SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION--BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 

NAVAJO SILVERSMITHS. 

BY

Dr. WASHINGTON MATTHEWS, U. S. A. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PLATE XVI. Objects in silver 172 XVII. Navajo workshop 175 XVIII. Crucible, and Sandstone molds for shaping silver objects 175 XIX. Objects in silver 177 XX. Navajo Indian with silver ornaments 178

NAVAJO SILVERSMITHS. 

BY WASHINGTON MATTHEWS. 

Among the Navajo Indians there are many smiths, who sometimes forge ironand brass, but who work chiefly in silver. When and how the art ofworking metals was introduced among them I have not been able todetermine; but there are many reasons for supposing that they have longpossessed it; many believe that they are not indebted to the Europeansfor it. Doubtless the tools obtained from American and Mexican tradershave influenced their art. Old white residents of the Navajo countrytell me that the art has improved greatly within their recollection;that the ornaments made fifteen years ago do not compare favorably withthose made at the present time; and they attribute this change largelyto the recent introduction of fine files and emery-paper. At the time ofthe Conquest the so-called civilized tribes of Mexico had attainedconsiderable skill in the working of metal, and it has been inferredthat in the same period the sedentary tribes of New Mexico also wroughtat the forge. From either of these sources the first smiths among theNavajos may have learned their trade; but those who have seen thebeautiful gold ornaments made by the rude Indians of British Columbiaand Alaska, many of whom are allied in language to the Navajos, maydoubt that the latter derived their art from a people higher in culturethan themselves. 

The appliances and processes of the smith are much the same among theNavajos as among the Pueblo Indians. But the Pueblo artisan, living in aspacious house, builds a permanent forge on a frame at such a heightthat he can work standing, while his less fortunate Navajo _confrère_, dwelling in a low hut or shelter, which he may abandon any day, constructs a temporary forge on the ground in the manner hereafterdescribed. Notwithstanding the greater disadvantages under which thelatter labors, the ornaments made by his hand are generally conceded tobe equal or even superior to those made by the Pueblo Indian. 

A large majority of these savage smiths make only such simple articlesas buttons, rosettes, and bracelets; those who make the more elaboratearticles, such as powder-chargers, round beads (Pl. XVI), tobacco cases, belts, and bridle ornaments are few. Tobacco cases, made in the shape ofan army canteen, such as that represented in Fig. 6, are made by onlythree or four men in the tribe, and the design is of very recent origin. 

Their tools and materials are few and simple; and rude as the results oftheir labor may appear, it is surprising that they do so well with suchimperfect appliances, which usually consist of the following articles: Aforge, a bellows, an anvil, crucibles, molds, tongs, scissors, pliers, files, awls, cold-chisels, matrix and die for molding buttons, woodenimplement used in grinding buttons, wooden stake, basin, charcoal, toolsand materials for soldering (blow-pipe, braid of cotton rags soaked ingrease, wire, and borax), materials for polishing (sand-paper, emery-paper, powdered sandstone, sand, ashes, and solid stone), andmaterials for whitening (a native mineral substance--almogen--salt andwater). Fig. 1, taken from a photograph, represents the complete shop ofa silversmith, which was set up temporarily in a summer lodge or_hogan_, near Fort Wingate. Fragments of boards, picked up around thefort, were used, in part, in the construction of the _hogan_, an oldraisin-box was made to serve as the curb or frame of the forge, andthese things detracted somewhat from the aboriginal aspect of the place. 

A forge built in an outhouse on my own premises by an Indiansilversmith, whom I employed to work where I could constantly observehim, was twenty-three inches long, sixteen inches broad, five inches inheight to the edge of the fire-place, and the latter, which wasbowl-shaped, was eight inches in diameter and three inches deep. Noother Navajo forge that I have seen differed materially in size or shapefrom this. The Indian thus constructed it: In the first place, heobtained a few straight sticks--four would have sufficed--and laid themon the ground to form a frame or curb; then he prepared some mud, withwhich he filled the frame, and which he piled up two inches above thelatter, leaving the depression for the fire-place. Before the structureof mud was completed he laid in it the wooden nozzle of the bellows, where it was to remain, with one end about six inches from thefire-place, and the other end projecting about the same distance beyondthe frame; then he stuck into the nozzle a round piece of wood, whichreached from the nozzle to the fire-place, and when the mud work wasfinished the stick was withdrawn, leaving an uninflammable tweer. Whenthe structure of mud was completed a flat rock about four inches thickwas laid on at the head of the forge--the end next to the bellows--toform a back to the fire, and lastly the bellows was tied on to thenozzle, which, as mentioned above, was built into the forge, with aportion projecting to receive the bellows. The task of constructing thisforge did not occupy more than an hour. 

