Dig It - 10/28/24

Well Fellow Seekers, this photo is from the “Good Old Days”. Like everything else, they do become a little more rosy with the passing of time. One only has to look at this photo to see four “masterpiece” bracelets from the Classic Period. These days I’m lucky to get one or so a year; maybe more if I’m especially “good” and willing to “step up”.

But, take heart Seekers, things really aren’t that bad. I have been seeing some beautiful bracelets and jewelry from the 1920s to 1950s. Some of the old timers and the younger smiths were still doing great work and had access to the great turquoise that was coming out of the newer mines in Nevada, Arizona and Colorado. The Navajo were still making beautiful bracelets for themselves and as special orders for outsiders willing to pay extra for quality above the cheap tourist crap. There were certainly traders like C.G. Wallace at Zuni and others on the Navajo Reservation and in towns like Gallup that encouraged the smiths they worked with to make quality jewelry.

Institutions like the Navajo and Hopi Arts and Crafts Guilds were also encouraging high quality work. Events like the Santa Fe Indian Market, Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial, and others were also encouraging Indigenous craftspeople to produce quality pieces through competition and cash prizes. Fellow Seekers, the “Good Old Days” were never as good as they are in memory, and anyway they are gone, passed forever; dust. Keep the Faith, keep searching, you never know what is around the next corner. Lonesome