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na'k'idilyay -- 'ekar' -- íikiv -- Xwee-la'

Contemporary Jewelry

Contemporary Jewelry and the “Vanishing Indian”
By Brittani Orona (Hupa)
At the California State Indian Museum in Sacramento, California, there is an exhibit displaying the progression of women’s regalia, from pre-contact to post-contact period, of the Hupa, Yurok, Karuk, Tolowa, and Wiyot people. The women’s regalia, featuring long dentalium necklaces covering the bust, buckskin and maple bark skirts with fine beading, and intricately woven basket hats, demonstrates the beauty, mastery, and artistry of California Indian regalia. This exhibit is important, not only to display the cultural importance of regalia, but to also demonstrate that Indians of Northwest California continue traditional practices of jewelry and regalia making despite the supposed "disappearance" of their culture.  Despite the violent effects of colonization California Indians continue their traditions in the modern day through contemporary beadwork, basketry, and jewelry making.

Jewelry of Northern California incorporated elements of resources found in the area and acquired through trade. These included dentalium shells, pine nuts, bear grass braids, and abalone shells. Dentalium shells were an important resource because they signified currency and economic status within the community.  Dentalium shells were traded from Vancouver Island and made their way to Northern California as well as out to the Midwest. Necklaces made of these materials, along with beaded under skirts, bear grass braids, and intricate basket caps, are worn for special occasions such as the World Renewal Dances and the Flower Dance. These occasions gave the opportunity to display wealth and status while simultaneously renewing the world and preparing youth for the responsibilities of adulthood. Post-contact and settlement beginning in 1828 gave way to violence, assimilation, and colonization. Anthropologists that “studied” tribal communities did so under the guise that tribal communities were “disappearing” rather than adapting to a new way of life.
Since the progressive era, when the U.S. government pushed for the assimilation of Native American people into American society, Anglo-Americans were preoccupied with nostalgia for the “almost extinct population” of American Indians. Jennie Morton at an Ohio Valley Historical Association meeting on October 16th, 1909, referencing photographer Edward Curtis, remarked:
“Whether we call the Indian, North American or South American, we know the Indian race historically as a peculiar and distinctly marked people-disappearing gradually into oblivion (See E.S. Curtis Series).”
During the 1920’s, Edward Curtis (1868-1952), traveled to the California Northwest and photographed members of the Hupa, Yurok, Tolowa, Karuk, and Wiyot tribes. His intention, exemplified in his works The Vanishing Race and The North American Indian, was to capture the essence of the American Indian before they “disappeared.” 

The myth of the “vanishing Indian” was not a new concept when Curtis began his twenty-volume work, The North American Indian. To anthropologists such as Alfred Kroeber and Edward Curtis, the Hupa, Yurok, Karuk, Tolowa, and Wiyot people were a dying people. In true Eurocentric fashion, Krober and Curtis sought to depict California Indians in a romanticized light complete with beads, feathers, and a stagnant future. Curtis’s photographs perpetuated the stereotypes of the noble Indian in Northwestern California. Curtis depicted members of the Northwestern tribes in traditional dress, often-wearing buckskin loincloths, basket caps, beaded necklaces, and dance regalia. What anthropologists and historians failed to grasp was that  rather than remain stagnant, tribal communities adapted to the circumstances that surrounded them. This included adopting new ways of interpreting and privileging their culture through jewelry, basketry, and art. 

To tribal members of Northwestern California, efforts such as jewelry making, basket weaving, and ceremonial dances did not disappear but went underground after whites encroached into tribal territories. Native people of Northwestern California had to contend with miners, the U.S. military, settlers, and businessmen all vying for territory that contained valuable land and resources. The conflicts between whites and Indians lead to the suppression of the “old ways.” As Julian Lang (Karuk) notes in the preface for To the American Indian: Reminiscences of a Yurok Woman by Lucy Thompson:
“From 1849 until 1900 attacks against the Yuroks and Karuk people by the miners and settlers had disrupted the World Renewal ceremonies many times. After 1900, Indian ceremonies were being outlawed in some cases, and even when not outlawed were strongly discouraged. By 1916 some of the younger generation and non-Indians complicated furtherance of the dances by attending ceremonies as if they were social events like the white man dances, which were very popular at the time. The ceremonial leaders were growing more intolerant of the decline in belief, with some village leaders abandoning dances altogether.” (Thompson, xxv)  
The disruption of the world through colonization changed the way that the Native people of Northwestern California interacted with it. After white encroachment reached a fever pitch in the years following 1828, tribal members were forced to assimilate to the white man’s ways by adopting western forms of dress, work, and religion.
Picture
Photo by Rachel Sundberg; Necklaces by Marlette Grant-Jackson
To those outside the tribal communities without the outward appearance of “Indianess” tribal members appeared to have assimilated to western culture. This, however, proved false as members of the Hupa, Yurok, Karuk, Tolowa, and Wiyot tribes actively resisted assimilation by continuing traditional practices such as the World Renewal ceremonies and regalia making. Josephine Peters remarked, 
“After the whites came in here, they tried to rule all of us-tell us what to do, and take things away from us, like weaving baskets. When we saw somebody coming we’d hide it; just grab everything up, and throw it behind a chair, or some other place, and cover it up with a towel.” (Ortiz, 51) 
Basketry, regalia, ceremony, and contemporary jewelry designs continued in spite of the U.S. government’s efforts at assimilation. Despite the efforts of some tribal members to continue traditional practices, certain ceremonies, such as the Fish Dam Ceremony, have not been performed since colonization in the area (Thompson, xxvi). 