[Illustration: PL. XVI. OBJECTS IN SILVER. ]

A bellows, of the kind most commonly used, consists of a tube or bag ofgoatskin, about twelve inches in length and about ten inches indiameter, tied at one end to its nozzle and nailed at the other to acircular disk of wood, in which is the valve. This disk has two arms:one above for a handle and the other below for a support. Two or morerings or hoops of wood are placed in the skin-tube to keep it distended, while the tube is constricted between the hoops with buckskin thongs, and thus divided into a number of compartments, as shown in Pl. XVII. The nozzle is made of four pieces of wood tied together and rounded onthe outside so as to form a cylinder about ten inches long and threeinches in diameter, with a quadrangular hole in the center about oneinch square. The bellows is worked by horizontal movements of the arm. Ihave seen among the Navajos one double-chambered bellows with asheet-iron tweer. This bellows was about the same size as the singlechambered one described above. It was also moved horizontally, and bymeans of an iron rod passing from one end to the other and attached tothe disks, one chamber was opened at the same time that the other wasclosed, and _vice versa_. This gave a more constant current of air thanthe single-chambered implement, but not as steady a blast as the bellowsof our blacksmiths. Such a bellows, too, I have seen in the Pueblo ofZuñi. 

For an anvil they usually use any suitable piece of iron they may happento pick up, as for instance an old wedge or a large bolt, such as theking-bolt of a wagon. A wedge or other large fragment of iron may bestuck in the ground to steady it. A bolt is maintained in position bybeing driven into a log. Hard stones are still sometimes used for anvilsand perhaps they were, at one time, the only anvils they possessed. 

Crucibles are made by the more careful smiths of clay, baked hard, andthey are nearly the same shape as those used by our metallurgists, having three-cornered edges and rounded bottoms. They are usually abouttwo inches in every dimension. 

Fig. 1, Pl. XVIII represents one of ordinary shape and size, which Ihave in my collection. The Navajos are not good potters; theirearthenware being limited to these crucibles and a few unornamentedwater-jars; and it is probably in consequence of their inexperience inthe ceramic art that their crucibles are not durable. After being put inthe fire two or three times they swell and become very porous, and whenused for a longer time they often crack and fall to pieces. Some smiths, instead of making crucibles, melt their metal in suitable fragments ofPueblo pottery, which may be picked up around ruins in many localitiesthroughout the Navajo country or purchased from the Pueblo Indians. 

The moulds in which they cast their ingots, cut in soft sandstone with ahome-made chisel, are so easily formed that the smith leaves them behindwhen he moves his residence. Each mould is cut approximately in theshape of the article which is to be wrought out of the ingot cast in it, and it is greased with suet before the metal is poured in. In Figs. 2and 3, Pl. XVIII, are represented pieces of sand-stone, graven formolds, now in my possession. The figures are one-third the dimensions ofthe subjects. In the middle cavity or mould shown in Fig. 2, Pl. XVIII, was cast the ingot from which was wrought the arrow-shaped handle ofthe powder-charger shown in Pl. XIX; in the lower cavity depicted in thesame figure was moulded the piece from which the bowl of this chargerwas formed. The circular depression, delineated in the lower rightcorner of Fig. 3, Pl. XVIII, gave form to the ingot from which the sidesof the canteen-shaped tobacco-case (Fig. 6) was made. 

Tongs are often made by the Navajo silversmiths. One of these which Isaw had a U-shaped spring joint, and the ends were bent at right anglesdownwards, so as more effectually to grasp the flat-sided crucible. Often nippers or scissors are used as tongs. 

Ordinary scissors, purchased from the whites, are used for cutting:their metal after it is wrought into thin plates. The metal saw andmetal shears do not seem as yet to have been imported for their benefit. Some of the more poorly provided smiths use their scissors also fortongs, regardless or ignorant of consequences, and when the shears losetheir temper and become loose-jointed and blunt, the efforts of theIndian to cut a rather thick plate of silver are curious to see. Often, then, one or two bystanders are called to hold the plate in a horizontalposition, and perhaps another will be asked to hold the points of thescissors to keep them from spreading. Scissors are sometimes used asdividers, by being spread to the desired distance and held in positionby being grasped in the hand. By this means I have seen them attempt tofind centers, but not to describe circles. It is probable that had theytrusted to the eye they might have found their centers as well. 

