Atsidi Sani — Credited as the First Navajo Silversmith
Diné (Navajo) · c. 1820s – c. 1918 · Credited as the first Navajo silversmith
Atsidi Sani, “Old Smith,” whom the Mexicans called Herrero, was, in the Turnbaughs' words, the first Navajo to learn iron working, from a Mexican smith near Mount Taylor in about 1850. The books disagree on when he first worked silver: Adair put it anywhere from 1850 to 1870 and favored 1868. No hallmark exists for him, and any piece stamped with his name is a later invention.
KEY POINTS
- Atsidi Sani means Old Smith; to the Mexicans he was Herrero Delgadito, Little Slim Ironworker.
- He learned ironworking from a Mexican smith near Mount Taylor in about 1850.
- Woodward dates his first silverwork to 1853–1858; Adair favored 1868.
- He taught his four sons, and Grey Moustache learned from him around 1878.
- He has no hallmark. A piece stamped “Atsidi Sani” is a later invention.
Before hallmarks
Atsidi Sani worked a full generation before any Navajo smith thought to stamp his name into metal. There is no mark. Hougart's hallmark reference — the definitive index — has no entry for Atsidi Sani, Herrero, or Old Smith, and no source documents a single surviving piece attributed to his hand. Attribution, where anyone attempts it, rests entirely on oral history and provenance paper — never on a stamp.
Collector's caution — read before you buy. If a piece is stamped "Atsidi Sani," that stamp is a later invention, full stop. The man predates the hallmarking era entirely. Walk away from the mark; if the provenance story is extraordinary, demand extraordinary documentation.
The grandfather of all Navajo smiths
Rosnek and Stacey put it best: if Atsidi Sani had not existed, it would be necessary to invent him — "he is to the Navajos as Odysseus was to Homer." Part verifiable history, part founding legend.
The verifiable part starts with iron, not silver. His Navajo name means "Old Smith," but the Mexicans called him Herrero — and Spanish is precise here: a herrero works iron; a silversmith is a platero. The name records what he actually did all day. Around 1850, seeing that the Navajo bought every bridle they owned from Mexican traders, he traveled south toward Mount Taylor and watched a Mexican smith named Nakai Tsosi — "Thin Mexican" — at the forge. Jacka (1995, p. 14) also quotes Bedinger that "In about 1850 [Atsidi Sani] journeyed south to a Mexican settlement near Mount Taylor". [3] The motive was frankly economic: there was money in bridles. He made bits with jingles hanging from the bottom, knife blades, and small chains, trading some to the Utes for buffalo hides. By 1858 he was prominent enough that the U.S. government "elected" him head chief of the Navajos in the Fort Defiance area, under the name Herrero. He was also a medicine man and a singer who knew the Mountain Chant and the Shooting Chant. Grey Moustache, who knew him, said it plainly: "He never made very much silver, but spent most of his time making iron bits."
The date everyone argues about
So when did the first Navajo silver happen? This is the central controversy of the entire craft's history, and the sources genuinely disagree — four ways.
Before Fort Sumner. Woodward concluded Atsidi Sani picked up silversmithing between 1853 and 1858, after watching the agency forges at Washington Pass. Newspaper accounts from 1863–64 describe Navajos making "silver buttons of their own execution and design," and Major Wallen, commanding Fort Sumner in April 1864, wrote that "some of them are quite clever as silversmiths."
After the return, post-1868. The Navajo oral record — Grey Moustache, Chee Dodge, and at least three other informants interviewed by Adair — insists silver came only after the people returned from Fort Sumner. Chee Dodge was blunt: "The Navajo were locked up there just like sheep in a corral." Adair, weighing it all, favored 1868.
At Fort Sumner itself. A third version has Navajos learning from the post blacksmith or Mexican plateros around the fort. Grey Moustache categorically denied it.
Somewhere in the window. Rosnek and Stacey declined to pick, concluding he learned "sometime between 1853 and 1870."
Bedinger's resolution is the elegant one: it depends what you mean by "making silver." If you mean professionally — spending real time at it — the date is 1869, after the Exile. If you mean the first groping efforts, agree with Woodward and say 1853. Both can be true of the same man. Who taught him the silver itself is equally unsettled — Nakai Tsosi knew silverwork, the Franciscan Fathers name a Mexican called Cassilio — and we won't pretend to know.
The lineage
He taught his four sons — Big Black, Red Smith, Little Smith, Burnt Whiskers — and Red Smith became prolific in his own right. Jacka (1995, p. 16) also writes that "his first students were his four sons who, in turn, taught others." [3] Grey Moustache learned from him around 1878, at fourteen; nine students in all are named in the record. By 1890 he was a paid teacher of the craft at Crystal, New Mexico. His brothers were smiths too — among them Slender Maker of Silver, one of the most celebrated first-generation smiths (though whether Atsidi Sani or another brother taught him is one more honest maybe). From that family cluster at Crystal descend the Peshlakai brothers — Andrew, John, Henry, and Fred Peshlakai — carrying the line forward under a family name that is simply the Navajo word for silver.
