Indian Costume Jewelry

History of the American Indian Costume Jewelry
American Indians have exploited the widespread interest in their history by becoming significantly involved in the tourist trade, often by selling the Indian costume jewelry they produce. By using their unique and time-honored craft skills, the native American Indians have certainly kept their heritage and culture alive with their jewelry designs. Native American jewelry-making traditions have remained strong by incorporating, rather than replacing, new materials and techniques such as glass beads and more advanced metalworking techniques.

One of the very basic techniques that truly reflect Indian craftsmanship is beadwork. There is a variety of designs created in Native American beadwork and many stones are used for the beads. These may include gemstones, copper, silver, wood, animal bones, or glass. The ability to construct beautiful accessories is a remarkable for the American Indian. From a young age, Native Americans are trained in the art of bead making. They are able to grind turquoise and shell beads into smooth bracelets and necklaces. They took the time to intricately carve wood and bone beads, soak and piece porcupine quills, and stitch thousands of beads together to create beautiful Indian costume jewelry. Porcupine quillwork is hard to come by today, but several different forms of beadwork are still being used. Imported Czech seed beads are still among the favorite medium with many American Indian artists.

Today’s Indians can be experts at lapidary work. Many of the gemstones they use include coral, sugilite, charoite, dharoite, gaspetite, jet, and, of course, turquoise. Although we know a lot about coral and turquoise, some of these other stones are a bit more elusive.

Sugilite is a yellow-brown to deep purple stone and named for the Japanese petrolotist who discovered it, Kenichi Sugi. It is found only in South Africa and first appeared in jewelry in the late seventies. It is most often used in inlay work or made into cabochons and beads.

Charolite is a stunning lavender, lilac, violet or purple that became known in the seventies.

Dharoite is another deep purple stone with a glittering crystalline effect. It is normally used in making cabochons, as well.

Gaspetite which is a pleasing apple green color is found in the Gaspe Peninsula in Canada.

Jet is actually anthracite coal which is a sedimentary rock formed from plants that lived millions of years ago. Jet is used a great deal in contemporary and traditional Native American inlay jewelry.

Malachite is named for the Greek word, mallow, which is a green herb. Malachite is a beautiful banded green stone. The markings are so perfectly, it almost looks like a synthetic stone.

You’ll notice lots of mother of pearl incorporated into Indian costume jewelry.

A variety of shells such as Mother of Pearl is often seen in Indian costume jewelry, is a hard, iridescent inner layer of certain shells such as abalone, pearl oyster and mussel. Mother of pearl varies in shades of white, yellow, pink and gray.

Spiny Oyster began to be exported for jewelry making in the Southwest in 1976. The shell comes in three main colors: red, orange, purple and sometimes white and yellow. The name Spondylus is a Latin word that means “spines on its back”.

Ammonites are used in some of the Indian costume jewelry designs. The Navajos and other Native American Indian tribes carried ammonites in their medicine bags for health and good hunting. They were called Buffalo stones because of their resemblance to the North American Bison.

When speaking of Indian costume jewelry, we musn’t forget about the Heishi beads which were made so popular in the seventies. Heishi is a Pacific Coast abalone shell which is ground down into the small circular disks we see today. Although they are normally made from shell, we can sometimes see Heishi made from stone, jet or turquoise.

Metal working is an important technique used in Indian costume jewelry. Before Europeans came, native metalwork was fairly simple, consisting primarily of hammering and etching copper into pendants or earrings and fashioning copper and silver into beads. After Navajo, Hopi and Pueblo artists learned silversmithing from the Spanish, metal jewelry arts blossomed in the Southwest. Distinctive native jewelry like the squash blossom necklace, Hopi silver overlay bracelets, and Navajo turquoise inlay rings developed as a result of the new techniques introduced to them.

Although tribal designs may sometimes crossover, there are many attributes indigenous to each and every tribe. For instance, hammered work and file decoration are some of the earliest work done by the Navajo. They exhibit strong graphic designs interpreted in bright color as demonstrated in their sand paintings, textiles and handmade ethnic jewelry. You may expect to see their Indian costume jewelry done in turquoise, white shell, abalone shell or black jet being that these are sacred stones of the Navajo tribe. Turquoise is much respected stone by the Navajo is seen in their use of turquoise fetish beaded necklaces. A fetish is an object, natural or shaped by man, in which an animal spirit is thought to reside. It is suggested that the Navajo are responsible for the beginnings of cross pendants and the squash blossom necklace. Although the beautiful gem stones are a very important part of the jewelry made by Navajo silversmiths, the Navajo's focus is mostly on the ornate detailed designs made with the silver.

The Siouxs are the most like the Indians as they are portrayed in Hollywood. Historical Sioux dress involves the American Indian clothing with the feathered headdresses, fringed leather, beadwork, quillwork, and moccasins. They are comprised of nomadic people rich in heritage, culture and history and their Indian costume jewelry is reflected as such.

The Cherokee’s, native to the Southeast region, have their own language and call themselves the “principal people” practice a number of traditional crafts, perhaps the best known of which is basket-making; they are also skilled potters, carvers, weavers, and of course, jewelry makers.

The Zuni were excellent lapidaries as they performed the detailed inlay work which they are so noted for. The Zuni believed the blue turquoise was male and of the sky, and that green was female and of the earth. Most Zuni fetishes were either made of turquoise or had turquoise properties such as eyes, mouths, or attachments of turquoise, to give it more power. Zuni fetishes are truly charming works of art. Each Zuni carver has his own style and each fetish has its own personality. Many the Zuni fetish carvings seen are carved from fossilized walrus ivory. Fossilized ivory or ancient ivory comes from walrus ivory or prehistoric mammoth or mastodon tusk. The ivory has not yet fossilized into stone but is in the first stages of mineralization. The ivory varies in color from the age and minerals of the soil: tans, orange-browns to dark browns.

The Hopi were also great silversmiths and had many traditions regarding turquoise.The Hopi “overlay” technique involved the cutting of designs in a heavy gauge silver sheet and then soldering this to a solid silver sheet. These pre-Hopi designs were mostly bird motifs. The Hopi Guild also used kachina symbols, animal and clan motifs.

The Apache Nation is not noted for their silversmithingThere is a San Carlos Apache Reservation adjacent to one of the worlds largest Peridot deposits in southeastern Arizona. They make beautiful jewelry using the gemstones they find there and the mines are exclusive to them only. Apache Peridot is one of the many gemstones keeping their people working and close to the land.

For more than twenty years, the Indian Arts and Crafts Association (IACA) has promoted authentic Native American arts and works to stop cheap imitations and imports that are undermining America's only indigenous art form. Since the passage of the 1990 Native American Arts and Crafts Act, [18 USC Sec. 1159, 1993] it is a federal felony to offer imitations as the product of Indian craftspeople.

If you are looking to buy jewelry that was actually made by Native Americans--either because it's important to you to have the real thing or because you want to support native people with your purchase--then here is our list of American Indian artists whose jewelry is available online.

Indian Costume Jewelry