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How did Navajo silversmithing begin in the 19th century?
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Native American art
Pottery created by the Hohokam people, made of buff clay and painted with red designs.
Navajo silversmithing began in 1853 when the craft was introduced to the Navajo by Mexican smiths. The Navajo developed this skill with great ability, incorporating and reworking motifs of Spanish American origin into their own traditional style.12
While the origin of the craft is Mexican, certain ornament types and decorative modes used by the Navajo have been traced by scholars to earlier silverworking traditions found among Indigenous peoples in the eastern woodlands, the plains, and the Rocky Mountains. Navajo silverwork is particularly distinguished by its use of die-stamped designs.1