ring
date: label: Date made
content: 1930 - 1960
notes: label: Description
content: An early 20th century Navajo turquoise and silver ring and necklace, part of an Anglo-American woman s large collection of Southwestern Indian costume jewelry brought into Smithsonian collections in the 1990 s.
label: Description
content: Navajos borrowed the tools and techniques of Spanish/Mexican silverwork and turned them into a uniquely Navajo trade, partly made possible by the rich silver and turquoise mines in the American Southwest. The designs they used (like the squash blossoms and naja, or inverted rainbow), are important symbols in Navajo cultural and religious life. While worn primarily by Navajo until the late 19th century, jewelry like this necklace and ring became important items in the tourist trade from the late 19th through the latter part of the 20th century. Most of the silver and turquoise mines were mined out by the early 20th century, but jewelry making thrived nevertheless. Many of the shapes, designs, and symbols remain the same on Navajo jewelry in the present day, but the market for work from well-known makers influences American design far beyond the boundaries of the Navajo homeland. Besides influencing ever-renewed American fashion styles, Navajo styles of jewelry made into rings, bolo ties, belt buckles and so on are worn throughout Indian country by Indians who regard these pieces as emblematic of Indian cultures, whether they come from Southwestern peoples or not.
label: Description
content: Like Navajo makers, Hopi and Zuni jewelers are acclaimed and involved in the making of jewelry for the Anglo and internal Indian community markets; they tend to have a high percentage of so-called art jewelers, who, like their Navajo counterparts, make work destined for a high end fashion market and collectors, as well as for the still thriving Southwestern tourism market and for ordinary, everyday wear and use by millions of Americans.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Costume
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1981.1030.02
label: accession number
content: 1981.1030
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Ring
label: Other Terms
content: Ring; Jewelry; Accessories Worn on the Body; Female