• Diamond Dating Shiprock Arizona
• Diamond Dating Shiprock New Mexico

One such example is the ‘Diamond Shipwreck’. This was a shipwreck discovered in the sands of the Sperrgebiet (meaning ‘Prohibited Area’ in German), which is the rich and off-limits De Beers diamond-mining lease near the mouth of the Orange River on Namibia’s southern coast.

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1. The Shiprock Zoo was located just outside the city and was, in Derek's opinion, a far better way to spend time than shopping. After another night full of mind-blowing sex all over the bedroom and bathroom, interspersed with lots of cuddling and talking, Stiles had been woken up by an agitated Lydia calling and chewing him out over no text the.
2. Hi love your website have learned quiet a bit from it. Our family lived in the late 70s around the Church Rock area. My parents bought a few rugs from a trading post near what is now know as “Legacy Park” and from a Navajo family that did weaving, and raised the sheep and lived in a hagon.
3. The first diamond was insured according to the vendors request. Since I returned it Maya. Kenny SuperIdealRock. Joined Apr 30, 2005 Messages 29,559.
4. The diamond motif was the second 'major' design element used with a very high degree of regularity by the Navajo in their weavings. (The first major element was the band - which in both narrow or wide form was adapted from the Pueblo Indians who used the simple design on virtually all their early weavings.

Navajo - Native American History

A History of Native American Jewelry made by Navajo Artists

Some say that thoughtful man began with adornment, with the first bead on a necklace to be precise. The thing that seperates man from animal is adornment! According to archaeologists, fetishes of stone and shell predate the Christian epoch; excavations in southern Arizona have produced turquoise dating back to 200B.C.; in South America, as early as 900B.C. Turquoise has and continues to be a standard of “Indian Jewelry.” It would be hard to imagine Native American Jewelry without the Skystone.

One story says, the Ancient Native Americans believed turquoise to be pieces of the sky. Prehistoric Indians mined turquoise for adornment purposes -primarily drilled turquoise beads and ornaments. It has been found in ancient appliqué on shell and other rock suggesting it’s use with wood to create jewelry. From Chaco Canyon to east Mississippi, Native American turquoise jewelry originating from New Mexico’s Cerillos Turquoise mining area has been excavated; likewise for turquoise mined from the Kingman, Morenci, and Conejos areas. Like

The Navajo entered the Southwest in the (some say ‘recent’) 14th-16th century. The Navajo were a nomadic society. “They not only raided, but took, kept, and developed whatever suited them.” (Anderson) Beaded necklaces (a symbol of prestige), decorated ‘ketoh’ (bow guards), and concha/concho ornamentation likely originated from their most frequent conquests, the Spanish and the Pueblo. From the Spanish, the Navajo grew to appreciate adornment.

The Navajo wore adornments acquired from conquest and trade made of German silver, brass, copper and to a lesser extent, silver. Much from Mexican silversmiths, the Spanish and Native neighbors. This Navajo jewelry was worn for beauty and pride- the wearing of a crescent or cross did not necessarily symbolize a respect for Christianity or the Moorish influence on Spain. What began with simple rawhide and pedants, later gave way to stone, shell, silver and other metal beads and intricate ornaments.

Experts in the area seem to agree that Atsidi Sani (“Old Smith”) was the first Navajo silversmith. Learning skills as a blacksmith first, he may have begun silversmithing as early as 1860. In 1864, approximately 8,000 Navajo were captured and “marched into captivity” at Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico. In 1868, they were returned to the Four Corners area, the Dinehtah. It is argued

Either way, “it is fairly certain that there was no indigenous Navajo or Pueblo silver industry.” Early Navajo silversmiths melted down silver coins, candlesticks and the likes for their work. Mexican currency was the easiest to work (.90275 fine) and special orders that brought sterling silver wares -teapots, candlesticks, household antiques- (.9025 fine) were the next most desirable for use. U.S. coins were the least desirable to work with, (.900 fine) and by 1890 illegal to melt down. Early Navajo silver work focused on concha (concho) belts, bracelets, bow guards, tobacco flasks and necklaces. Rings, earrings, pins, hair ornaments, buckles and bolos evolved from these. A full line of jewelry spread throughout the Navajo reservation by the 1880’s. The oldest work was predominately of hammered and filed decorations; turquoise appeared in Navajo jewelry by 1880. (Anderson)

Shortly after Atsidi Sani began silversmithing, he taught his sons and the craft spread across the area. Zuni silver work appeared around 1872. The Zuni, already skilled metal-workers and lapidaries, supposedly paid “one good horse” for the silver teachings of Atsidi Chon. Incorporating their earlier skills, Zuni silver work took on the fine and channel inlay we now associate with their jewelry. Lanyade, considered the first Zuni silversmith, traveled to various pueblos selling his jewelry. While on Hopi First Mesa at Sichomovi, he taught Sikyatala, the first Hopi silversmith, the craft. Because of the way silversmithing skills were shared, all of the jewelry from this time period is in the Navajo style.

