Native jewelry arts from the American Southwest and the Northwest Coast have enriched these physically separated, culturally distinctive native worlds from ancient to contemporary times. Their invaluable decorative arts, universal and enduring, signifiers carried on the body, portable emblems, in miniature, communicate a visual language that Jim Hart, Haida artist and chief, simply states: “For our people, what we wear is who we are. Our jewelry and our clothing represent where we come from. We wear our history.” This introductory proclamation at the entrance to Totems to Turquoise, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, centers oneself for the multi-layered, spiritually, conceptually (and spatially) complex exhibition that unfolds to visitors who enter, enveloping them in the rich cultural and religious traditions of the peoples who make up these geographical regions. The personal adornment reflects the passage of time and symbols—yet, still ever-animate manifestations of individual and collective creativity—breathtaking in power and beauty, from their earliest inceptions to modern interpretations.

With more than five hundred objects, Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and the Southwest explains cultural, historical and contemporary attributes in discrete thematically-developed environments that evince these native peoples in a deliberative, thoughtful manner. Included are numerous displays illustrating: Long traditions; Contrasting styles; A world in miniature; A visual language; New directions; Cosmology; Transformation; Seasons; Their many worlds; Societies of many clans but one people; Rituals for maintaining harmony; Symbols of pride in status and crests; Roles of women and men; Twentieth century master artists. The Haida, Kwakwaka’wakw, Tsimshian, Gitxsan, Nisga’a, Tlingit, Nuu-chah-nulth, Haisla and Salish tribes constitute the Northwest Coast representation. The Southwest encompasses the Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, Santo Domingo, Taos and other Pueblos, and the Apache and Tohono O’odham tribes.

In the juxtaposition of these two prominent regions of Native American cultures, the installation at the American Museum of Natural History is much more than a celebration of modern Native jewelry arts as it also seriously addresses issues of their physical and cultural evolution. In the exhibition and accompanying book, the concept of connections ties together their particular geographic regions and the differing Native cultures within them. Individual to each landscape and experience, these historical and still vital contemporary cultures share great commonalities while uniquely interpreting the universal influences of seasons and seasonal resources; the significance of directionality and a multi-dimensional universe; the sacred, interwoven panorama of transformation and shamanism; the omnipresence of mythology in daily life; the role of families, clans and other community groups.

The Northwest Coast is a naturally wealthy region, a narrow border between what had been richly dense forests and an oceanic frontier, pocketed by islands, fiords and shoals, with a benign climate of cool summers and wet, mild winters. Skilled artisans made works for the Northwest nobility, referencing their clan crests and other indexes of power, out of wood, fiber, horn, ivory and argillite. From a classical use of symmetry, geometric patterns and stylized representational images from their animal world, a grand supernatural power emits from their beautiful and astonishingly powerful works of art and ritual.

A geographical counterpoint to the Northwest Coast, the Southwestern landscape is vast and open, and climatically unpredictable, mainly dry with cold winters and scorching summers. From the ancient use of sacred shell and turquoise, beautiful objects formed by chipping and flaking of material, to the weaving and silversmithing made possible after seventeenth-century European contact, the Southwest cultures show an extraordinary aesthetic and genius for technological use and innovation in its arts.

The two major geographic groupings present jewelry by historically significant master artists Charles Loloma, Preston Monongye and Kenneth Begay of the Southwest; and Charles Edenshaw and Bill Reid from the Northwest Coast. Between the exhibition and its companion book there are also the exquisite works of Northwest Coast contemporary artists, such as Norman Tait, Lyle Wilson, Beau Dick, Evelyn Vanderhoop, Nathan Jackson, Keven Cranmer, Christian White, Corey Moraes, and Dempsey Bob. Other artists comprising the Northwest are Dorothy Grant, Will Burkhart, Nick Galanin, Victoria Moody, Marven Tallio, Dan Wallace, and Robert Davidson.

Some of the Southwest contemporary artists are Angie Owen, Lee Yazzie, Verma Nequatewa, Michael Kabotie, Harvey Begay, Cippy Crazy Horse, Edith Tsabetsaye, Perry Shorty, Veronica Poblano, Raymond C. Yazzie, and Mike Bird-Romero. Also covered are the works of Victor Beck, Sr., Gary Yoyokie, Sr. and Elsie Yoyokie, Vernon Haskie, Martine Lovato, Myron Panteah, Richard Chavez, Ric Charlie, Phil Loretto, Anthony Lovato, and James Little.

Expertly synthesizing their complex subject, curators Lois Sherr Dubin and Peter M. Whiteley effectively demonstrate how both the marine Northwest Coast and the desert Southwest feature an uninterrupted tradition of extraordinary indigenous jewelry and iconography. Dubin is a lecturer, curator and author of several authoritative books on Native American jewelry. Whiteley is Curator of North American Ethnology in the Museum’s Division of Anthropology. Advising artists Jim Hart, Hereditary Chief of the Haida Nation, is an accomplished carver and jeweler; and Jesse Monongya is a highly regarded Navajo jeweler whose inlay work is among the finest today.

The exhibition is accompanied by Totems to Turquoise: Native American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwest, a major publication copublished by the American Museum of Natural History and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. The 224-page book, with one hundred fifty plates in full color explores the themes presented in the show. There are thirty-six personal statements by contemporary Native American artisans, who discuss their approach to their artwork. The cloth-bound book costs forty-five dollars.

Just closed at the American Museum of Natural History, Totems to Turquoise travels to two other locations. It shows from April 2, 2006 to August 27, 2006, at the Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, California 90027; telephone 323.667.2000.

Published in Ornament Magazine, Volume 28, No. 4, 2005.
—Author Carolyn L. E. Benesh is Coeditor of Ornament.
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