Navajo Silversmiths

Navajo Silversmiths
Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the

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Navajo Silversmiths by Washington Matthews

Published:

1883

Pages:

21

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409

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Navajo Silversmiths
Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the

By

0
(0 Reviews)
Government Printing Office, Washington, 1883, pages 167-178

Book Excerpt

s; 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 pur

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