to Adair (1944, p. 142), a Zuni trader of the late 1930s paid a smith such as Horace Aiuli in cash or in trade depending on the smith's credit and the store's finances; a smith who took trade but wanted nothing that day received a due bill to spend later. ^[19]

As of 1944, Adair (1944) saw that system loosening:

“Horace, like the other members of his tribe, is no longer content with credit in the trading posts.”

Adair (1944), p. 142 AS OF 1944 ^[19]

According to Bedinger (1973, p. 185), under the older farming-out system the smith was paid in goods or credit at the trading post, which often left him in debt to that store; she reported that cash payment ended this and that, as of 1973, the pawning of silver was declining. ^[11]

According to Bedinger (1973, p. 185), after World War II cash replaced credit at the trading post, and with pickup trucks and paved roads many smiths drove to town to sell their work for cash, sometimes bypassing the reservation trader entirely. ^[11]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 109), after World War II the old trading-post system of credit and barter gave way to a cash economy, returning veterans took up jewelry work on contract for wholesalers in Gallup, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and, newly, Scottsdale, and conditions were set for the turquoise boom of the 1970s. ^[16]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 106), when the Harvey Indian Department asked for lighter jewelry, traders contracted with Native artists, supplying the silver and stone while the artists supplied the labor, and Nevada miners traveled to Gallup, Albuquerque and Santa Fe to sell rough and cut stone directly to the traders and wholesalers. ^[16]

Bedinger (1973, p. 176) reported that Adair found five Cochiti silversmiths working for a Santa Fe firm, bringing their work in periodically, and that their jewelry was designed after Navajo work. ^[11]

Bedinger (1973) described the bead makers' place in the region's trade:

“Long before the Navajos started to work silver, the Santo Domingos were well established as the chief source of the lovely shell and turquoise necklaces worn and prized by Navajos and Pueblos alike.”

Bedinger (1973), p. 171 AS OF 1973 ^[11]

According to Bedinger (1973, p. 171), Santo Domingo (Kewa) traders were the Southwest's greatest native 'retail distributors.' They traveled among the Navajo (Diné) bartering beads for rugs, livestock and silver, kept the best ornaments, and traded the rest in other pueblos or sold them to dealers in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. ^[11]

As of the late 1980s, Turnbaugh (2007) described the Santo Domingo (Kewa) bead trade:

“Santo Domingos themselves peddle these beads widely, often bartering them for Navajo rugs, livestock, and silver, or selling them to merchants in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, or Gallup.”

Turnbaugh (2007), p. 68 AS OF 2007 ^[13]

According to Turnbaugh (2007, p. 67), the Rio Grande pueblos had generally bartered with Navajo (Diné) or Santo Domingo (Kewa) peddlers for the silver jewelry they wanted, and most pueblo smiths practiced silversmithing as a second job or hobby. ^[13]

According to Frank (1990, p. 172, Fig. 213), turquoise used as earbobs came locally from the Pueblos and was often traded to the Navajo in exchange for Navajo silverwork. ^[12]

Joseph Stacey, writing in 1975, on trading at Zuni:

“At Zuni no signs advertise the whereabouts of the artists. The signs you'll see will identify those professional traders who pay the Zuni Tribe $1,000.00 per year, each, for the privilege of doing business on the reservation.”

Stacey (1975), p. 87 AS OF 1975 ^[17]

Stacey (1975) on the number:

“There are reported to be more than 80 permit holders for 1974.”

Stacey (1975), p. 87 AS OF 1975 ^[17]

According to Bedinger (1973, p. 218), drawing on John Adair's study, stores at Fort Apache and White River sold Navajo silver obtained from Gallup dealers, about four hundred dollars' worth a year, and almost every Apache woman owned at least one Navajo bracelet. ^[11]

According to Bedinger (1973, p. 219), in November 1937 the Zuni smith Okweene took silver on a family visit to the White Mountain Apache reservation and sold rings and bracelets for three times what the traders at his pueblo would have paid him. ^[11]

Bedinger (1973) described the Hopi mesas as a crossroads of trade:

“The Hopi villages, in fact, served as intertribal marketplaces to which the Navajos brought sheep, wool, rugs, and silver, and the Pueblos of the Rio Grande brought turquoise.”

Bedinger (1973), p. 159 AS OF 1973 ^[11]

According to Bedinger (1973, p. 159), most Hopi trading posts were small stores run by other Hopis. They could not stake smiths with costly silver and turquoise the way white traders at Zuni and among the Navajo (Diné) had done from early on, which helped keep Hopi silversmithing small. ^[11]

According to Adair (1944, p. 178), most Hopi posts of his day were small stores run by Hopi people themselves, never in a position to build up a large silver trade. ^[19]

Comparing Zuni with the Hopi villages about 1940, Adair (1944) wrote:

“At Zuñi the traders have encouraged the silversmiths and have bought their jewelry, but the Hopi smiths have never had this economic backing.”

