Here we have an astonishing vintage Navajo silver concho belt having 16 handcarved convex silver conchos with silver handstampings and silver round links in between! Each concho measures around 1-3/4" x 1-1/4".
This belt will fit a waist size between 30" and 38". No marks but tested as sterling silver What is Native American Jewelry?
Native American jewelry refers to items made by indigenous peoples for personal adornment. It is also used for ceremonies, trade and show. It is a beautiful form of artistic expression. Native American jewelry tribes have beautiful cultures which guide the people from one end of life to the other.Every part of their life is governed by a prayerful approach. From the earliest days of the United States the country has been enriched by the Native American jewelry tribes.
Benjamin Franklin is said to have borrowed the ideas of the Iroquois Confederacy as a way to organize the original colonies. Many American cities began as Native American villages.
They grew from there to trading posts and forts to what they are today. This was the case for Chicago.Detroit, Saint Louis and many other cities. The tribes however were often times devastated by Caucasian diseases and policies. During the 18th and 19th centuries the U.
Government often forced Native Americans from their homelands to reservations. It wasn't until the l920s that the Snyder Act, due to many Natives Americans serving in World War I, recognized Native American people as citizens. During World War II over 24,000 Native Americans served in the military.
The Navajo Codetalkers worked out a code the enemy could not crack, and brought honor on Native people. Native Americans excel in many areas, but art holds a special place.
Their jewelry, beadwork, totem poles, pottery, and other art forms are well known. Silversmithing is the most popular form of jewelry making in the Southwest.
Early in the 1800s, Spanish and later Mexican silver work was seen among the Southwestern Native Americans. In the 1850s Navajo artists learned how to work silver from Mexican smiths. Hopis learned the skill from the Zuni. By 1875 Navajos melted Mexican and American silver coins and poured the silver into molds carved from sandstone. Sterling silver jewelry was soldered and decorated by beads, scrolls etc. Lapidary skills had been passed down from generation to generation. This led to setting stone on stone in mosaics.However the popular use of setting turquoise in silver did not become common until 1880 when turquoise became more readily available. Coral and other semi-precious stones gradually also began to be used. With the advent of the railroad and trading posts Native American jewelry grew and developed. New techniques led to styles known today, knowledge and appreciation by the public has also grown with time.
Native American jewelry is truly a varied and beautiful form of artistic expression. Native American jewelry is one of the best and smartest types of jewelry one could collect. The cultural, artistic, and value of this type of jewelry continues to spark the interest of millions of people.This one of a kind art has been the showcase of the southwest for over 100 years and continues to gain popularity to this day.