He went blind in old age; Chee Dodge used to lead him around by a cane. He died around 1918, past ninety — the Old Smith outliving the era he started.
Field Notes by Mateo James
The Turnbaughs agree with the c. 1850 date for Atsidi Sani's ironwork, but they only say silver came 'later in the century'. That leaves the 1853 versus 1868 question open, so I note their date as support for the ironwork, not as a vote on the silver.
The Turnbaughs add two more names to the list of Atsidi Sani's possible teachers: the Mexican platero Juan Anea and the blacksmith George Carter at Washington Pass. Bedinger places both men at the agency there in 1853, so this is a third teaching story beside Nakai Tsosi and Cassilio, not a replacement for them. I have left all of them standing.
This page, following Turnbaugh and Bedinger, names Juan Anea as the Mexican platero at Washington Pass. In Captain Dodge's 1853 letter as Woodward printed it, the name Juan Anea comes after 'an assistant' and before 'my interpreter', and Woodward calls the silversmith unnamed. I show the letter's own wording.
Adair holds two positions in one book. On p. 6 he writes that the origin of silversmithing "can not be accurately dated," and gives a window from 1850 to 1870. In his table of dates on p. 193 he names a year anyway: "the author favors the year 1868." Both are his, and I show both. [5]
The page cites newspaper accounts of Navajo silver buttons from 1863–64 as evidence for silver before Fort Sumner. Jacka (1995, p. 16) finds that account "doubtful," given the state of Navajo life in exile, and thinks silver came after the return. Woodward (1946, p. 74), answering Peshlakai Atsidi's account, wrote that Navajo smiths were already making some silver in 1863–1864. [3] [6]
Three books have him teaching at Bosque Redondo, and all three are about iron. Bedinger (1973, p. 9) has him telling a visiting congressional committee he had already taught some young men. Woodward (1946, p. 19) prints his June 27, 1865 statement: "is a blacksmith, and from him some of the young men have learned." Turnbaugh (2007, p. 43) has him among the blacksmiths running two forges there. Bedinger's and Woodward's may be one testimony told twice; the books don't say. [1] [6] [2]
From the Library
What 7 reference books say about Atsidi Sani, grouped by topic. Every passage names its book and page; full references are under Sources.
These are statements recorded by outside writers, and Navajo elders' recollections as Richard Van Valkenburgh and Mary Russell F. Colton wrote them down; the Diné are the authority on their own history.
Old Smith, Herrero, Knife Maker7 passages · 3 books
His names, where he lived, his family, and the treaty he signed.
Bedinger (1973) gives both of his working names:
“The Navajo became known to his tribe as Atsidi Sani (Old Smith), while to the Mexicans he was Herrero Delgadito (Little Slim Ironworker).”
Bedinger (1973), p. 6 AS OF 1973 [1]
Bedinger (1973, p. 8) adds that the early smith Tilden said Atsidi Sani was known as Knife Maker before he acquired his other names, and that he also made small chains and plain conchas. [1]
Sam Tilden, born 1869, told Van Valkenburgh, as printed in Woodward (1946):
“Herrero, first called Besh-ilth-ee-ni (Knife Maker), then Atsidi Sani (Old Smith), made things in iron.”
Woodward (1946), p. 66 AS OF 1946 [6]
He placed him, Woodward (1946):
“He lived near Nazlini and Fluted Rock and made bits, small chains, and plain conchas.”
Woodward (1946), p. 66 AS OF 1946 [6]
And on the treaty, Woodward (1946):
“Herrero was the sixth man to sign the Treaty of 1868 at Hwelte.”
Woodward (1946), p. 66 AS OF 1946 [6]
Schaaf (2003, p. 278) recorded Atsidi Sani as living from about 1828 to 1918 near Washington Pass and Crystal, a brother of Slender Maker of Silver and Slender Old Silversmith, an uncle of Fred and Frank Peshlakai, and a student of Nakai Tsosi from Mount Taylor. [7]
Schaaf (2003, p. 239) named Atsidi Sani as the teacher of Long Mustache. [7]
Iron first, about 18506 passages · 5 books
The ironwork the books agree on, and the smiths at Washington Pass in 1853.
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 6), the Indian Service researcher Richard Van Valkenburgh called Atsidi Sani the most important Navajo iron smith of 1850-1865, whose output was limited to knife blades, bits and bridle parts, and who at that time worked only in iron. [1]
The Turnbaughs, in Turnbaugh (2007, p. 19), give the same starting point for his ironwork:
“The first Navajo to learn iron working was Atsidi Sani, who persuaded a Mexican smith working near Mount Taylor to teach him the skill in about 1850.”
