Indian Jewelry Supply — Gallup
Indian Jewelry Supply: The Findings House That Served Southwest Silversmiths
Indian Jewelry Supply Company was a jewelry findings supply operation with locations in Albuquerque and Gallup, New Mexico. It supplied silver findings and materials to Native American silversmiths rather than producing finished jewelry under its own name — a distinction that matters for collectors trying to understand what marks they might or might not encounter from this source.
Field Notes by Mateo James
Hougart establishes the ownership chain directly (~line 31753): "Indian Jewelry Supply Company (Shop). Jewelry findings supply shop; Albuquerque and Gallup, NM. In 1942, Carl Heinz (President of Gross Kelly Company) purchased the silver supply operation owned by UITA. Heinz sold the business to Slim Brazer and after Brazer's death (c.1952) it was sold to M.L. Woodard whose son Phil Woodard operated it."
The lineage traces back to UITA itself. Marion (M.L.) Woodard had worked for the United Indian Traders Association in the 1930s and operated a separate supply function while associated with that organization. After UITA's silver supply business transferred to Gross Kelly Company and then to Carl Heinz, Slim Brazer, and eventually the Woodards, it became the Indian Jewelry Supply — carrying the institutional lineage of the southwestern trade's authentication era into a new commercial form.
Hougart's Woodard entry (~line 32487) confirms the connection: "The silver supply business was sold to the Gross Kelly Company and eventually became the Indian Jewelry Supply." A jewelry box lid from the Gallup store is documented in Hougart's visual record.
The company's role was supply, not fabrication. Silversmiths who purchased silver and findings from Indian Jewelry Supply would then stamp their own marks on the finished pieces. You will not find an "Indian Jewelry Supply" hallmark on the jewelry — you will find the silversmith's own mark, applied with dies that may themselves have been sourced from supply houses like this one.
Collector's Handbook
Key distinction: Indian Jewelry Supply was a findings and silver supplier, not a hallmarked manufacturer. Pieces that used IJS-sourced materials will bear the silversmith's own mark, not IJS's name. Do not expect to find "Indian Jewelry Supply" stamped on finished jewelry.
Historical significance: Knowing that IJS supplied materials to a wide range of Navajo and Pueblo silversmiths in the mid-twentieth century helps explain the consistency of certain finding shapes and silver gauges across pieces from different artists of the same era.
Ownership chain note: UITA (founding operation) → Gross Kelly / Carl Heinz (1942) → Slim Brazer → M.L. Woodard / Phil Woodard. Two locations: Albuquerque and Gallup, NM.
Related pages: United Indian Traders Association (UITA) · Woodard's Indian Arts (coming soon)
References
- Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. (2022), ~lines 31753–31760, 32483–32492. [Primary source — full supply chain history and Woodard connection.]