During this time period, different techniques were learned and developed. Soldering (the permanent attaching of two or more pieces of metal) allowed for artistic design and the setting of stones into the jewelry. Silver dies were adopted from the Spanish, Mexican and later Indian leather work. With advancements in technique, the different pueblos and artists began to diverge and refine their unique styles. The Hopi change was more intentional, when the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Az. working with Paul Saufkie and Fred Kabote began a program to develop a unique Hopi style. With a bit of time, they developed the “overlay” technique that pulled designs from pottery shards found in 15th and 16th century ruins to inspire their silver-layering work. These works showed primarily kachinas, animal and clan motifs.

Today’s Native American Navajo jewelry includes silver, beads, gold and stones. Tribal designs, Spanish designs, old style and contemporary design all combine to transcend old styles. From homes on the reservations to museums and art galleries, Indian jewelry is collected and cherished as a connection between historic tradition and contemporary culture.

Information compiled from from Lee Anderson, John Adair, Carl Rosnek and Joseph Stacy, Margery Bedinger, and Larry Frank and the Encyclopedia Britannica. Thank you to all who have continued the stories and provided the information for this history. If you have additional information to offer that you feel is an important and missing piece of this story, please feel free to send it our way.

Also See; Navajo Silversmith History & Navajo Jewelry

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A Brief History of Navajo Blankets & Rugs

In the 16th century, when the Spanish arrived and subsequently conquered the peaceful pueblo Indian cultures ofwhat is now New Mexico and the American Southwest, the Navajo or Dine peoples which then lived north of the pueblos wereseldom if ever seen by the Spanish and known mostly through the Pueblo Indian stories and encounters (often stories ofraids by the Navajo on the pueblos) related by the Pueblo tribes.

The Navajo--who may have come together as an amalgamation of several tribal and clan cultures of the Southern Plains to form their owndistinctive culture less than one hundred years before the Spanish Conquest-- are linguistic relatives (Athapascan) ofthe Apache and are generally considered to have had, in the16th century, a culture more similar to Plains nomadichunter-raiders than to the Pueblo sedentary-agrarian cultures.

The Pueblo tribes grew cotton and wove blankets and garments on a distinctive pueblo loom hundreds of years beforethe Spanish arrived (these weaving skills perhaps brought up by Indians from what is now Mexico and Central America),yet it was the Spanish who first introduced sheep to the Southwest.

The earliest sheep brought to the Southwest by the Spanish was the churro, asmall sheep with very long silky, smooth stapled wool perfect for weaving and in a variety of natural shades: darkbrown, tan and cream. Rarely used today, despite many breeding attempts, the churro's few modern descendants seem tolack in their wool the length and silkiness, sheen and feel that distinguish the pre-1900 breed. (Photo: modern, shorterwool 'churro')

Upheaval of the Pueblos

Harsh persecution of pueblo peoples and the destruction of traditional pueblo culture by the Spanish led to thePueblo Rebellion of 1680. It was during this turbulent period and Diego de Vargas 1692 Re-Conquest that Pueblo Indiansescaping retaliation for the rebellion lived among the Navajos and introduced both sheep and weaving technology to theNavajo to a degree such that written records among certain Spanish documentation , covering a period from 1706-1743,records the Navajo keeping sheep and weaving wool blankets during that period.

Pueblo manta, late 19th century

The earliest known surviving examples of Navajo blankets are but fragments dating from the 1805 Massacre Cave sitenear Chinle, Arizona and Canyon de Chelly. At this site more than one hundred elderly men, women and children wereslaughtered by Spanish slave traders. The fragments show simple, conservative Pueblo Indian-influenced designs of narrowbanding in alternating colors of natural sheep wool tones (white, grey, brown, tan, black) and some vegetal dyes (mostlyshades of rust, yellow and green). Indigo blue dyed wool yarn was also found among the fragments. Indigo was obtained bythe Navajo from Mexican pony caravans coming up from Mexico City.

Mexican Indigo-dyed Saltillo Serape, c. 1875

The oldest Navajo weavings available to the collector's market can sometimes be dated back to the 1870's or 1860's toa time of transference out of Navajo hands. How old a weaving may have been at time of transfer and beginning of arecorded history is usually unknown. Weavings dated earlier than this time are usually estimated based on style, dyesand ravelled materials used and compared and contrasted with known dated weavings and their dates often broadlyestimated (eg. '1800-1860' or 'pre-1860') as more specific dating may be impossible at present time.

Navajo Blanket & Rug Periods

• Classic Period (1700-1850)
• Late Classic Period (1850-1868)
• Transition Period (1868-1890)
• Rug Period (1890-1930)
• Regional Style Period (1930-Today)

Other important dates include:

• Chemical (Aniline) dyes invented in England (1856)
• Aniline dyes transported to Southwest by Santa Fe RR (1865)
• Three ply dyed yarn transported to SW from Germantown, Pennsylvania textile mills by SantaFe RR (1865 approx.)
• Four ply dyed 'Germantown' yarn (by 1875)

The collectibility of rare and early Navajo Blankets has long attracted the wealthy and celebrated collector fromWilliam Randolph Hearst --who over a period of a decade or so before 1920 collected more than 200 important 19th centuryNavajo blankets-- to the leading actors, filmmakers, recording artists , politicians and business tycoons of today whoseek similar items.

