Jewelry and other similar adornments are intrinsic to Native American culture from the Northeast to the Southwest. The distinctive designs and crafting techniques we see in Native American jewelry today are influenced by history, culture, and legends that have been passed down over thousands of years.
KEY INSIGHTS
· Renowned in the Americas and across the world, Native American jewelry is distinctive in design and craftsmanship and has evolved over thousands of years.
· The earliest Americans adorned themselves with items made from whatever materials were available: stones, shells, coral, bones, porcupine quills, feathers, and more. Over time, they developed techniques to also use copper, animal teeth and claws, wood, pearls, semi-precious stones, and silver.
· Today, the most famed Native American jewelry arguably comes from the Southwest, and it is characterized by expert silversmithing techniques, intricate engraving, turquoise, and the inclusion of other stones such as jet, coral, and shell. Indian Traders offers a vast online catalog of authentic Native American bracelets, necklaces, and more made by talented Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni artisans.
The Earliest American Jewelry…
People have worn and traded body adornments in the Americas for at least 12,000 years, long before the Anasazi, the Mayan Empire, and the Incan Empire.
The Paleo-Indians, who descended from Ancient Asian populations, were the first people to migrate to the American continent via the Beringia land bridge (which connected modern-day Siberia and Alaska during the last Ice Age) between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago. These earliest Americans created wearable art adornments from whichever natural materials were available to them. Depending on the location and available resources, these included stones, bones, teeth, claws, feathers, antlers, porcupine quills, seed pods, coral, and shells. For example, stones, shells, and coral were carved or chipped by coastal tribes to make beads that were then made into necklaces or sewn onto clothing. Animal and fish bones were carved and assembled to make pendants. Sinew and plant fibers were used for sewing and as a base onto which beads and pendants were strung.
Over time, jewelry-making developed and became more complex, and materials such as abalone shell, pearls, animal claws and teeth, wood, semi-precious stones (especially turquoise), copper, and eventually silver came to be used.
For example:
· Stone: Very early Americans wore stone ear spools. These were carved, cylindrical or pulley-shaped, and made from limestone, sandstone, flint clay, and other materials. Some were overlaid or otherwise fitted with hammered pearl, shell, or copper foil. They were worn in stretched earlobes, particularly by tribes in the Mississippi region and the Southeast. Wearing them signified wealth, status, and a high rank within a tribe.
· Beadwork: Beads were used for jewelry as well as sewn onto clothing and regalia to display status and wealth, and were traditionally strung or sewn using animal tendons or plant fibers. Eastern Woodland tribes used small cylindrical beads known as wampum as currency. The Iroquois (Northeast) were extremely skilled at beadwork, as were Plains Indians such as the Lakota, Dakota, Chippewa, and Blackfoot. The first European traders to arrive on the continent in the 1500s introduced glass beads, which were soon widely incorporated. Coastal tribes also ground conch, oyster, and clam shells to make their own beads.
· Copper: The Cherokee traditionally lived in villages near the Copper Basin of the Southeast; access to copper mines made this metal popular with this tribe for making arrow points, tools, cooking utensils, and decorative trade goods, including jewelry.
· Bone, Teeth, and Claws: Animal bones, teeth, and claws (e.g. bear claw) were used to make adornments, especially by the Sioux tribes.
· Shell: Coastal tribes like those of the Pacific Northwest (Tlingit, Haida, Salish), the Northeast (Narragansett, Abenaki, Iroquois), and the Calusa (Southwest Florida) used a lot of shell for adornment. The Calusa were known as the “Shell Indians”.
How Did Early Native Americans Use Jewelry?
Traditionally, these people lived nomadic lives and everything they owned needed to be easily portable. This included their wealth; the jewelry they owned and wore reflected their social class and rank within their tribes. It was much more than simple adornment.
Jewelry was a way people outwardly honored their tribal history and culture and showcased their position and sense of individuality. It was also a channel for handing traditions down through generations.
One of the most important ways jewelry functioned for the first Americans was for trade. Materials, designs, and styles varied widely between different tribes and nations, and this made it a valuable and highly prized commodity alongside raw materials such as animal skins and fur pelts (e.g. deerskin and buffalo hides), salt, corn, shells, coral, pearls, obsidian (“Apache Tear”), turquoise, and copper, and products like eulachon (fish) oil, woven goods (e.g. baskets), and ceramics.
After European contact, trade expanded and Native economies integrated into markets with Spanish, Dutch, English and French settlers. Native Americans traded jewelry and other handicrafts alongside deerskins, beaver pelts, dried foods, and labor for what the Europeans could provide: metal goods (axes, fishhooks, knives, kettles), guns and ammunition, glass beads, silver, and woven cloth, including blankets.
Unique Tribal Design and Technology
Tribes shared their creative methods and designs, and some of these were adopted across different groups.
Things changed dramatically when silversmithing was introduced to the Zuni in the 1850s by Spanish settlers. The Spanish taught their techniques and design aesthetics, and these were adopted and adapted into Zuni culture by the 1870s. The Zuni passed their new silversmithing knowledge onto the local Navajo, Hopi, and Apache; each tribe adapted its own techniques and designs based on its own cultural influences and preferences.
Silver and turquoise jewelry was first sold to tourists by the Navajo and Zuni by around 1900.
Native American Jewelry at Indian Traders
Indian Traders has a vast range of stunningly beautiful, authentic Native American jewelry available for purchase online right now. Unless otherwise clearly states, all pieces have been crafted by genuine Native American artisans right here in the Southwest: talented Hopi, Zuni, and Navajo silversmiths whose work is guaranteed to delight and be treasured.