Navajo Silversmiths | Page 4

yet be economized on the juniper-covered mesas of
New Mexico. They build a large fire of dry juniper, and when it has
ceased to flame and is reduced to a mass of glowing coals, they
smother it well with earth and leave it to cool. If the fire is kindled at
sunset, the charcoal is ready for use next morning.
The smith makes his own blow-pipe, out of brass, usually by beating a
piece of thick brass wire into a flat strip, and then bending this into a
tube. The pipe is about a foot long, slightly tapering and curved at one
end; there is no arrangement for retaining the moisture proceeding from
the mouth. These Indians do not understand our method of making an
air chamber of the mouth; they blow with undistended cheeks, hence
the current of air directed on the flame is intermitting. The flame used
in soldering with the blow-pipe is derived from a thick braid of cotton
rags soaked in mutton suet or other grease. Their borax is purchased
from the whites, and from the same source is derived the fine wire with
which they bind together the parts to be soldered. I have been told by
reliable persons that it is not many years since the Navajos employed a
flux mined by themselves in their own country; but, finding the pure
borax introduced by the traders to be much better, they gradually
abandoned the use of the former substance.
For polishing, they have sand-paper and emery-paper purchased from
the whites; but as these are expensive, they are usually required only
for the finishing touches, the first part of the work being done with
powdered sandstone, sand, or ashes, all of which are used with or
without water. At certain stages in the progress of the work, some
articles are rubbed on a piece of sandstone to reduce the surfaces to
smoothness; but the stone, in this instance, is more a substitute for the
file than for the sand-paper. Perhaps I should say that the file is a
substitute for the stone, for there is little doubt that stone, sand, and
ashes preceded file and paper in the shop of the Indian smith.
For blanching the silver, when the forging is done, they use a mineral
substance found in various parts of their country, which, I am informed

by Mr. Taylor, of the Smithsonian Institution, is a "hydrous sulphate of
alumina," called almogen. This they dissolve in water, in a metal basin,
with the addition, sometimes, of salt. The silver, being first slightly
heated in the forge, is boiled in this solution and in a short time
becomes very white.
The processes of the Navajo silversmith may be best understood from
descriptions of the ways in which he makes some of his silver ornament.
I once engaged two of the best workmen in the tribe to come to Fort
Wingate and work under my observation for a week. They put up their
forge in a small outbuilding at night, and early next morning they were
at work. Their labor was almost all performed while they were sitting
or crouching on the ground in very constrained positions; yet I never
saw men who worked harder or more steadily. They often labored from
twelve to fifteen hours a day, eating their meals with dispatch and
returning to their toil the moment they had done. Occasionally they
stopped to roll a cigarette or consult about their work, but they lost very
few moments in this way. They worked by the job and their prices were
such that they earned about two dollars a day each.
The first thing they made was a powder charger with a handle in the
shape of a dart (Fig. 2, Pl. XIX). Having cut in sandstone rock (Fig. 2,
Pl. XVIII) the necessary grooves for molds and greased the same, they
melted two Mexican dollars--one for the bowl or receptacle, and one
for the handle--and poured each one into its appropriate mold. Then
each smith went to work on a separate part; but they helped one another
when necessary. The ingot cast for the receptacle was beaten into a
plate (triangular in shape, with obtuse corners), of a size which the
smith guessed would be large enough for his purpose. Before the
process of bending was quite completed the margins that were to form
the seam were straightened by clipping and filing so as to assume a
pretty accurate contact, and when the bending was done, a small gap
still left in the seam was filled with a shred of silver beaten in. The
cone, at this stage, being indented and irregular, the workman thrust
into it a conical stake or mandrel, which he had formed carefully out of
hard wood, and with gentle