Today, anyone who has an interest in decorating their home or office in historic weavings can find examples to fitevery budget and every display purpose.

Chief's Blankets

Prior to the trading post era when the Navajo learned to make rugsfor the American resale trade, the Navajo wove only blankets -- both for themselves and for trade with the Spanish andwith other Native American Indian tribal cultures.

Blankets were woven in several sizes but three major forms: serape (a shoulder blanket that iswoven longer than wide), saddle blanket (in single form a squarish small weave or in double saddleblanket form to befolded in half under the saddle for extra cushioning), and in chief's blanket form.

A chief's blanket is a shoulder blanket woven on the loom wider than it is long -- the ONLYNavajo weaving to be woven this way--(even later Navajo yei rugs , made to be displayed hoizontally, were wovenvertically on the loom)-- and the design often joining up to form an enclosed pattern when properly worn wrapped aroundthe body as a shawl and usually held in place with the hands or with a pin of some form.

Serapes continued to be made throughout all of the 19th century as well.

*******

Navajo shoulder blanket forms: chief's vs. serape

Left: A Germantown Chief's Blanket of Third Phase Pattern

Right: A Homespun Transitional Blanket, Serape form.

Any shoulder blanket woven (when on the loom) longer than wide is a shoulder blanket form referred to as a serape. Note that while the serape is worn on the shoulders horizontally as shown in photo, it is woven on the loom vertically, unlike the chief's. Many Navajo blanket collectors prefer to display shoulder blankets as they would have been on the loom, so if not displayed on a mannequin, serapes are usually displayed vertically.

To determine how the blanket was woven on the loom , look at the direction of the warp cords(the interior 'skeleton' of the blanket) which will appear as tiny continuous ridges on the exterior of theblanket for the entire length of the blanket.

*******

'Chief's blanket' is something of a misnomer as the Navajo did not have'chiefs' within their social structure. The term came to be used because only a relatively wealthy person(such as a chief in a Plains Indian tribe or the Utes who especially liked and traded for these weavings) could affordthe extravagance and cost of these beautiful weavings.

Phase 1 --Pre-1850

'First Phase' or 'Ute -style' blankets of thepre-1850 'Classic' Period were simple banded chief's blankets with broad horizontal bands of natural darkbrown/black alternating with broad bands of creamy white churro sheep wool yarn, often with narrow or broad bands ofindigo-blue dyed yarn and sometimes red bands obtained from ravelled yarn (the unravelled and re-twisted threadsobtained from bolts of trade cloth, especially the cochineal insect red-dyed English baize trade cloth, known by theSpanish as bayetta.)

Phase 2 -- 1850-1860

Diamond Dating Shiprock Arizona

Second phase chief's blankets of the 'Late Classic' Period . Smaller design elements, often smallrectangular elements were placed within one each of the top, middle and bottom horizontal bands , often in atwelve-position layout. The effect was that the new elements were being placed 'on top of' the traditionalPhase One motif, with the First Phase blanket now a 'background'.

Phase 3 -- 1860-1868

The new elements now expanded beyond the bands, and were laid out in a 'nine -spot' design with threeelements each across the top, middle and bottom of the old Phase One pattern. The new elements could be squares,rectangles or diamonds, and in some later interpretations --especially during the Transition Period-- became so largethat the original Phase One pattern of bands can barely be discerned. Some of these latter interpretations are sometimesreferred to as 'Chief's Variants.'

Chief's Blankets of the Transition Period (1868-1890)

Chief's Blankets, especially in the Third Phase form most desiredby collectors of that time, continued to be made past the Late Classic Period and into the Transition Period. The majordifferences being the substitution of aniline-dyed yarn for ravelled yarn, and the decrease in the use of indigo dye,being replaced by aniline purple-blue dye. While not as rare nor as costly as Late Classic period weavings, TransitionPeriod Weavings -- whether in homespun yarn or Germantown trade yarn-- (today regularly sold at a fraction of the priceof Classics), offer weavings over one hundred years old that capture much of the beauty of the earlier weaves and oftengreater complexity in both color and motif and often were woven by women who would have also been weaving during theClassic period.

Diamond Dating Shiprock New Mexico

'Chief's - Style' Rugs after 1890

The 'Chief's Pattern', especially the Second and Third Phase pattern, continued to beused after the Transition period and is even found in modern 'Revivals'. These heavier pieces, more rug thanblanket, each reflect the time period in which they are made. Third Phase Chief's rugs made prior to 1930 can in someinstances maintain many of the blanket-like characteristics of the earlier weaves and can sometimes be quite soughtafter and collectible, often priced similarly to the best regional style rugs of the same size and period.

After 1930, however, there is little intrinsic value to a rug having a 'Chief's-influenced' pattern or design.