Their iron pliers, hammers, and files they purchase from the whites. Pliers, both flat-pointed and round-pointed, are used as with us. Offiles they usually employ only small sizes, and the varieties theyprefer are the flat, triangular, and rat-tail. Files are used not onlyfor their legitimate purposes, as with us, but the shanks serve forpunches and the points for gravers, with which figures are engraved onsilver. 

The Indians usually make their own cold-chisels. These are not usedwhere the scissors and file can be conveniently and economicallyemployed. The re-entrant rectangles on the bracelet represented in Fig. 4, Pl. XIX, were cut with a cold-chisel and finished with a file. 

Awls are used to mark figures on the silver. Often they cut out of papera pattern, which they lay on the silver, tracing the outline with anawl. These tools are sometimes purchased and sometimes made by theIndians. I have seen one made from a broken knife which had been pickedup around the fort. The blade had been ground down to a point. 

Metallic hemispheres for beads and buttons are made in a concave matrixby means of a round-pointed bolt which I will call a die. These toolsare always made by the Indians. On one bar of iron there may be manymatrices of different sizes, only one die fitting the smallestconcavity, is required to work the metal in all. In the picture of thesmithy (Pl. XVII, in the right lower corner beside the tin-plate), apiece of an old horse-shoe may be seen in which a few matrices have beenworked, and, beside it, the die used in connection with the matrices. 

[Illustration: PL. XVIII. CRUCIBLE, AND SANDSTONE MOLDS FORSHAPING SILVER OBJECTS. ]

[Illustration: PL. XVII. WORKSHOP OF NAVAJO SILVERSMITH. ]

A little instrument employed in levelling the edges of the metallichemispheres, is rude but effective. In one end of a cylinder of wood, about three or four inches long, is cut a small roundish cavity of sucha size that it will hold the hemisphere tightly, but allow the unevenedges to project. The hemisphere is placed in this, and then rubbed on aflat piece of sandstone until the edges are worn level with the base ofthe wooden cylinder. The uses of the basin and the wooden stake aredescribed further on. 

Their method of preparing charcoal is much more expeditious than thatusually employed by our charcoal-burners, but more wasteful; wood, however, need not yet be economized on the juniper-covered _mesas_ ofNew Mexico. They build a large fire of dry juniper, and when it hasceased to flame and is reduced to a mass of glowing coals, they smotherit well with earth and leave it to cool. If the fire is kindled atsunset, the charcoal is ready for use next morning. 

The smith makes his own blow-pipe, out of brass, usually by beating apiece of thick brass wire into a flat strip, and then bending this intoa tube. The pipe is about a foot long, slightly tapering and curved atone end; there is no arrangement for retaining the moisture proceedingfrom the mouth. These Indians do not understand our method of making anair chamber of the mouth; they blow with undistended cheeks, hence thecurrent of air directed on the flame is intermitting. The flame used insoldering with the blow-pipe is derived from a thick braid of cottonrags soaked in mutton suet or other grease. Their borax is purchasedfrom the whites, and from the same source is derived the fine wire withwhich they bind together the parts to be soldered. I have been told byreliable persons that it is not many years since the Navajos employed aflux mined by themselves in their own country; but, finding the pureborax introduced by the traders to be much better, they graduallyabandoned the use of the former substance. 

For polishing, they have sand-paper and emery-paper purchased from thewhites; but as these are expensive, they are usually required only forthe finishing touches, the first part of the work being done withpowdered sandstone, sand, or ashes, all of which are used with orwithout water. At certain stages in the progress of the work, somearticles are rubbed on a piece of sandstone to reduce the surfaces tosmoothness; but the stone, in this instance, is more a substitute forthe file than for the sand-paper. Perhaps I should say that the file isa substitute for the stone, for there is little doubt that stone, sand, and ashes preceded file and paper in the shop of the Indian smith. 

For blanching the silver, when the forging is done, they use a mineralsubstance found in various parts of their country, which, I am informedby Mr. Taylor, of the Smithsonian Institution, is a "hydrous sulphate ofalumina, " called almogen. This they dissolve in water, in a metal basin, with the addition, sometimes, of salt. The silver, being first slightlyheated in the forge, is boiled in this solution and in a short timebecomes very white. 

