RAYMOND YAZZIE'S Blessings cuff bracelet  is composed of 18 karat gold and approximately 485 separate stones.

Native American jewelry may not be sacred per se, but the artisans see it as a sacred expression of their lives and culture. This much is apparent in their designs, the way they handle their materials, the reverence they feel for beautifully crafted objects. Not surprisingly, the most avid collectors of Southwest Native American jewelry have been Native Americans themselves. In recent decades, however, the market for this jewelry, both traditional and contemporary, has grown exponentially. In 2003, Native Peoples magazine estimated that the Indian jewelry market generates $500 million each year. A spectacular exhibition, Totems to Turquoise, at New York’s American Museum of Natural History (through July 10) is now burnishing appreciation for this jewelry’s artistry. It celebrates the work of tribes from the Northwest and Southwest.

Since antiquity, the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest have adorned themselves with pendants, bracelets, rings, earrings and hair ornaments, often crafted from beads and mosaics made of wood, turquoise and shells. Much of the jewelry we recognize today as Southwest Native American developed during the second half of the 19th century, after the Navajo learned silversmithing from the Mexicans. Their new jewelry drew on a variety of influences. The blossom motif in the traditional Navajo squash blossom necklace was a variant on the stylized silver pomegranate that adorned Mexican men’s clothing. Native necklaces of silver beads and multiple crosses were interpretations of rosaries (although the crosses also symbolized the dragonfly, a sacred creature to the Pueblo). The sterling silver medallions of the Navajos’ concha belts derived from the round and oval plaques of German silver that they saw Plains tribes wearing in their hair.

By the 20th century, the Pueblo peoples had also begun exploring new jewelry-making techniques, often with encouragement from traders who wanted souvenirs to sell to tourists. The Zuni, long known for their beautifully carved stone fetishes, became expert in intricate lapidary as well as silversmithing; the Hopis focused on silver overlay; the Santo Domingo expanded on their ancient techniques for making the tiny necklace beads from shells and turquoise known as heishi (their word for “shell”).

A NAVAJO sterling silver and turquoise squash blossom necklace (above) auctioned at Christie’s for $15,535 in 2003.

Native Americans had always used their jewelry as much for trading as adornment. “It’s wampum,” says Joe Tanner, a fourth-generation arts trader in Gallup, N.M. To guarantee a debt, the Navajo pawned their best jewelry at the trading post, then retrieved it after the harvest or sheep shearing. Jewelry from the turn of the century to the 1960s is still referred to as “Old Pawn.” The pawn tradition remains vibrant. “In the banking system here in Gallup, $25 million has been lent against pawned jewelry,” Tanner says.

Outside the Southwest, few Anglos recognized the jewelry’s artistry. “Thirty years ago, nobody wanted this stuff. You couldn’t give it away,” says Rolando Reyes, owner of Common Ground, a gallery for Native art and artifacts in New York. Grossman attests to how much the market has changed. She bought her first serious piece of Southwest Native American jewelry, an especially fine squash blossom necklace, in the 1950s for a mere $250. She now estimates it is worth about $5,000.

Watershed Year
Tanner credits the 1975 Sotheby Parke Bernet auction of New Mexico trader C.G. Wallace’s private collection of Southwest jewelry as a market benchmark. Following that event, fashionistas were spotted wearing concha belts and large silver and turquoise bracelets. Interest in the jewelry spread internationally. Today the Germans and the Japanese are among its most avid collectors.

“Every 10 years or so, the jewelry comes back into vogue and everybody wants it,” Tanner explains. “For the rest of us, it’s part of our lives.” Despite the whims of fashion, prices continue to rise steadily. Tanner estimates that high-quality pieces appreciate at roughly 12 percent per year. Collectors especially value jewelry from before 1910 for its rarity—but these pieces remain affordable. At Common Ground, a Pueblo dragonfly necklace from the 1900s costs $7,500.

THE SILVER BEAR Claw necklace with blue gem Bisbee turquoise by Preston Monongye, circa late 1960s

When determining the value of such a piece, experts take into consideration age, condition, beauty and provenance. When all these combine favorably, prices can soar, as they did at a sale of American Indian art at Christie’s in 2003. A Navajo sterling silver and turquoise squash blossom necklace, with an estimate of $2,000 to $3,000, sold for $15,535. Delia E. Sullivan, the Christie’s specialist in charge of American Indian Art, explains that this necklace fetched such an exceptional price because of its elegance and remarkable provenance. Contributing to its value, she says, is its “good weight”—it feels substantial in the hand, but not heavy on the body—its finely fluted “blossoms” and its handsome patina. The consignor had included a photograph, dated 1927, of the owner wearing the necklace, with Mabel Dodge Luhan, the heiress who helped transform Taos into a Bohemian community. The necklace proved not only a marvelous piece of jewelry, but also a piece of New Mexican history.

