History of Indian Jewelry
Native American jewelry is rich in wisdom and knowledge from ancient times, and is available from all over the world.It captivates many people. Here I write about the beginnings of Indian jewelry and why it became popular. If you are interested in Indian jewelry, please take a look.
The beginning of Indian jewelry
The history of Indian jewelry dates back to at least 10,000 BC. The first indigenous people in America created ornaments using materials such as shells and stones, bones, feathers and antlers. The oldest known Indian jewelry is the approximately 12,000-year-old earrings decorated with four bones (Alaska).
8,000 BC, indigenous people in the Southwest of the United States drilled colorful stones and shells to create pendants.
Beads made of bones, antlers and shells 7,000 years ago from Alabama caves, beads made of shells 6,000 years ago from Nevata, copper gems made of 3,000 years ago from BCE are Superior Beads made from stones 1500 years ago from the lake were discovered in Louisiana, respectively.
Over the years, technology gradually became more advanced, and materials such as animal teeth, claws, turquoise, copper, silver, and pearls began to be used.
What is Indian jewelry for Native Americans?
Indian jewelry, which became a tool for conveying tradition, used it to express class and personality.
Native American wealth was domesticated in livestock, jewelry, fur, and so on, and did not have the concept of money as it is today. Also, wealth had to be portable.
It also played an important role in tribal trade. For Native AmericansJewelry was both an ornament and economical value.
Technological advances
Beads were introduced by Europeans who landed on the North American continent in the 1500s, and they began to incorporate them into their designs. The beads were connected using dietary fiber and animal tendons.
In the 1600s, Spanish invasions and rule began to occur in the southwestern United States. And in the midst of this disaster, they were given metal tools and began to use them.
In the 1850s, Navajo Atsidi Sani (mean Old Smith) learned silversmiths from Mexicans, and first incorporated silver into his jewelry design.
In 1864, the American government controlled the land where the Navajos lived, and the Navajos were forced to relocate (long walk), and were imprisoned for four years by the American government. It is said that at the site he began to spread his knowledge of silversmiths to his friends and create jewelry. After being liberated from the US government in 1868, as the West was established, as contact with whites and Mexicans increased, he continued to improve his silversmithing skills.
The Zuni, who praised the Navajo silversmithing skills, acquire the skills in exchange for livestock. By 1890, the Zuni people had inherited the techniques to the Hopi people. This technique was introduced among tribes and was adopted by various tribes.
Early silversmiths were simple designs that were made from hardened tableware and ingots obtained from European-American merchants and engraved on plain silver, giving them a design, but later used by Mexican leather craftsmen. We have incorporated punches and stamps, and also used railway spurs and iron scraps to improve the design.
It is said that turquoise jewelry began to be used in general from around 1880, and corals began to be used in general from around 1900.
How did Indian jewelry become popular?
From around the 1870s, Native Americans began to take their jewelry, wool products, livestock and other items they created to white-run trading posts (where people trade goods), and livestock. Ta. Again, from interacting with people of other people, they began to melt metal and pour it into molds, and created tools for decoration, creating modern Indian jewelry.
It also said that there were not many jobs in Native American residential areas, and many Native Americans sent their jewelry and craft items to pawn shops when they needed cash income. Since Indian jewelry was not industrialized at the time, it was made for the owner and their families, or for trade between peers and tribes.
The transaction was subject to the owner being able to collect the item for an amount of 10% plus the amount purchased. If the owner did not collect the item after at least six months, the trader was able to sell the item. It seems that 70-85% of the jewelry could be collected by the owner, but for some reason 15-30% of the jewelry was not collected, and because they were called old pawn jewelry and were distributed by traders. It was one reason why it became popular.。
And the main reason for popularization was that the gold rush of the 1900s revitalised the transportation network by trains, which led to more white people using trains, and tourism in the southwestern United States achieved rapid growth. It depends.
Native Americans have begun selling jewelry made from silver and turquoise to tourists. Originally, Indian jewelry was often heavy, but it became lighter and closer to what tourists like, and this became popular because it attracted tourists' interest in different cultures. The birth of tourist jewelry. This is a typical example of this is called Fred Herbie Jewelry or Fred Herbie Style Jewelry.
I visited the World Heritage Site of Taos Pueblo on my journey. The 1,000-year-old Adobe building made from sun-dried bricks is still used as a home.
What is Fred Harvey Style?
Fred Harvey (1835-1901) was an American businessman and founder of the Fred Harvey Company. Born in London, England, he moved to New York, USA at the age of 15, and a few years later he became a US citizen.
I worked in restaurants in New York and gained a variety of experiences there. After that, I moved around and worked for jewelry stores and railway companies.
He then began business, running restaurants along cafes and railways, but each of them went out of business due to the outbreak of the Civil War and the break-up with their business partners.
After many twists and turns, I met the president of the Santa Fe Railway.In 1878, Harvey signed a contract with the Santa Fe Railway to operate a small restaurant along the railway route, and a few years later, he began to operate a dining car on the Santa Fe Railway.
At the time, the food and service of the dining car were poor. As a result, Herbie's style of providing quality service wearing uniforms and providing innovative and instantly popular.
The women who were thoroughly trained and provided high-quality services, Harvey Girls, are also films, showing how popular they were back then. At its peak, Harvey owned 84 restaurants, but passed away in 1901. The Fred Herby Company was left to his sons.
In the 1900s, his facilities also became a market for selling Indian jewelry and Native American crafts to revitalize the tourism industry.
To capture the hearts of tourists, Fred Harvey Company requested Silver Smith to place importance on the lighter and design of its jewelry. These were thus created, and many tourists bought them. Also, from around this time onwards, motifs such as Thunderbirds and Arrows have become more and more frequently used, as they can be seen at a glance as Indian jewelry.
Thus, the Fred Herby Company became the leading figure in popularizing Indian jewelry, which had previously been an ornament within the tribe.
I visited Santa Fe on my journey. Caboose is a conductor-only vehicle connected to the end.
What is a belt rading post?
In 1932, Jack Michelson and his wife founded the Belt Rading Post. He was named BELL after his wife Jack Middleton's maiden name. Jack produced Indian jewelry (tourist jewelry) for travelers passing through Albuquerque, New Mexico, and sold it at various tourist merchants, including Fred Harvey's shops. The majority of the work is Navajo jewelry, but it seems that Native Americans from other tribes such as the Zuni tribe were also involved in the production.
They produced a large number of items all handmade, but there was a time when machines were added along the way.
Unfortunately, it was acquired in 1972 and is not currently present, but it is still well known today, and there are many jewelry collectors from Belt Rading Post, making it extremely popular in the United States.
A Kimo Theater was built in 1927 in Albuquerque, which I visited on my journey. The design combines Art Deco and Pueblo styles.
The appeal of OLD Indian jewelry
In this way, Native Americans have learned a variety of foreign cultures from history and disasters, and have continued to create unique Indian jewelry from long ago to the present by combining them with their unique worldviews and ideas.
This time I bought dozens of items in the United States and bought them carefully to Japan. Indian jewelry is like an amulet and can also be used as a tool to inspire yourself. Please take a look.