Navajo rugs, blankets and weavings
Native American Art Navajo turquoise history - page 3 of 3

Turquoise is produced from several locations in Colorado. Currently the only commercial production is near Manassa, Conejos County. Other production was from Leadville, Lake County; near Colorado Springs, El Paso County; and near Villa Grove, Saguache County.

Nevada has been a major producer of turquoise since the 1930's, and until the early 1980's, the State was the largest producer in the United States. It is estimated that over the years, 75 to 100 different mines or prospects produced sizable quantities of turquoise. Production varied from a few thousand dollars worth of material at some of the properties to more than a million dollars at others. To date, total production of rough turquoise is estimated to be in the range of $40 to $50 million. Turquoise from Nevada comes in various shades of blue, blue-green, green-blue, and green. Some of the turquoise may contain iron; and if it does, its color is pale green to yellow-green to yellow. The material can be solid colored or spiderwebbed with either brown or black webbing; the spiderwebbing may occur in any of the different colors or shades. Some of the blue material is represented as the finest pure-blue turquoise produced. It can occur in thin veins or seams or as nodules, with single nodules reported as large as 150 pounds. The quality varies from hard solid material that takes a good polish, to soft porous material that can only be used as feed stock for treatment, enhancement, or stabilization processes.

Until the 1920's, New Mexico was the United States largest producer of turquoise. However, since then Arizona and Nevada has surpassed it in terms of both annual and total production. Production of turquoise from deposits in the Cerrillos Hills, Santa Fe County; the Burro Mountains and Little Hachita Mountains, Grant County; the Jarilla Hills, Otero County; and the Guadelupe Mountains, Eddy County; can be traced to prehistoric Indians. Several different mines operate or have operated at each of the New Mexico locations mentioned, producing seam and nugget turquoise. Many of the more famous and higher-quality deposits are economically depleted. Turquoise from these deposits was as good as that from any deposit in the world and were the first to displace true Persian turquoise in the U.S. market. Color varied from light to dark green, greenish-blue, bluish-green, paler blue shades, and fine sky-blue. Much of the material was spiderwebbed with thin veinlets of limonite. Currently, with the exception of byproduct material from copper mines, production of turquoise from deposits in New Mexico, for all practical purposes, has stopped. Turquoise still can be found in New Mexico, but production in any significant quantity is a question of economics and the determination of the individuals involved.

At some time in the early years, the use of solder in silver and turquoise jewelry making was learned and developed, as was the skills of producing silver dies. Soldering allowed the artistic to permanently join two or more metal pieces, resulting in a multitude of design possibilities and the ability to set stones. Die making was conceivably adopted by the Navajo from the many leather tooling dies used by Spanish, Mexican, and later Indians, to work both leather and tin. As the years progressed, the jewelry designs that were initially of Navajo origin were gradually modified by their pueblo apprentices.

Native American art Navajo jewelry history - page 1

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