Stratospheric prices notwithstanding, auction houses can be an excellent source of impressive values because they are outside of the locus of the Native American market, centered in galleries, trading posts and annual markets in the Southwest. Unless the consignor insists on a high estimate, auction house specialists tend to price lots low as an enticement for dealers.

The quality of the turquoise and the amount featured in a piece also plays a role in determining price. Southwest turquoise, which ranges in hue from robin’s egg blue to lima bean green, is becoming quite rare. Some famous old mines, such as Nevada’s Battle Mountain Blue Gem and No. 8, are depleted, so jewelry featuring their distinct varieties of stone is especially prized. “One collector offered me $10,000 for a single piece of No. 8,” Tanner says. “But I wouldn’t sell. It’s too important to the collection.” Traders such as Tanner often buy up the turquoise from dwindling mines, and then dole it out in nuggets to favored jewelers.

Beyond Tradition
While so much of life on the pueblo remains traditional, its jewelers in recent decades have become increasingly adventurous in their designs. Credit for their daring goes to the Navajo silversmith Kenneth Begay and the Hopi artists Charles Loloma and Preston Monongye. In their jewelry, these artisans broke from convention by drawing on currents in contemporary art and design. They also blurred tribal differences by mastering a variety of jewelry-making techniques.

Loloma was perhaps the most radical of the three. Instead of sticking to traditional flat stone inlays, he used chunky stones of irregular height and width to create highly sculptural bracelets and rings. Depending on the piece, the patterns and colorings of the inlays might suggest Pueblo architecture or the rock formations of the Hopi mesas. When Mononogye crafted silver jewelry from tufa casts, he retained its rough, sandy texture and decorated his pieces with raised line drawings. He borrowed imagery from old potsherds and pictographs, which he transformed into stylized inlaid forms.

While there is undeniable artistry in traditional Indian jewelry, the designs of Loloma and Monongye attain the level of art. Their pieces are priced accordingly. Today Tanner may sell a simple inlay pendant by Loloma for a few thousand dollars, while a superb height bracelet might be priced at $100,000 or more. He also deals in estate pieces by Monongye, which are similarly priced.

Monongye’s son, Jesse, has also established himself as an award-winning jeweler. Gifted in metal overlay and lapidary, his most striking inlay pieces combine traditional motifs with scenes of the night landscape and starry sky. His materials are decidedly unconventional: 18 and 22 karat gold, opals, onyx, Tahitian black pearls, even diamonds. The gift shop at the Totems to Turquoise show sold a silver cuff bracelet inlaid with jet, turquoise and coral for $16,500.

Another student of Preston Monongye’s was the Navajo jeweler Lee Yazzie, who, along with his brother Raymond, is a towering figure on the Native jewelry scene. Tanner calls Lee Yazzie’s blue corn bracelet, composed of different “kernels” of turquoise, lapis, coral and opal “possibly the most significant piece of Southwest Indian jewelry ever made.” It is a featured piece in the Totems to Turquoise exhibition. But the pièce de résistance is Raymond Yazzie’s Blessings cuff bracelet. Fashioned from 18 karat gold, the cuff features an abstract Katsina design of inlaid turquoise, opal, lapis lazuli and onyx. Some of the stones are so tiny Yazzie had to polish them by holding them between his fingernails. His Life bracelet of coral and fossilized turquoise is available at the exhibit’s gift shop for $125,000.

“When you consider the work that goes into these pieces, they are still moderately priced in comparison to other fine jewelry,” observes Sharon Wand, who with her husband, Richard, have collected Native American jewelry for 40 years. While the couple own some traditional pieces, they have focused on works by contemporary artists. “It’s interesting to watch the evolution of the jewelry in general, and of the artists in particular,” Richard Wand says. “Also what we like is that you won’t see these pieces on five other people. Most of them are one of a kind.”

Veronica Poblano is one artist whose work has evolved in a remarkable direction. Although she comes from a Zuni family of jewelry makers, she did not start making jewelry professionally until she moved from the pueblo to San Diego, fulfilling her lifelong dream of living by the sea. Since moving back to Zuni, her jewelry has taken on an uncommon fluidity. Her torque necklaces and earrings are especially celebrated. A necklace in 14 karat gold, featured at the Totems to Turquoise gift shop, winds its way around and down the wearer’s neck, carrying with it a cascade of Morenci turquoise cabochons. It sells for $10,000.

For those starting a collection, the Wands suggest visiting reputable dealers and attending Native American market shows, where neophytes can also meet the jewelers. “One of the joys is getting to know the artists. It adds personality to the piece,” Richard Wand says. These market shows also host juried competitions. Familiarizing yourself with work by artists who have won ribbons is an excellent way to see what styles and directions the artisan community itself admires.

Today the variety of styles from which to choose is exceptional. Making jewelry has become a way of life for the Navajo and Pueblo peoples, another reason why the jewelry so appeals to Grossman. “When Indians refer to someone who has died,” she notes, “they say, ‘He doesn’t make jewelry any more.’ ”

Marisa Bartolucci lives in New York, where she writes on a variety of cultural subjects. misab@rcn.com