The White Hogan Era: Kenneth Begay, Allen Kee, and Scottsdale Modernism

The White Hogan Silver shop, founded in Flagstaff in May 1946 by John Bonnell and silversmiths Kenneth Begay and his cousin Allen Kee, became the commercial vehicle for the modernist turn in Navajo jewelry. Relocating to Scottsdale, Arizona in 1950 and operating until 2006, it placed hand-wrought Navajo silver in galleries and shops that had previously sold only Anglo-made jewelry. Begay — later called the "Father of Modern Navajo Jewelry" — defined the White Hogan aesthetic: restrained, sophisticated, shaped by traditional design grammar but freed from tourist conventions.

Mateo's Field Notes

The White Hogan's founding story is a craft partnership built on a family network. Kenneth Begay learned silversmithing at the Fort Wingate Vocational School from Fred Peshlakai — son of Slender Maker of Silver, who learned from Atsidi Sani's family line. The lineage runs three teacher-student generations from the founding moment of Navajo silver. Begay then demonstrated silversmithing at Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Zion, worked for Babbitt Brothers in Flagstaff, and came to the White Hogan at its founding. (Rosnek & Stacey 1976, p. 115; Hougart 5e, ~p. 50)

Begay described his design philosophy in his own words to Rosnek and Stacey in 1976: "I like that style [the old Navajo style] and still work [in it]. My designs are different from others. I see the designs on potsherds and on Navajo rugs. I dream about designs at night and then write them down and use them. Now it just comes naturally. I don't look at anyone else's jewelry except for the old things. I like to create something new and still use the old Navajo design style." (Rosnek & Stacey 1976, p. 115)

He credited himself with introducing ironwood as a material: "While I was working at the White Hogan I started using ironwood. Then everyone started using it." (Rosnek & Stacey 1976, p. 115) This attribution is self-reported and not independently corroborated in the corpus, but it aligns with the timeline — the early 1950s introduction of non-silver materials into Navajo jewelry is documented by multiple sources as a hallmark of the Scottsdale modernist era.

The White Hogan workshop employed Allen Kee and his brothers Ivan Kee and George Kee, along with Sam Roanhorse, Edison Cummings, and others. (Hougart 5e, ~p. 374) Kenneth Begay's son Harvey Austin Begay worked there while attending Arizona State University, then opened his own shop in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. (Rosnek & Stacey 1976, p. 115)

In the early 1960s, Charles Loloma was operating his ceramics and jewelry shop at the Kiva Craftsmen Court in Scottsdale — contemporaneous with the White Hogan's Scottsdale years. Bedinger (1973) frames Loloma, Begay, and Fred Kabotie as the three figures who defined the modernist turn: Loloma introducing gold and precious stones, Kabotie anchoring Hopi overlay, Begay holding the line between tradition and modernism for Navajo silver. (Bedinger 1973, ~pp. 9278–9285)

The White Hogan shop mark — a hogan symbol with an open smoke hole and three horizontal lines — was "first used in 1948 at White Hogan Silver." (Hougart 5e, ~p. 374) For detailed mark information: White Hogan Silver shop entry.

Related Entries

For the White Hogan shop marks and full roster: White Hogan Silver. Biographies: Kenneth Begay, Allen Kee, Ivan Kee. For the broader modernist movement: The Modernists. For Fred Peshlakai, who taught Begay: Fred Peshlakai.