Silversmith by N.N., Navajo; ca. 1953<BR> Pencil and commercial paints on paper; 18 x 25,5 cm.<BR> RMV 6003-76; Lucy Schouten Collection<BR> Navajos wore jewelry long before the arrival of the Spanish. Necklaces, bracelets and earrings were made from strings of turquoise, shell, and coral, valued raw materials that were obtained in intertribal trade. In earlier times bracelets were also made from deer horn. This material became pliable when boiled, and could be bent in the required shape. Turquoise was then applied with piñon gum. Well before 1800 Navajos wore items of iron, copper, brass, and silver obtained through exchanges with Plains and Mexican Indians, as well as through trade with Spanish-Americans and Mexicans. Informants stated that copper and brass jewelry preceded silver jewelry. These materials were referred to in the Navajo language as red, yellow, and white metal respectively, the latter known as beshlah-k'ai. Although historical documentation is lacking, it is quite probably that some Navajo men were involved in smithing during this early time.<BR> <BR> The first reference to a Navajo silversmith dates from about 1850 and mentions Atsidi Sani (Old Smith) who learned the craft from a Mexican platero (silversmith). In 1853 a Mexican silversmith started working at the Navajo Agency at Washington Pass. Silver belts and horse bridles became cherished items of status among Navajo men, and women prided themselves with brass bracelets. As parts of annual issues, Navajos received copper and brass kettles, as well as copper and brass wire. In addition, they obtained silver coins, American and Mexican. All could be used as raw materials for making jewelry. During their captivity at Fort Sumner from 1864-1868 more Navajos probably learned to make copper, brass, and silver jewelry, and after the return of the people to their homeland the production by tribal craftsmen increased rapidly, with silver soon eclipsing the use of less precious metals.<BR> <BR> The use of turquoise in silverwork since approximately 1880 increased with the passage of time. Navajo artisans at first worked to satisfy tribal demand, and as Indians began to transform their growing wealth in silver items, jewelry became of major importance in interethnic trade as it could be pawned and redeemed. Gradually a trade in silver finery with neighbouring Native peoples developed. From the Navajos, the craft of silversmithing spread to the Zunis, Hopis, and Rio Grande Pueblos. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad through northern New Mexico and Arizona at the time Ten Kate was conducting his fieldwork in 1882-1883, a new market was developing. Travellers and the first tourists began to pick up items of Navajo silver jewelry as souvenirs and as wearable fashion accessories. Production soon increased, and was facilitated by using a variety of stamps to decorate silver items, and white traders such as the Fred Harvey Company who began to play an increasingly important part in supplying the tourist and eastern markets. Guided by their innate craftsmanship and tribal aesthetics, the Navajo incorporated new techniques, tools, shapes, forms, designs, and symbols, resulting in a extensive palette of silver and turquoise jewelry and exquisite utilitarian items that keeps captivating a contemporary audience (Adair 1944; Jernigan 1981; Tisdale 2006; Hovens et.al. 2010:172-177).<BR> <BR> Among the Indian children’s drawings in the Schouten collection there are a number of little masterpieces, and this watercolour of a Navajo silversmith was finally selected after much deliberation. Silversmithing was an integral part of daily life on the Navajo reservation throughout the twentieth century. Children had ample opportunities to witness the artisans at work, melting silver and pouring the hot liquid in tufa molds to form belt buckles, cutting sheet silver, manipulating silver wire, and decorating surfaces in various techniques. Therefore it is not surprising that the children’s’ drawings collected by Lucy Schouten include a number that document the work of Indian silversmiths. This anonymous drawing, probably from a pupil at the Tuba City Boarding School, shows an Indian smith sitting at his anvil, hammering away at a piece of silver, gradually transforming it into a piece of jewelry that is exemplary of hozro, the Navajo ideal of beauty. He wears silver and turquoise jewelry: a necklace, two bracelets, rings, and a belt with square silver double buckle. This finery and the leather bag, studded with silver ornaments, hanging on a tree limb, all display his craftsmanship as well as his wealth. A hogan in the background reinforces his relationship, real or symbolic, with tribal tradition.<BR> <BR> Pieter Hovens<BR> National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, NL; 2015<BR> <BR> John Adair, The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths; University of Oklahoma Press; Norman, 1944. Pieter Hovens et.al., The Ten Kate Collection, 1882-1888: American Indian Material Culture; National Museum of Ethnology and ZKF Publishers; Leiden and Altenstadt, 2010. E.W. Jernigan et.al., White Metal Universe: Navajo Silver from the Fred Harvey Collection; The Heard Museum; Phoenix, 1981. Shelby Tisdale, Fine Indian Jewelry of the Southwest: The Millicent Rogers Museum Collection; Museum of New Mexico Press; Santa Fe, 2006.<BR> <BR> Een aquarel van een man (waarschijnlijk een Navajo zilversmid), zittend bij een boom, werkend aan zilveren sieraden met turquoise edelstenen. In de boom hangt een mannen tas met in zilver gezette turquoise edelstenen. Op de achtergrond is een hogan te zien.<BR> <BR> Lucy Schouten studeerde psychologie aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Na haar kandidaatsexamen vervolgde zij in 1951 haar studie aan de University of Arizona in Tucson, daartoe in staat gesteld door een Amerikaanse beurs. In die tijd bestond binnen de psychologie en culturele antropologie belangstelling voor cultureel bepaalde psychologische processen, wat tot uitdrukking kwam in studies naar karakter- en persoonlijkheidsvorming binnen culturen, en naar ethnische en nationale identiteiten. De subdiscipline van psychologische antropologie ontstond daardoor. Schouten verrichte leeronderzoek naar de persoonlijkheidsontwikkeling van Indiaanse kinderen, en nam daartoe psychologische tests af en verzamelde tekeningen op reservaatscholen in de staten Arizona en New Mexico.<BR> <BR> De Indiaanse kindertekeningen kwamen als legaat in het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde terecht. Zij documenteren de visie van Indiaanse schoolkinderen op hun leefomgeving. Daarbij vallen drie dominerende aspecten op: de natuurlijke omgeving, de traditionele levenswijze (woonvormen, kleding, weven en zilversmeden, e.d.), en de confrontatie met de westerse wereld (auto’s, vliegtuigen, e.d.). Onder de Hopis waren niet alle ouders even gelukkig met het feit dat hun kinderen onderwerpen voor hun tekeningen kozen die te maken hadden met het religieuze leven, zoals kachina-geesten. De kwaliteit van de tekeningen verschilt erg, deels als gevolg van leeftijdsverschillen, deels als gevolg van de mate van individuele artistieke aanleg.<BR> <BR> Enkele jaren maakte Lucy Schouten reizen door het Westen van Noord Amerika, bezocht vele reservaten waar zij ook feesten en ceremonies bijwoonde, en werkte bij trading posts. Na haar terugkeer in Nederland studeerde zij in Leiden af in de culturele antropologie. Zij voorzag daarna in haar levensonderhoud door het schrijven van artikelen voor populaire bladen en het geven van publiekslezingen over haar reizen door Europa, de V.S. en Azië, maar vooral ook over Indianen. Daarnaast gaf zij workshops over fotografie.<BR> <BR> PH/mei 2005