Dig It - 3/16/23
Hello Fellow Seekers. I hope your year is progressing nicely. Today we are going to look at a pair of silver buttons. Now these here buttons were made for me 54 years ago, by a Navajo, we called Grandfather Henio. “Grandfather,” is kind of the English equivalent of the Navajo word, “Hosteen,” which is a term of age and respect. I certainly did I have a lot of respect for him. I was a just a little, snot nosed Prospector from New Jersey and here I was meeting a real live Indian (Native American), color me impressed! Grandfather Henio was a “Traditional” and did not speak English to Belaganas, like myself, but one of his kids or grandkids would translate.
Now these buttons are made of heavy sheet silver, not ingot. I saw him snip out the edges and saw him hit the stamps, “Whack!” with one solid strike and if you think that is easy you should try it. These buttons are 3” in diameter and I wore them on my Moccasins all that summer. I was one proud little Prospector. I had not seen these buttons for many a year, I valued them so much I kept them in my mother’s safe deposit box, and it wasn’t till after she passed, that I rediscovered them in the bank. Well Buckaroos, there is a piece of my past. I am still astonished at how beautiful these buttons are and how lucky I was to meet some of the people I did and go to the "off the beaten track" places I went. Adios!