674-9a,b; 674-10<BR> Rings; silver; Hé Koha-ne tsi Kya-Tsi'napa or Ne tsi Kya (TK); d. 2/2.2 cm. w. 1.4/1.4 cm.; ca. 1880.<BR> Three silver finger rings, the set of two with a repeating fret design, the other with a repeating diamond pattern. The Anasazi ancestors of the Zunis had been expert craftsmen and produced a great variety of jewelry for personal adornment. Favored materials used and obtained through an extensive trading network stretching from the Pacific Coast to the Gulf of Mexico, and northward into the Great basin area (cf. Handbook) included shell, coral, and turquoise and other precious stones. These materials were used raw or were expertly worked into beads used in necklaces, bracelets, ear pendants, etc. Native copper was also extracted and used for ornaments (Cushing 1894; Handbook; Fox 1989). Since about the 1830s Zunis were producing their own metal jewelry in copper and brass, which they worked only with files and chisels. These materials were traded to them by Mexicans, who also were major clients for the finished work. The Zunis were quick to adopt Navajo silver jewelry as part of their dress. In 1879 John Hillers who was with the Smithsonian's Stevenson Expedition took photographs at Zuni, showing people wearing silver necklaces, bracelets and buttons. The Zunis learned the craft of silversmithing from Navajo artisan Atsidi Chon, popularly known as Ugly Smith, who stayed for a while at the pueblo in 1872, making and selling jewelry, and teaching Lanyade, his Zuni Indian friend, the required skills for making tools and working silver into jewelry. Lanyadi taught his skills to Balawade, and both made the silver for Frank Cushing's attire. In 1879-80 Balawade taught other men, and the production of Zuni silver increased significantly. Cushing depicted one of the two Zuni silversmiths, probably Balawade whom he befriended, in his "My Adventures in Zuni" and wrote of his observations of the craftsman: "… busy with his quaint forge and crude appliances, working Mexican coins over into bangles, girdles, earrings, buttons, and what not, for savage adornment. Though his tools were wonderfully rude, the work he turned out by dint of combined patience and ingenuity was remarkably beautiful" (Cushing 1882-1883:passim; Cushing 1894; Adair 1944:121-128; Bedinger 1973:130-140; Frank and Holbrook 1990:39; Ostler, Rodee and Nahohai 1996:57-58).<BR> The three silver rings Ten Kate collected at Zuni in the summer of 1882 were made by melting silver coins, hammering and stamping with dies (cf. Frank and Holbrook 1990:71, figure 76). These were the only items of silver jewelry Ten Kate acquired in Zuni. Because he stayed in the governor's house with Cushing, and commented favorably about the jewelry making of Palowahtiwa, it is most probably that the rings were made by the Zuni headman. The rarity of Zuni silver jewelry at that early date, and the value placed by the Indians on such items is illustrated by the fact that Colonel James Stevenson was unable to obtain silver jewelry during his 1879 and 1881 collection expeditions.<BR> (Hovens 2008-09)