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Student shares Native American jewelry collection with GIA
By Jordan Clary
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From left: Zuni knife-wing figure inlay bracelet, owl inlay ring and thunderbird inlay ring are made of silver, coral, shell, turquoise and other natural materials. This type of silver inlay work, common to the Zuni people, was adapted from the Europeans who settled North America.
Photo by Kevin Schumacher
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Jamie Steelman, an On Campus Graduate Gemologist (G.G.) student, enters GIA's Museum Gallery and Café pulling a large black suitcase on wheels. He gently picks it up, places it on the table and slides open the zipper. He pulls out one piece after another of Native American jewelry he's collected over the past 40 years, mostly from tribes in the American Southwest. There's a heishi shell necklace, a silver engraved belt buckle with inlaid coral, jet and lapis lazuli and a turquoise "needlepoint" bracelet.
"Some of these pieces were handcrafted over a period of months, even years," he says. "I've met old women who lost their eyesight because they spent so much time bent over this intricate bead work."
Steelman, who is part Chickasaw, first became enamored of Native American jewelry when he was 15 years old and lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
"I've always liked bulky, rustic pieces," he says. "And there were lots of chunky Navajo bracelets around back then."
A selection of Navajo and Zuni pieces from Steelman's collection is on display in the main atrium at GIA's World Headquarters in Carlsbad, California.
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Jamie Steelman has been intrigued by Native American jewelry since he was a teenager growing up in new Mexico.
Photo by Jordan Clary
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"We really appreciate that one of our students wanted to share his love for this jewelry with the GIA community," says Kimberly Vagner, project manager of In-Kind Gifts. "It brings the education process full-circle for him to loan us these pieces."
Steelman says he used to comb pawn shops in downtown Albuquerque looking for jewelry – the bigger the better. He says the adventure of rummaging through the mass of jewelry that hung from pegs on the wall added to the excitement of finding a unique piece. "It was like a treasure hunt. I still have that feeling when I find something really special."
Part of what Steelman admires about pieces from the 1950s and 60s is that they are "full of personality." The turquoise nuggets are roughly hewn from hand tools. The silver beads are irregular in size and shape. "To make the beads smooth, the craftsmen rolled them around in a hot stone or metal plate until the seams disappeared," he says. The technique is rudimentary but it gives one "a sense of history" to see them and "hold them in your hand."
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Zuni fetish (animal spirit guide) and heishi bead necklace. Many fetish necklaces represent only one animal, but Steelman was attracted to this one because it has so many.
Photo by Kevin Schumacher
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Turquoise is also imbued with character, Steelman says, holding out a Navajo squash blossom necklace made of large chunks of Lone Mountain turquoise.
"Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona, with its blue robin-egg color, is considered to be the most valuable," he says. But he prefers matrix turquoise because he feels the intricate spider web of lines makes each piece distinctive and individual.
Steelman says that turquoise represented wealth for the early Native Americans, which is why you so often see photos of tribal chiefs wearing pounds of it draped around their necks. "The more you had, and the bigger the pieces, the higher position you held in the tribe," he says.
Native American jewelry has gone through various cycles of popularity during the past 100 years or so, according to Elise Misiorowski, director of the GIA Museum. "It's having another type of renaissance in that contemporary Native American jewelers are incorporating more gemstones than those usually associated with traditional Native American jewelry. They have also begun using gold as well as silver in their work," she says.
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Coral, turquoise and silver jewelry from the Zuni and Navajo tribes. Misiorowski says these pieces were chosen because they represent the traditional work of these two tribes.
Photo by Kevin Schumacher
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Steelman agrees and says that contemporary Native American jewelry has become both smaller and more refined. "It's much harder to find the old style jewelry these days – the ones with rope ties instead of sliver clasps and chunks of stone set by hand."
Steelman says he wanted to share his collection at GIA because it's "the basis on which the jewelry industry is measured."
"Traditional Native American jewelry is like jazz," he says as he gazes down at the pile of silver, turquoise, coral and bone in his suitcase. "It's a truly American art form. That's the wonderful thing about it and why it is such a valuable thing to study and collect."
The Native American collection can be viewed at GIA's headquarters in Carlsbad, California. Museum exhibit viewings are free and available to the public through scheduled tours. To sign up for a tour, e-mail guestservicesmailbox@gia.edu or call (800) 421-7250, ext. 4116. Outside of the U.S., call (760) 603-4116.
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