The processes of the Navajo silversmith may be best understood fromdescriptions of the ways in which he makes some of his silver ornament. I once engaged two of the best workmen in the tribe to come to FortWingate and work under my observation for a week. They put up theirforge in a small outbuilding at night, and early next morning they wereat work. Their labor was almost all performed while they were sitting orcrouching on the ground in very constrained positions; yet I never sawmen who worked harder or more steadily. They often labored from twelveto fifteen hours a day, eating their meals with dispatch and returningto their toil the moment they had done. Occasionally they stopped toroll a cigarette or consult about their work, but they lost very fewmoments in this way. They worked by the job and their prices were suchthat they earned about two dollars a day each. 

The first thing they made was a powder charger with a handle in theshape of a dart (Fig. 2, Pl. XIX). Having cut in sandstone rock (Fig. 2, Pl. XVIII) the necessary grooves for molds and greased the same, theymelted two Mexican dollars--one for the bowl or receptacle, and one forthe handle--and poured each one into its appropriate mold. Then eachsmith went to work on a separate part; but they helped one another whennecessary. The ingot cast for the receptacle was beaten into a plate(triangular in shape, with obtuse corners), of a size which the smithguessed would be large enough for his purpose. Before the process ofbending was quite completed the margins that were to form the seam werestraightened by clipping and filing so as to assume a pretty accuratecontact, and when the bending was done, a small gap still left in theseam was filled with a shred of silver beaten in. The cone, at thisstage, being indented and irregular, the workman thrust into it aconical stake or mandrel, which he had formed carefully out of hardwood, and with gentle taps of the hammer soon made the cone even andshapely. Next, withdrawing the stake, he laid on the seam a mixture ofborax and minute clippings of silver moistened with saliva, put thearticle into the fire, seam up, blew with the bellows until the silverwas at a dull red-heat, and then applied the blow-pipe and flame untilthe soldering was completed. In the meantime the other smith had, withhammer and file, wrought the handle until it was sufficiently formed tobe joined to the receptacle, the base of the handle being filed down fora length of about a quarter of an inch so that it would fit tightly intothe orifice at the apex of the receptacle. The two parts were thenadjusted and bound firmly together with a fine wire passing in variousdirections, over the base of the cone, across the protuberances on thedart-shaped handle, and around both. This done, the parts were solderedtogether in the manner already described, the ring by which it issuspended was fastened on, the edge of the receptacle was clipped andfiled, and the whole was brought into good shape with file, sand, emery-paper, &c. 

[Illustration: PL. XIX. OBJECTS IN SILVER. ]

The chasing was the next process. To make the round indentations onthe handle, one smith held the article on the anvil while the otherapplied the point of the shank of a file--previously rounded--and struckthe file with a hammer. The other figures were made with the sharpenedpoint of a file, pushed forward with a zigzag motion of the hand. Whenthe chasing was done the silver was blanched by the process beforereferred to, being occasionally taken from the boiling solution ofalmogen to be rubbed with ashes and sand. For about five hours both ofthe smiths worked together on this powder-charger; subsequently, forabout three hours' more, there was only one man engaged on it; so that, in all, thirteen hours labor was spent in constructing it. Of this time, about ten hours were consumed in forging, about one and one-half hoursin filing and rubbing, and about the same time in ornamenting andcleaning. 

In making the hollow silver beads they did not melt the silver, but beatout a Mexican dollar until it was of the proper tenuity--frequentlyannealing it in the forge as the work advanced. When the plate was readythey carefully described on it, with an awl, a figure (which, bycourtesy, we will call a circle) that they conjectured would include adisk large enough to make half a bead of the required size. The disk wasthen cut out with scissors, trimmed, and used as a pattern to cut othercircular pieces by. One of the smiths proceeded to cut out the rest ofthe planchets, while his partner formed them into hollow hemisphereswith his matrix and die. He did not put them at once into the cavityfrom which they were to get their final shape, but first worked them alittle in one or more larger cavities, so as to bring them gradually tothe desired form. Next the hemispheres were leveled at the edges by amethod already described, and subsequently perforated by holding them, convex surface downwards, on a piece of wood, and driving through themthe shank of a file with blows of a hammer. By this means of boring, aneck was left projecting from the hole, which was not filed off untilthe soldering was done. The hemispheres were now strung or, I may say, spitted on a stout wire in pairs forming globes. The wire or spitreferred to was bent at one end and supplied with a washer to keep theheads from slipping off, and all the pieces being pressed closelytogether were secured in position by many wraps of finer wire at theother end of the spit. The mixture of borax, saliva, and silver was nextapplied to the seams of all the beads; they were put into the fire andall soldered at one operation. When taken from the fire they werefinished by filing, polishing and blanching. 