Regalia and jewelry makers such as Josephine Peters (Karuk) learned their craft from tribal elders who continued the traditions in spite of white encroachment. The era after colonization was one of transition for tribal communities.  By 1951, a pottery guild formed in Hoopa to help combat a void left by the loss of basketry materials (Ortiz, 52). By 1959, a group of women formed, including Josephine Peters and Vivian Hailstone (Yurok), to revive basket weaving. During the 1950s and 1960s, several members of the Hupa, Yurok, and Karuk tribes travelled to county and state fairs to demonstrate dances that melded Plains and North Coast traditions. These trips included basketry demonstrations and booths that sold contemporary jewelry from the tribes of Northwestern California. 

The revival of traditional practices was supported through programs sponsored by such affiliates as the Klamath-Trinity Arts and Crafts Association: 
“resulted in many new and unique objects…. a statement of the past merging with the present: hid key chains decorated with abalone pendants, trade beads and dentalia; cigarette lighters encased in open twined basketry; basketry rattles filled with pennies and store-bought olive shells; basketry and beaded barrettes; beaded earring with abalone pendants; and basketry medallions with trade beads, pine nuts, abalone, and dentalia.” (Ortiz, 56) 
PicturePhoto by Rachel Sundberg
This revival continues into the present day traditions that thrive within contemporary California Indian culture. 

Contemporary jewelry, such as necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings fashioned from pine nuts, glass and plastic beads, dentalium shells, abalone, and silver are currently used in ceremony and as items for sale. California Indian contemporary jewelers sell their art in museums, cultural centers, at big times and other cultural gatherings, and often gift jewelry to family and friends.  Jewelry making never disappeared, despite what anthropologists believed, because it was tied to ceremonies, such as the Flower Dance, that continued even when violence threatened the lives of California Indians. Jewelry transformed over time and united western materials and traditional cultural practices in a ways that reflect both the past and present experiences of Native artisans. 

The effort of regalia makers to create in the face of adversity speaks to not only the desire to continue their culture but to make a livelihood in changing world. They challenged the notions of the “Vanishing Indian” by not only adapting to new forms of regalia making, using western-style beads and other materials in their jewelry and basketry, but also by selling these items in the western market. Today, contemporary jewelry makers create to demonstrate the beauty and complexity of their cultures while also privileging their experiences, both in the past and toward the future.   
Picture
Hair Sticks by Kateri Masten

Contemporary Artists: 
Kateri Masten (Yurok), Marlette Grant-Jackson (Yurok)
The Native Women's Collective is proud to work with many artists who are blending the contemporary with the traditional. To find out more about our artists click here!

Contemporary Bloggers: 
Cutcha Risling Baldy & Stephanie Lumsden 

5 Reasons I Wear "Indian" Jewelry or Hupas...we been bling-blingin' since Year 1

by Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hupa, Karuk, Yurok)
We had a long history before contact with colonizers and settlers and for that long history we not only made things, we made beautiful things. They were aesthetically pleasing, they were also engineered like nobody's business. We have been making awesome jewelry for a long time. ...We were civilizations of people who had developed a way of life that included the artistic expression of sheer awesomeness. Whether it be through our architecture, our ideas, our ways of life, our ceremonies or our jewelry. READ MORE

When I Stopped Being Afraid of Wearing My Indian Jewelry

by Stephanie Lumsden (Hoopa Valley Tribe)
I'll admit that my Indian jewelry and I have had an imperfect relationship. I most definitely love me some Indian jewelry - elk horn, pine nuts, dentalium shells, abalone, bear grass, beads, you name it. But I didn't always wear my jewelry or covet it so much. In fact, I used to be really careful about where I wore my Indian jewelry and often didn't wear it at all. Now I wear it everywhere and I feel good about it, it's indicative of a positive change in myself. READ MORE