Turnbaugh (2007), p. 19 AS OF 2007 [2]
Schaaf (2003) wrote:
“Atsidi Sani is credited as being the first Navajo blacksmith and the first to make “iron” jewelry.”
Schaaf (2003), p. 278 AS OF 2003 [7]
Chee Dodge gave Adair (1944) one detail of Atsidi Sani at his forge:
“Chee Dodge said that Atsidi Sani used to fan his fire with turkey feathers.”
Adair (1944), p. 16 AS OF 1944 [5]
According to Turnbaugh (2007, p. 43), in the early 1850s the Navajo (Diné) smith who came to be known as Atsidi Sani first learned ironworking, then the rudiments of working silver from a Mexican platero named Juan Anea and an American blacksmith, George Carter, who worked a forge near Washington Pass in the Chuska Mountains. [2]
On who came with the first smiths in 1853, Captain Henry L. Dodge's own letter of November 16, 1853, as Woodward (1946) printed it, reads:
“I have with me George Carter who is their blacksmith, a man of sterling worth and every inch a soldier—a Mexican silversmith, an assistant, Juan Anea, my interpreter, and two Mexican servants.”
Woodward (1946), p. 15 AS OF 1946 [6]
Bosque Redondo6 passages · 4 books
Teaching at the forges, a leader's standing, and the forged ration tickets.
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 9), at the Bosque Redondo Atsidi Sani, one of the recognized leaders, told a visiting congressional committee that he had already taught some of the young men, and that with tools they could quickly learn to make horse and mule shoes, hoes and hatchets. [1]
On the years of confinement at Bosque Redondo, Turnbaugh (2007) recorded:
“During the years of confinement at Bosque Redondo, Navajo men were given tools for blacksmithing. Atsidi Sani was among several Navajo blacksmiths who ran two forges on the reservation and helped teach the craft to other Navajos.”
Turnbaugh (2007), p. 43 AS OF 2007 [2]
At Bosque Redondo on June 27, 1865, Herrero spoke through the interpreter Epifano Vigil; Woodward (1946) printed the record:
“Don't know whether the young men could repair the ploughs or not; is a blacksmith, and from him some of the young men have learned.”
Woodward (1946), p. 19 AS OF 1946 [6]
Woodward (1946) summed up the man's standing by 1863:
“Herrero, in 1863, is accepted by white men and Indians alike as a full fledged leader of his people and a recognized artisan in metals.”
Woodward (1946), p. 18 AS OF 1946 [6]
Lois Essary Jacka, writing in 1995, on the ration tickets the Navajos forged at Bosque Redondo:
“A few Navajos had learned to work metal prior to their arrival at Bosque Redondo and others apparently learned while there. These men were undoubtedly responsible for at least some of the forgeries.”
Jacka (1995), p. 10 AS OF 1995 [3]
Jacka (1995) quoted the anthropologist Ruth Underhill on what the forgeries might mean:
“In The Navajo, Ruth Underhill suggests, "When we look for the origin of silverwork, perhaps this craft [the forgeries], developed under stress of hunger, may point to an early inspiration."”
Jacka (1995), p. 10 AS OF 1995 [3]
When the silver began11 passages · 5 books
The dating dispute, book by book, and the informant who said he worked only in iron.
Writing in 1944, Adair (1944) declined to fix a single year for Atsidi Sani's first silver:
“Because of the conflicting evidence, the origin of silversmithing can not be accurately dated, nor is it likely that it will be in the future.”
Adair (1944), p. 6 AS OF 1944 [5]
On the same page, Adair (1944) gave the window as a range:
“All that we can say is that the art may have been taken over from the Mexicans as early as 1850 or as late as 1870.”
Adair (1944), p. 6 AS OF 1944 [5]
In the table of important dates at the back of his 1944 book, Adair (1944) put a year to his 1850–1870 range:
“Navajo learned to work silver at some time during these two decades (the author favors the year 1868).”
Adair (1944), p. 193 AS OF 1944 [5]
According to Adair (1944, p. 6), his Navajo informants said Atsidi Sani did not learn silverwork until after the return from Fort Sumner, while Arthur Woodward had evidence that he learned it before Fort Sumner; Adair worked the ironwork back to about 1850-1853 from the accounts of Grey Moustache and Chee Dodge. [5]
Writing in 1938, Woodward (1946) named him and dated his training:
“the man who is indicated as being the first silversmith, known to the Navajo as Atsidi Sani (the Old Smith) … acquired his knowledge of silversmithing between 1853 and 1858”
Woodward (1946), p. 16 AS OF 1946 [6]
According to Turnbaugh (2007, p. 19), Native silversmithing did not begin until later in the century; the book does not choose between the 1853 and 1868 dates debated on this page. [2]
Lois Essary Jacka, writing in 1995, on the newspaper claims of Navajo silverwork at Fort Sumner:
“Furthermore, this entire account seems doubtful considering the deplorable state of Navajo life during exile.”
