Category Archives: Indian Artifacts & Culture

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1940’S NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN MADE SQUASH BLOSSOM STERLING TURQUOISE NECKLACE

Squash Blossom

Squash Blossom

This beautiful hand crafted 1940’s sterling turquoise Native American made Navajo Indian made 26” necklace. Most jewelry made was masterfully made and skills past down through generations.  One of the most important forms of Navajo and Southwestern Native American jewelry, is the Squash Blossom Necklace. Most are made of a string of plain round silver beads, interspersed with more stylized “squash blossoms”, and feature a pendant, or “naja”, hung from the center of the strand. The squash blossom beads are copied from the buttons which held together the pants worn by the Spanish, and later, Mexican caballeros. These buttons represent – and are modeled after – pomegranates

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1800’s ORIGINAL INDIAN PIPE AXE TOMAHAWK

Smoking!!!

Smoking!!!

Original metal wood pipe axe tomahawk. It measures 17 ¾” and the axe is 7” with tip broken. When Europeans arrived in North America, they introduced the metal blade to the natives, which improved their lifestyle. It was easier for the Native Americans to hunt since these blades did not break as easily as stone. With the introduction of metal blades, the Native Americans created a tomahawk’s poll, which is the side opposite the blade, which consisted of a hammer, spike or a pipe. These became known as pipe tomahawks, which consisted of a bowl on the poll and a hollowed out shaft. These were created by European and American artisans for trade and diplomatic gifts for the tribes

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1900 NAVAJO INDIAN MADE LEATHER CLOTH DOLL

Native American

Native American

A wonderful example of early 1900’s Native American doll. It is all handmade of cloth and leather.   Many of these dolls were sold early tourist trade late 1800’s to current day.   The Native American Indians master the craft of using natural resources to provide for a source of income and trading. However, the idea of a child’s doll as a lasting keepsake is not really traditional in a lot of Indian tribes. Dolls were usually made of perishable materials like cornhusk, palmetto fiber, or bundled pine needles; even dolls that were made out of wood or leather were not often built to last the way adult crafts were. In many tribes it was considered inappropriate to discipline a very young child, so they simply weren’t given toys they weren’t allowed to chew on and throw in the river. And in some tribes, the impermanence of children’s dolls and toys was meaningful to parents– as corn dolls and other childhood things naturally fell apart with time, it showed that a girl was growing up. Even though Native American dolls were not traditionally made to last, they were often beautifully adorned with miniature doll clothing and jewelry, beadwork or painting, and animal fur or even hair from the mother’s head. Because native adornment and decorative patterns are so distinctive, handmade Indian dolls are distinctive as well, and today many people, adults and children alike, like to keep them as cultural collectibles as well as toys.

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200yr OLD PRIMITIVE AMERICAN CALIFORNIA NATIVE INDIAN POTTERY WATER JUG

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Thousands of years ago, was the beginning of agriculture in North America caused the early nomadic Indian people to settle into new territories in North America. Soon, pottery shapes developed with various customs and techniques of gathering water, storing grains and preserving seeds for the season of planting. The craft was the woman’s job in the development of cooking pots that were made to sit on rocks in open fires, water jars with indented bases so they could sit comfortably on the heads of water gatherers, and large storage vessels for grains and water. Indian villages all over the North America became known for their different pot shapes and decorative styles.