These Indians are quite fertile in design. In Pl. XIX are shown twopowder-chargers, which I consider very graceful in form. I have seenmany of these powder-chargers, all very graceful, but no two alikeexcept in cases where duplicates had been specially ordered. Theirdesigns upon bracelets and rings are of great variety. Ornaments forbridles, consisting of broad bands of silver, sufficient in size andnumber to almost entirely conceal the leather, are not particularlyhandsome, but are greatly in demand among the Navajos and areextensively manufactured by them. Leather belts studded with largeplates of silver are favorite articles of apparel, and often containmetal to the value of forty or fifty dollars. Pl. XX represents anIndian wearing such a belt, in which only three of the plates are shown. Single and double crosses of silver are represented attached to hisnecklace. The cross is much worn by the Navajos, among whom, Iunderstand, it is not intended to represent the "Cross of Christ, " butis a symbol of the morning star. The lengthening of the lower limb, however, is probably copied from the usual form of the Christian emblem. These savage smiths also display much ingenuity in working from modelsand from drawings of objects entirely new to them. 

They are very wasteful of material. They usually preserve the clippingsand melt them in the crucible, or use them in soldering; but they makeno attempt to save the metal carried off in filing, polishing, and byoxidizing in the forge, all of which is considerable. In one article ofsilver, for which, allowing for clippings saved, 836 grains were givento the smith, and the work on which I watched so closely throughout thatI am certain none of the material was stolen, there was a loss of 120grains, or over 14 per cent. 

The smiths whom I have seen working had no dividers, square, measure, orany instrument of precision. As before stated, I have seen scissors usedas compasses, but as a rule they find approximate centers with the eye, and cut all shapes and engrave all figures by the unaided guidance ofthis unreliable organ. Often they cut out their designs in paper firstand from them mark off patterns on the metal. Even in the matter ofcutting patterns they do not seem to know the simple device of doublingthe paper in order to secure lateral uniformity. 

Here ends my description of the smithcraft of a rude but docile andprogressive people. I trust that it may serve not only to illustratesome aspects of their mental condition, their inventive and imitativetalents, but possibly to shed some light on the condition and diffusionof the art of the metalist in the prehistoric days of our continent, notwithstanding the fact that some elements of their craft are of recentintroduction and others of doubtful origin. 

[Illustration: Pl. XX. NAVAJO INDIAN WITH SILVER ORNAMENTS. ]

INDEX. 

Almogen used by Navajoes in blanching silver 175Articles made by Navajo silversmiths 171, 176Bellows used by Navajo silversmiths 172Blanching silver, Navajo method of 175Blow-pipe of Navajo silversmiths 175Charcoal, Navajo method of preparing 175Chasing silver, Navajo method of 176Coin used by Navajo silversmiths 177Cross design associated with others in Navajo silver ornamentation 178Crucibles of Navajo silversmiths 173Fertility of design of Navajo silversmiths 177Files used in engraving silver 174Forge of the Navajo silversmith 172Improvement of the silversmith's craft among the Navajoes 171Matthews, Dr. W. , Navajo silversmiths by, 167Moulds used by Navajo Silversmiths 173Silversmith's craft among the Navajoes 171Polishing silver, Navajo method of 175Processes of the Navajo silversmith 171, 176 ; blanching 175 ; chasing 176 ; polishing 175 ; soldering 176Silversmith among the Navajos and Pueblos, Origin of 171Soldering silver, Navajo method of 176Tools used by Navajo silversmith 172 ; anvil 173 ; awl 174 ; bellows 172 ; blow-pipe 175 ; cold-chisel 174 ; crucibles 173 ; files 174 ; hammers 174 inefficient 178 ; metallic hemispheres 174 ; molds 173 ; pliers 174 ; scissors 174, 178Wastefulness of the Navajo silversmith 174, 178