Navajo pearls necklace
We all know that beautifying oneself and the use of jewelry has been around since the prehistoric times. Bead making and bead necklaces called heishe , which have been derived from the Santo Domingo word for shell, have been used for ages. Shells like the spiny oyster shell, mother of pearl, abalone, conch and clam have been used in bead making and have been considered important trade items of the southwest for more than thousand years. The use of silver in Native American jewelry is not an old concept. It has been used since the early 1850s, when the Mexican silversmiths had to trade their silver trinkets for the cattle from the Navajo. The Navajo blacksmiths then in turn exchanged their skill of silver making with the Zuni Indians for livestock. The Hopi tribe then picked up the art of silver making from the Zuni in the 1890s. It is important to note that the Native Americans in no way were linked with mining of the silver. The styles of je...