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A Field Guide to Southwest Jewelry · by Mateo James

The Guild Story: How the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild Shaped a Tradition

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The Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild grew from a small vocational program at Fort Wingate, New Mexico in 1939 into the most significant quality-assurance institution in the history of Navajo silversmithing. Its founding director, Ambrose Roanhorse, shaped who learned the craft, what quality standards would govern it, and how Navajo silver would reach the market. The Guild's philosophy — old-style techniques, no rollers, no tourist shortcuts — drew a line between craft and commodity that still matters to collectors.

Mateo's Field Notes

The immediate history begins at Fort Wingate Vocational School in 1939, when the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB) appointed Roanhorse Director of the newly formed Wingate Guild. (Hougart 5e, ~p. 268; Adair 1944, Appendix) Roanhorse had been teaching silversmithing at the Santa Fe Indian School since 1931, and had spent two years since 1937 as an IACB ambassador traveling to silversmith communities — Pine Springs, Smith Lake, Naschiti, Zuni — documenting who was working, encouraging traditional methods, and discouraging the use of machine-rolled silver. (Hougart 5e, ~p. 268; Adair 1944, ~p. 57)

The Wingate Guild became the nucleus of a larger project. In September 1941, the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild was formally organized at Fort Wingate with Roanhorse's Guild as its core. (Hougart 5e, ~p. 268; Adair 1944, Appendix: "The Wingate Guild was used as a nucleus for this larger craft project.") Chester Yellowhair served alongside Roanhorse as a Guild committee member and IACB ambassador. (Hougart 5e, ~p. 268) Fred Peshlakai and Dooley Shorty were among the early Guild figures helping graduates connect with the marketplace. (Hougart 5e, ~p. 1478)

Roanhorse went on to establish Guild centers at Window Rock, Toadlena, and Shiprock; a Pine Springs facility opened in 1942. (Hougart 5e, ~p. 268; Adair 1944, Appendix) The Guild's commercial philosophy was explicit: "The tourist market is purposely avoided, as it does not yield as high a return per man hour as the more exclusive stores and shops." (Adair 1944, Appendix) The type of silverware the Guild promoted was "a revival of the old simple types of jewelry, without sets for the most part. Emphasis is placed on cast work." (Adair 1944, Appendix)

Roanhorse enforced standards directly. When smiths at Pine Springs were spotted with machine rollers — which produce rolled sheet silver, faster but less hand-wrought than ingot work — he wrote to IACB Director René d'Harnoncourt. The response was explicit: "No piece of jewelry made with rollers can bear the Government mark." (Hougart 5e, ~pp. 804–805)

The Guild later became the Navajo Arts and Crafts Enterprise (NACE). The Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild shop entry documents the Guild's marks, including the distinctive US NAVAJO 70 stamp used into the modern era. The Guild's students spread across the Southwest: Allen Kee, Chester Kahn, Tom Burnsides, and many others whose directory entries note training at the Indian school programs that fed the Guild network.

Adair observed the Guild's full student population in 1937–40 fieldwork. Roanhorse's own tally during one IACB ambassador tour: 29 Navajo women silversmiths, 63 Navajo men silversmiths, 46 Zuni men silversmiths. (Hougart 5e, ~p. 798) This was the scale of the industry the Guild was trying to organize.

Collector's Handbook: Guild Silver

  • What Guild affiliation means: Work produced under the Wingate Guild / Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild program met specific quality standards — handmade, no machine-rolled silver, emphasis on cast work. Guild-stamped pieces represent a defined standard, not just provenance.
  • The US NAVAJO stamp: The government certification marks (US NAVAJO, US ZUNI, US HOPI, US PUEBLO) were developed alongside and in connection with Guild programs. Their presence on a piece indicates the quality-certification layer, not just geographic origin. See The Hallmark Story.
  • Guild-trained smiths: Many of the directory's most documented artists trained through Indian school silversmithing programs that fed the Guild network. Look for the teacher-student chain: Roanhorse → Kee, Lomay, Coriz; Peshlakai → Kenneth Begay → Boyd Tsosie, Darryl Dean Begay.
  • Shop entry: For marks and full history of the organization: Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild.

References

  • Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. University of Oklahoma Press, 1944. Appendix; ~p. 57.
  • Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. (2022). ~pp. 268, 798, 804–805, 1253–1270, 1478.
  • Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. University of New Mexico Press, 1973. ~p. 86.

Related Entries

Biography of the Guild's founding director: Ambrose Roanhorse. For the Guild organization's marks and history: Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild. Key figures: Chester Yellowhair, Fred Peshlakai, Dooley Shorty, Tom Burnsides. For the hallmark program that paralleled the Guild: The Hallmark Story.