Navajo and Diné Silversmithing: History, Techniques, and the Living Tradition

Navajo silversmithing is the oldest continuously documented silver tradition in the American Southwest, traced by scholars to the early 1850s when a Navajo ironsmith known to his people as Atsidi Sani—Old Smith—traveled south to learn from a Mexican platero. From that beginning, Navajo smiths developed a tradition of heavy, hand-formed silver distinguished by stampwork, tufa casting, sand casting, ingot work, and large-stone settings that has defined the aesthetic vocabulary of Southwest jewelry for more than 170 years.

Mateo's Field Notes

The origin story is documented in unusual detail. Bedinger's Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers (1973) traces the central account through multiple corroborating witnesses: around 1850, Atsidi Sani journeyed south toward Mount Taylor to a Mexican settlement, where he persuaded a resident known as Nakai Tsosi—Thin Mexican—to teach him to work the black metal. The two men became friends, and Atsidi Sani eventually returned to Navajo country, bringing the craft. He was widely known, and Long Moustache, an early silverworker, later called him "the first metal-worker among the Navajos" (Bedinger 1973, citing Coolidge and Coolidge 1930:112).

Bedinger notes a nuance the origin story sometimes obscures: Van Valkenburgh of the Indian Service recorded that by 1853 "a few Navajo were working in iron," and that Atsidi Sani's output at the time "was limited to the manufacture of knife blades, bits and bridle parts" worked only in iron. Silver came later, through continued contact and the gradual substitution of coin silver for iron stock (Bedinger 1973:5–7). The bellows in early Navajo shops, Red Woman recalled, were made from goat hide with wooden parts from mountain oak, fueled with oak charcoal—coal was taboo (Bedinger 1973:7).

From Atsidi Sani the tradition spread rapidly. He taught four sons and a range of other students. His contemporary, Atsidi Chon—Ugly Smith—is credited in documented accounts with making the first headstall and silver belt among the Navajo, and with a consequential journey to Zuni in 1872 that introduced silversmithing to that pueblo (Bedinger 1973:131–132).

The Navajo silver tradition is above all a silversmith's tradition: the metal is the medium, stones are appointments to it. Heavy gauge sheet, ingot work (silver melted from coins and cast or forged into stock), stampwork borders, and tufa-cast centerpieces characterize the work across its history. The concha belt, squash blossom necklace, bow guard (ketoh), and silver bridle are the forms most closely identified with Navajo craft. Where Zuni craftspeople orient their designs around the stones, Navajo work foregrounds the silver itself—large, bold, legible from a distance.

The hallmark era that allows collector attribution began in the late 1930s and was formalized by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board's stamping program (1937–1943). Today, Hougart's Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks (5th ed., 2022) is the standard reference for linking marks to registered makers—343 Navajo smiths documented in our directory alone attest to the tradition's depth and continuity.

Some Navajo silversmithing designs draw from ceremonial life. Because this is a living tradition and some imagery carries meaning within living practice, this page covers only the material jewelry-trade record and what the corpus documents as commercially produced forms. We choose to respect the sacred dimensions of Navajo culture. This page is deliberately limited to what the jewelry-trade record documents and what artists have shared publicly.

Signature Techniques

Navajo smiths are documented in every major Southwest technique. Core traditions include stampwork, tufa casting, sand casting, hand-wrought ingot work, and repoussé. Navajo smiths also practice channel inlay, though it is more closely identified with Zuni. The squash blossom necklace, concha belt, and bow guard (ketoh) are the Navajo-identified forms most sought by collectors.

Related Symbol and Form Pages

Squash Blossom Necklace · Thunderbird Symbol · Crossed Arrows · Storm Pattern

Navajo Silversmiths in Our Directory

343 Navajo and Diné artists are documented in the T.Skies Co-Op Silversmith Directory. A selection of notable names:

Aaron Peshlakai · Ambrose Roanhorse · Atsidi Chon · Califreda Roanhorse-Bowling · Charlie Bitsui · Darryl Dean Begay · Fred Peshlakai · Lee Yazzie · Linda Yazzie · Wilton Carviso Jr. and 343 more in our full A–Z directory.

Related Entries

Zuni Silversmithing and Lapidary · Hopi Silver and Overlay · Stampwork · Tufa Casting · Hopi Overlay · Channel Inlay · Field Guide Hub