Jacka (1995), p. 16 AS OF 1995 [3]
Her conclusion, in 1995:
“It seems much more probable that the Navajos learned to work silver soon after they resettled in their homeland.”
Jacka (1995), p. 16 AS OF 1995 [3]
Peshlakai Atsidi knew Atsidi Sani and, in his 1937 statement as Woodward (1946) printed it, disputed that he worked silver:
“he said several times very firmly that this man worked only in iron, making Spanish bridles, etc.”
Woodward (1946), p. 73 AS OF 1946 [6]
Schaaf (2003), reporting Peshlakai Atsidi's account, wrote:
“Atsidi Sani, who often is given the credit, may have been the first to make “iron” jewelry, but not silver.”
Schaaf (2003), p. 239 AS OF 2003 [7]
Woodward (1946, p. 74) answered that other informants had credited the same smith with working silver, that Navajo smiths were already making some silver in 1863-1864, and that Peshlakai's chronology seemed confused. [6]
Why the Navajo came late to silver2 passages · 1 book
Welch, citing Adair, on war and tools.
Welch (1973, p. 29), citing John Adair, wrote that the Navajo learned silverwork from Mexican plateros at the southeastern edge of the reservation and had not learned it earlier because they were constantly at war with the Mexicans; she added that the Navajo also lacked the tools, since silverwork needs a hammer, an anvil and files. [4]
Welch (1973) put the second reason plainly:
“The Navajo did not begin the work earlier because he lacked the tools. To work in silver one must have a hammer, an anvil and files and these he did not have.”
Welch (1973), p. 29 AS OF 1973 [4]
Frequently asked questions
Was Atsidi Sani the first Navajo silversmith?
Woodward (1946) called him "the man who is indicated as being the first silversmith." The Turnbaughs call him the first Navajo to learn iron working, which he learned from a Mexican smith near Mount Taylor in about 1850. The books disagree on when, or whether, he went on to work silver. [6] [2]
When did Atsidi Sani start working silver?
The books disagree. Woodward dates it to 1853–1858. Adair wrote that it cannot be accurately dated, gave a window from 1850 to 1870, and favored 1868. Jacka thinks it came soon after the return from Fort Sumner. [6] [5] [3]
Is there an Atsidi Sani hallmark?
No. He worked before Navajo smiths marked their work, Hougart's hallmark reference has no entry for him, and any piece stamped with his name is a later invention.
Did Atsidi Sani work only in iron?
Peshlakai Atsidi said firmly that he worked only in iron. Schaaf (2003) reports the same account. [7] Woodward answered that other informants credited him with silver, and Grey Moustache said he never made very much silver. [6]
Who did Atsidi Sani teach?
His four sons, Big Black, Red Smith, Little Smith and Burnt Whiskers, and Grey Moustache, around 1878. By 1890 he was a paid teacher of the craft at Crystal, New Mexico.
This profile is maintained in support of Native American silversmiths and compiled from published references. See something inaccurate, or want to add to it? Contact us.
Sources
- Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1973.
- Turnbaugh, William A., and Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh. Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest. Foreword by Barry M. Goldwater. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2007 (copyright 1996 and 2007; first published 1988). ISBN 0-7643-2577-9. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2007.
- Jacka, Lois Essary. Navajo Jewelry: A Legacy of Silver and Stone. Photographs by Jerry Jacka. Flagstaff: Northland Publishing, 1995. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1995.
- Welch, Frankie. Indian Jewelry: How To Wear, Buy and Treasure America's First Fashion Pieces. McLean, VA: EPM Publications, Inc., 1973. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1973.
- Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. The Civilization of the American Indian Series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1944.
- Woodward, Arthur. A Brief History of Navajo Silversmithing. With field notes by Richard Van Valkenburgh. Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 14, 2d ed. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art, December 1946 (first edition 1938). Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1946.
- Schaaf, Gregory, with Angie Yan Schaaf. American Indian Jewelry I: 1,200 Artist Biographies, ca. 1800-present. American Indian Art Series, Vol. 5. Santa Fe: CIAC Press, 2003. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2003.
- Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths (1944), pp. 3–6, 93, 104.
- Rosnek, Carl & Stacey, Joseph. Skystone and Silver: The Collector's Book of Southwest Indian Jewelry (1976).
- Frank, Larry. Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest, 1868–1930.
- Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. (2022) — consulted; no entry exists, as expected for a pre-hallmark smith.
Name-card placeholder — no authentic hallmark existed to recreate. © Turquoise Skies Inc.