The Squash Blossom Necklace & the Naja

No form says “Southwest silver” louder than the squash blossom necklace: a strand of hollow silver beads, flanked by flowering side-beads, carrying a crescent pendant — the naja — at its center. Its pieces each have their own documented story.

The Naja — the Crescent at the Center

The naja is documented as a Navajo form^[1], and period examples preserve the construction range of the classic era: sandcast najas, stamped decoration, soldered assembly, and bezel-set stones on examples circa 1920^[2]. Institutional collections — the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology — document the squash blossom necklace as a Navajo form with the naja as its centerpiece^[3].

The Blossoms

The flowering side-beads give the necklace its name. Short squash blossoms are documented by the early 1880s^[4], and the form spread across the Southwest: Pueblo silversmiths are recorded working the squash blossom^[5], and Zuni makers set turquoise into their blossoms^[6] — a signature that distinguishes many Zuni necklaces from plainer early Navajo silver.

Reading a Squash Blossom Necklace

Collectors look at three things: the beads (hand-made hollow beads show a seam and slight variation; machine beads are perfectly uniform), the naja’s construction (cast in one piece, or fabricated and soldered^[2]), and the stones. Our turquoise guide covers the stones; the hallmark index helps with the maker.

Sources

1. Navajo Silver: A Brief History of Navajo Silversmithing, p. 45
2. Frank & Holbrook, Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest, 1868–1930, pp. 47–48
3. Smithsonian American Art Museum; Maxwell Museum of Anthropology (UNM) — institutional collection records
4. Arizona Highways (1954 Southwest Indian jewelry issue), p. 31
5. Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry, p. 192
6. Arizona Highways (1954), p. 31

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