Nakai Tsosi — Silversmith Hallmark
Southwestern · documented in the T.Skies hallmark library
Nakai Tsosi (Navajo: "Thin Mexican") is documented in John Adair's The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths (1944) as a Mexican smith who lived near Mt. Taylor and who is credited with teaching iron- and silverworking to Atsidi Sani — the man considered the founding figure of Navajo silversmithing. This account is derived from oral testimony recorded by Adair.
According to the account Adair records: Atsidi Sani traveled to the region near Mt. Taylor to watch Nakai Tsosi at work, learning to make bridles and later ironwork. Nakai Tsosi also knew how to work silver, though Atsidi Sani did not learn silversmithing from him until some years later. The two became good friends; Nakai Tsosi taught Atsidi Sani without charge. Their relationship was one of mutual visiting — Atsidi Sani would stay with the Mexican smith, and the Mexican smith would come and stay with Atsidi Sani at his hogan near Crystal.
Known through our reference books only. Nakai Tsosi does not appear as an independent hallmark entry in Hougart. This page records him as a historical context figure — known solely through Adair's account of the origins of Navajo silversmithing, as a teacher and early cross-cultural contact.
No hallmark, birth year, death year, or further biographical detail is available in the source record for Nakai Tsosi beyond what Adair preserves in oral testimony.
The mark
No hallmark documented. Nakai Tsosi is a historical Mexican metalsmith recorded in oral testimony; he predates the Navajo hallmark tradition and no personal stamp is attributed to him.
References
- Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. University of Oklahoma Press, 1944. (account of Nakai Tsosi and his role as teacher to Atsidi Sani).
- 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.
- Frank, Larry, with the assistance of Millard J. Holbrook II. Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest, 1868-1930. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1990. First published 1978 by New York Graphic Society. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1990.
- 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.
Know more about this figure? Contact T.Skies. See also: Atsidi Sani (the smith Nakai Tsosi taught).
From the Library: Bedinger, Indian Silver (1973)
1973 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1973, not today.
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 6), in about 1850 Atsidi Sani journeyed to a Mexican settlement near Mount Taylor (Vallencitas, according to one source) and persuaded Nakai Tsosi to teach him ironworking; the two became friends, and Nakai Tsosi sometimes visited his hogan near Crystal, New Mexico. [1]
Bedinger (1973, p. 13) notes, from Grey Moustache's testimony to Adair, that Nakai Tsosi was a silversmith as well as a blacksmith. [1]
From the Library: Frank, Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest (1990)
1990 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1990, not today.
According to Frank (1990, p. 19), Grey Moustache told John Adair in 1938 that his teacher Atsidi Sani was the first Navajo to learn silversmithing and that Atsidi Sani's teacher was Nakai Tsosi, a Mexican blacksmith. [2]
Holbrook, writing in Frank (1990), drew a firm line between the teacher and the craft:
“Although Nakai Tsosi taught Atsidi Sani both ironworking and the techniques applicable to silversmithing, neither Nakai Tsosi nor any other blacksmith made jewelry.”
— Frank (1990), p. 19 [2]
From the Library: Adair, The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths (1944)
1944 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1944, not today.
Grey Moustache, who learned silverwork from Atsidi Sani, told Adair (1944) where the ironwork came from:
“He learned how to do this from a Mexican by the name of Nakai Tsosi [Thin Mexican] who lived down near Mt. Taylor.”
— Adair (1944), p. 4 [3]
On silver, Grey Moustache's words to Adair (1944) were:
“Nakai Tsosi also knew how to work silver, but Atsidi Sani didn't learn to do that until some years later.”
— Adair (1944), p. 4 [3]
And on the terms of the teaching, as Adair (1944) recorded them:
“This smith didn't charge him anything for teaching him how to work iron.”
— Adair (1944), p. 4 [3]
Chee Dodge, who knew Atsidi Sani, gave Adair (1944) the same southern origin without naming the teacher:
“He used to go down to the south where there were Mexicans living, and it was there that he learned it from a Mexican blacksmith.”
— Adair (1944), p. 5 [3]
Field Notes by Mateo James
Field Notes by Mateo James: Bedinger, reading the same Grey Moustache testimony, calls Nakai Tsosi a silversmith as well as a blacksmith, while Holbrook says he taught techniques applicable to silver but made no jewelry himself. Both rest on Adair's record, so I note the difference and leave it open.
This profile is maintained in support of silversmiths and compiled from published references. See something inaccurate, or want to add to it? Contact us.
Name card shown; hallmark photo to come.
This page says Atsidi Sani learned silversmithing from Nakai Tsosi some years after the ironwork. In the testimony Adair printed, Grey Moustache says only that Nakai Tsosi also knew silver and that Atsidi Sani learned it some years later; it does not say from whom. I show his exact words beside the page's wording.