Southwestern Jewelry

Silversmithing came to the Southwestern United States from the Spaniards. It is a general consensus that the first silversmith was Atsidi Sani (Navajo) who was introduced to silver between 1850 and 1860. In the 19th century, silver was made into items to adorn Native Americans as well as utensils to assist them in daily life.

After the Indian war period, Indian reservations came to be. Soon, traders to the Navajo realized their silverwork was one of the items that were marketable for trade. Shortly after 1800 Indian Trading Posts arose and the proprietors of the Posts began encouraging the Natives to make silver adornments and utensils for trade to the settlers.

Soon after, the railroad made its way through the southwest to California. The Fred Harvey Co. as well as others set up Trading Posts to sell Indian curios and jewelry to tourists as the trains would stop for various reasons. Shortly after the turn of the century route 66 was built and went through New Mexico and Arizona and Indian Trading Posts went up one after another.