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Shoshone-Bannock History in Idaho
PART I OF II: 2008's historic Idaho Democratic Convention, held in Boise, ID, June 12-14, invited Idaho Native American Tribal members from the Shoshone-Bannock/Fort Hall, Shoshone-Paiute/Duck Valley, Nez Perce, and Coeur D'Alene tribal communities to take an active part in the convention activities. On June 12th, the Idaho AFL-CIO hosted a Democratic picnic for convention goers. Mr. Ted Howard, Cultural Resource Director, Duck Valley, spoke to picnic participants about the Shoshone-Paiute-Bannock history in the Boise Valley area. 9:49 minutes.
Part II-Grand Entry, Flag Ceremony and Recessional
All convention tribal members participated in the grand entry at the beginning of the June 13th Idaho Democratic Convention gathering followed by a flag ceremony and presentation by Mr. Lee Juan Tyler, Council Member, Shoshone-Bannock/Fort Hall community. Fort Hall and Duck Valley singers and drummers played songs for the grand entry, flag ceremony and recessional.
9:59 minutes
Native American Prophecy
Narrated by the late Floyd RedCrow Westerman 6:36 minutes
7 Generations
Elder Orin Lyons talks about preparing for the next 7 generations. 8:43 minutes
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native american indian tribes and Canada first nations resource
Learn about native american indian culture & traditions, American Indian languages, arts & crafts, and native american history from the tribal perspective. Current events, news, stories & issues of concern to native americans. Education for non-indians on cultures, beliefs & perspectives of the indigenous native americans of North America.
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Today's Native American Mail Bag Question:
QUESTION:
My sister taught school on the reservation in Pine Ridge (Porcupine) about
20 years ago. She will be 50 this year. I am looking to buy her turquoise jewelry. I'd like to know it's authentic and made by the Indians. She would hold this as being very special. I understand that some jewelry has tribes' names inscribed on the back. Can you give some reputable stores or web sites that I can look at and buy. I would be particularly interested in Lakota, Sioux.
~Submitted by Kathy C.
Answer:
The Lakota Sioux are not generally known for making turquoise jewelry. Beadwork and quillwork are more common crafts for a person from the Lakota Sioux tribe. I am sure there must be some individuals who are silversmiths with Lakota heritage, (although I don't personally know any), but this group of tribes in general is not known for this art form.
Most, if not all, of the popular styles of Native American turquoise jewelry originated in the American Southwest.
Navajo jewelry
The Navajo were the first commercial silversmiths in the American Southwest and produce the largest and flashiest jewelry with lots of free form natural stones and cabachons made of turquoise, coral, and other semi-precious gem stones and elaborate silver work. They are the most copied by non-native american jewelry producers.
While the Navajo have had turquoise jewelry since prehistoric times, silverwork was not a traditional Navajo craft, but became popular in the early reservation era, when Navajo artists realized they could support themselves selling this craft form to the tourist trade. Originally, silver coins or household objects such as silver candle sticks or silver teapots were often melted down for the silver used in their jewelry.
Atsidi Sani is usually credited with being the first Navajo silversmith, in 1868. A full line of silver jewelry existed throughout the Navajo reservation by the 1880s.
Very shortly after Atsidi Sani began silversmithing, the craft spread across the area. He taught his sons and they taught others. The craft appeared in Zuni around 1872. Atsidi Chon (Ugly Smith) taught silversmithing to his close Zuni friend, Lanyade. It is said that Lanyade paid Atsidi Chon one good horse for his instruction.
While on Hopi First Mesa at Sichomovi, Lanyade taught the first Hopi silversmith, Sikyatala.
Indian jewelry factories
There are a number of businesses in the U.S. southwest who employ Navajo people to mass produce "Indian" jewelry in factories. The casual buyer may not be able to tell handcrafted jewelry from machine made, or genuine turquoise from plastic.
In the last ten to twenty years, there has been a flood of imitations made in the Philippines and Taiwan that look identical to american indian-made silver jewelry. Sometimes even the experts can be fooled.
The Navajo also do fetish carvings and make smaller fetishes into fetish necklaces.
Hopi Indian Jewelry
The Hopi tend to produce stylized work using the "overlay" process where one sheet of silver with "cut out" designs is laid over a plain sheet of identical design and shape. The recessed area is then left unpolished, or "blackened" during the finishing process.
Zuni Indian Jewelry
The Zuni are known for several styles of craftsmanship. The most common is stone and shell inlay, in which shells and slices of stone are individually cut and set in silver jewelry to fit closely together in specific patterns.
The Zuni are also known for needlepoint and petit point gem work, which consists of dozens of uniformly cut stones that are set in traditional patterns, which are set on top of the silver instead of being fitted together and inlaid to form the pattern.
The Zuni are also known for their carvings of animals and birds called "fetishes." These are available either individually as table top sized sculptures, or in strings of small carvings called "fetish necklaces."
Santo Domingo Pueblo Jewelry
Santo Domingo Pueblo is one of the largest, most populous and most prosperous of the Rio Grande Pueblos, now located in the state of New Mexico. Much Santo Domingo jewelry is similar to ancestral Pueblo or Anasazi jewelry discovered by archaeologists.
Santo Domingo is also the leading domestic producer of the tiny handmade beads known as heishi, which it often markets to other tribes. (These are also mass produced in Asia.) Many Santo Domingo artists also do inlay work on shell bases.
The Santo Domingo artists are best known for strung necklaces made of heishi, often intersperced with drilled free form turquoise nuggets, coral, or bird fetishes. The Santo Domingo do not use any other animal fetishes. Only one style of bird fetish, which is sacred to them, is used in their designs.
Plains Indian Jewelry
Plains Indian jewelry is usually not centered around silverwork. Chokers made from buffalo horn and bone hairpipe beads, multi-strand wampum necklaces (such as the one worn by Chief Joseph in many photographs), conch shell and abalone necklaces and earrings, intricate quillwork using dyed or natural porcupine quills to form the pattern, and intricate beadwork patterns using tiny seed beads are more traditional for Plains tribe artisans.
Beadwork rosettes, and jewelry containing traditional indian beadwork patterns are frequently imported from Taiwan and China, and bone chokers are frequently imported from India and China.
In the old days, the Plains Indians made hairpipe beads from bird bones and the small leg bones of animals such as the coyote. They were time consuming to make, and costly to trade for, so the number of rows in a hairpipe decoration represented the status or wealth of the wearer.
Today, virtually all bone and horn hairpipe beads are made from water buffalo bones and horns, and are imported from India and China. Both native and non-native artists use the same hairpipe beads in their work.
...Read More about How to spot Asian, Phillippine, Chinese and US made imitation/fake Native American jewelry
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· Topic: First Nations
· Topic Number: 16
· Total Articles: 10
· Total Reads: 111231 |
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