Turquoise

In the Southwest, Native Americans Have Always Loved Turquoise

The love of wearing turquoise as an adornment is a trait that reaches far back into the pre-history of the American Southwest Indians.

For books on turquoise and southwest jewelry click here.  From the time early Spanish explorers came into the southwest, turquoise was known to be a favorite of the inhabitants living there.  Entering into what is now Arizona, they reported being met by people wearing feather headdresses and strings of beads, bracelets and earrings. In 1539 Fray Marcos de Niza  wrote of it being worn as ornaments by the people. Some had as many as three or four strands of green stones around their neck, others carried them as ear-pendants and in their nose."

Excavations of pre-historic sites have uncovered such jewelry in both quality and quantity. It is evident that jewelry had great religious significance by the discoveries of turquoise at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, one of the great prehistoric ceremonial centers of the southwest. There, in the great Kiva of Casa Rinconada, turquoise necklaces were deposited in niches around the walls.

The southwestern Indians today are perhaps best known for the beauty and variety of their turquoise jewelry. Not only is this jewelry prized by the collector, but also by the Indian who wears it. Both the Navajo and Pueblo Indian consider jewelry as wealth and any ceremonial occasion is used to display it.

Modern Pueblo Indians consider turquoise to be sacred and scatter chips or the powdered stone during special prayers and about their shrines. Its blue color is one of their sacred colors and one of the most sticking features of the regalia (costumes) at a dance is their turquoise jewelry.

One look in the mirror will show you the sensuous appeal of quality Southwest jewelry. Today, any woman that has worn a fine turquoise necklace, whether a squash blossom necklace or multi-strand beads or nuggets, will remember the compliments and attention which she received.