Adair (1944), p. 178 AS OF 1944 ^[19]

According to Wright (2003, p. 24), one reason Hopi silversmithing lagged behind Zuni was that the traders gave no economic help: at Zuni, following Adair, traders supplied silver and tools on credit and bought the finished jewelry, while at the Hopi villages non-Indian traders did nothing to encourage silvermaking and Hopi storekeepers lacked the money to supply materials on credit. ^[14]

According to Wright (2003, p. 15), Ralph Tawangyaouma worked for many years as a full-time silversmith in Phoenix at Vaughn's and at Fred Wilson's Trading Post, and in Tucson, while the Oraibi silversmith Bert Fredericks kept a small shop in Flagstaff for some years, specializing in squash blossom necklaces and concha belts. ^[14]

Wright (2003) on the shops where one early Moenkopi smith worked:

“From before 1924 Grant Jenkins worked at shops in Phoenix, including Graves Indian Store, Skiles, and Vaughn's. Later he was employed by Browns Jewelers in Flagstaff.”

Wright (2003), p. 18 AS OF 2003 ^[14]

According to Wright (2003, p. 20), Randall Honwisioma of Mishongnovi first worked with Grant Jenkins at Graves Indian Store in Phoenix, moved to Williams, Arizona, in 1937 and was employed by Vaughn's Indian Store there until 1962. ^[14]

According to Wright (2003, p. 21), Allen Nuvahoioma of Hotevilla worked for many years in Tucson for the McDaniels at the Santa Rita Indian Shop, and Lewis Lomay worked in Frank Patania's silver shop in Santa Fe after leaving school during the Depression. ^[14]

According to Wright (2003, p. 127), John Adair's 1938 list of working Hopi silversmiths counted five working outside the reservation: Ralph Tawagioma of Hotevilla in Phoenix, Bert Frederick of Oraibi in Flagstaff, Pierce Kewaytewa of Oraibi at Zia Pueblo, and Homer Vance of Shipaulovi and Randall Honowisioma of Mishongnovi at Williams. ^[14]

According to Wright (2003, p. 76), Robert Setalla of Walpi, who learned from Randall Honwisioma in Phoenix, made a large amount of jewelry as a wholesale supplier to retail stores. ^[14]

According to Wright (2003, p. 77), Frieda Santiago of Kykotsmovi, who learned techniques from Willie Coin, worked with Sylvester Santiago, a Zuni man, and together they furnished Zuni-style jewelry for various Indian craft stores until about 1964. ^[14]

According to Wright (2003, p. 77), Allen Pooyama did commercial silverwork in Tucson for many years before moving to Holbrook in 1970, and Eddie Scott, Sr. did commercial work in Flagstaff for Doc Williams' Saddlery Shop. ^[14]

According to Bedinger (1973, pp. 120-121), the Indian Arts and Crafts Board organized the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild in September 1941 with the Wingate Guild as its nucleus. It set up at Pine Springs, Arizona, a cooperative trading post owned by Navajos, added centers at Window Rock-Fort Defiance, Toadlena and Shiprock the next year, aimed its work at quality stores rather than the tourist market, and emphasized cast work. ^[11]

According to Bedinger (1973, p. 121), when the federal government withdrew during World War II the Navajo Tribal Council carried the guild on, and by the mid-1950s it was operating at a profit as a tribal enterprise. ^[11]

According to Bedinger (1973, p. 200), as of 1973 the Navajo Guild worked from a building near Window Rock, ran retail stores in several reservation centers, and employed a traveling salesman and a number of craftsmen, while the United Indian Traders Association did little craft promotion and its licensed mark was rarely if ever used. ^[11]

An editor's note in Woodward (1946, p. 49) reported that in 1946 the United Indian Traders Association announced a code of standards for handmade silver and was preparing to license members to use a stamp bearing the letters UITA, an arrow point and a member number. ^[21]

For collectors reading marks, Bedinger (1973) recorded the traders' own quality stamp:

“They licensed the use of a stamp to their members bearing the letters UITA and an arrow point, with a number to identify the member.”

Bedinger (1973), p. 121 AS OF 1973 ^[11]

According to Bedinger (1973, p. 121), the United Indian Traders Association was organized in 1946; once the craft was no longer threatened it stopped this licensing, and as of 1973 she reported the UITA mark was rarely seen. ^[11]

According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 170), gem dealers and Indian art traders formed the International Turquoise Association in October 1975 to counter what they saw as buying hysteria, and it published The International Turquoise Annual in 1976 and 1977. ^[16]

Turnbaugh (2007, p. 31, caption) described Hubbell Trading Post at Ganado, Arizona, as the oldest operating trading post on the Navajo (Diné) Reservation. It began in the 1870s, and as of the late 1980s it was a national historic site that still worked as a traditional post with a grocery store and pawn counter. ^[13]

Stacey (1975) on Hubbell at Ganado:

“April, 1967 the Hubbell Trading Post at Ganado became a National Historic Site. The National Park Service operates it as a trading post to the Navajos instead of an impersonal museum.”

Stacey (1975), p. 25 AS OF 1975 ^[17]

The 1975 Turquoise Blue Book on the McGee family posts:

“When founder Bill McGee decided to live in Scottsdale, younger brother Clifford F. McGee assumed ownership of the three reservation trading posts at Keams Canyon, Polacca and Pinon.”

Stacey (1975), p. 14 AS OF 1975 ^[17]

As of 2000, Baxter (2000) reported:

“By the late 1990s, only a small number of trading posts were still in operation.”

Baxter (2000), p. 180 AS OF 2000 ^[20]