Turquoise in the Southwest

                                       Navajo matriarch wearing her heirloom turquoise jewelry
                                                 

                                                  

            The use of turquoise among the natives of America was originally limited to the area bordered by the Isthmus of Panama on one side and by a line drawn eastwardly from the Pacific Coast through southern Nevada and Colorado, then south across Texas to the Gulf of Mexico.  In prehistoric cultures of the Americas we find no important turquoise deposits outside of these boundaries.  The abundance of turquoise beads in early sites in the Southwest, as opposed to their absence in other parts of North America, indicates that the original pueblo dwellers did not travel east to trade and had little communication with Indians in the northern, southern, or eastern United States.  They tended to trade via routes to South America or California where specimens of New Mexican turquoise have been unearthed.

            Turquoise was extensively used by aboriginal peoples for several reasons:

1. Turquoise occurred close to the surface so deposits were readily located by the first people.
2. The mineral is relatively soft and easily worked by primitive methods.
3. The colors of turquoise range from the blues of sky and water to the greens of plant and tree.  That held a mystical appeal for Native Americans.

There are numerous turquoise sources, both ancient and modern.  While most of them are now mined by outside operations, it is believed that certain tribes have secret localities known only to themselves where turquoise is still found and used for esoteric purposes. Contemporary Indians, however, do not engage in any systemic mining for turquoise and usually acquire it from itinerant traders, trading posts on the reservation or lapidary supply stores in the bordering towns. 

Within the pueblos and among the Dine people (Navajo), turquoise beads and fetishes have been cherished as part of the family’s wealth and history.  Turquoise deposits of any significance show signs of early exploitation.  The best example is Los Cerillos in New Mexico where excavations date back to pre-Spanish times. The sources of turquoise in the Southwest are easy to document, but difficult to trace down the old trade routes to Mexico and Central America.  In ancient times, there was no meaningful supply south of the Mexican border.  It is surmised that the Aztecs traded with pueblos to acquire turquoise that came from the Cerillos hills and other deposits in the Southwest.  Today this has changed and miners are finding excellent turquoise deposits such as Campo Frio and Nacozari in Mexico.  

                                            Pueblo Indian cutting and polishing rough turquoise

Cabeza deVaca was the first European to record the use of turquoise among the pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico.  In 1535, with three friends, he made the journey from Texas to Sonora on the Pacific Coast that ultimately led to the discovery of New Mexico by the Spanish.  Traveling near the Pacific Coast he was presented with turquoise beads by the natives.  Among the Sierra Madre Indians, about ninety miles east of the Yaqui River in Sonora, deVaca found Indians in possession of turquoise fetishes and beads.  These Indians explained that it was acquired to the north in exchange for parrot feathers and shells.

In 1539, Fray Marcos de Niza in company with Estevan the Black traveled northward as far as present day New Mexico searching for the legendary ‘Seven Cities of Gold,’ also called ‘Seven Cities of Cibola.’  At Rio San Pedro in southern Arizona, the last region of village Indians before the Pueblo of Zuni, he discovered that the Sobaipuris Indians wore great quantities of turquoise beads.  As he neared Cibola (Zuni) he came upon a village at the edge of the desert where the people wore turquoise beads and pendants called ‘cacona’ suspended from their ears and nostrils.  The wearing of these ornaments was called ‘casconados.’  He was told that these beads abounded in Cibola as well as at Marata (the ruined pueblo also called ‘Makyata’ near Zuni), at Acus (the present Pueblo of Acoma), and at Tontonteac (the Tusayan or Hopi lands to the northwest of Zuni).

 The so called ‘Seven Cities of Gold’ were actually a group of adobe pueblos, now in ruins, centered about the present Pueblo of Zuni.  Fray Marcos and Estevan arrived at sunset and the setting sun shining on the adobe created the illusion of gold, so feverishly sought by the early explorers.  They ran crazed into the pueblo, screaming about gold  but there was none.  Instead of gold they were disillusioned to discover the natives valued turquoise above all else and used it as a medium of exchange.  The Indians thought they were crazy.

Coming soon: Coronado in  the Southwest, Pueblo Bonito, Prototype of the Ancient Bead-makers, Plains Indian Medicine Bundles.

                     Inlaid turquoise earrings by Angie Reano Owen of Santo Domingo Pueblo

Beads in the Southwest, Part I: Mythic Turquoise

     Bluebird wore a robe of blue beads and on his head a bright blue cloud.  In his right hand he held a rattle made of blue turquoise and in his left a stalk of blue corn.  When the people asked what he had brought, Bluebird said: I bring you blue sky, summer rain and soft corn. --Old Navajo Myth

     Turquoise is the sacred stone for Native Americans of the Southwest.  It is the vehicle for the creative force which awakens and animates all life, both temporal and spiritual.  Coming from the womb of earth where all life emerged, according to Pueblo legend, it possesses the power associated with the color blue.  The Hopis tell of an all-pervasive spirit, Whuring Whuti, or Hard Beings Woman, mother of the universe who is always identified with beads of turquoise and shell.  Like turquoise, she is of the earth, but like the color blue, she is also of the skies and all the earth's waterways.  It is she who created the Male Earth-Spirit of crops and the Childbirth Water Woman, dual symbols of human fertility.  The Sun Spirit, ritually dressed in eagle feathers and beads of turquoise and shell, crosses the sky each day and finishes his journey at her home in the western ocean.
     The Navajos have many myths concerning the birth of the Turquoise Goddess or Changing Woman.  When Mother Sky and Father Earth came together they created her, born as a small turquoise image who grew in beauty, an ever-renewing life spirit.  In some myths she has her island home in the western ocean where the sun-bearer rests at the end of the day.  In other stories, she has a twin, White Shell Woman, who has her home in  the ocean from where she sends spring breezes and summer rain.  Turquoise woman made the sun with turquoise beads taken from her right breast and created the moon with white shells from her left breast.

Coming Sunday, July 3, 2011: Part II, Turquoise in Pre-Historic Ceremonial Offerings
  

Why The Hopis Have So Few Beads, Part Two

The Chief asked him why he had come. “I have searched for the path,” the young man replied, “and thought about the water running and knew I had to come this way that it runs. I search also for a woman, the Huruing Wuhti, goddess of all hard substances who is owner of many turquoise, shell, and coral beads.”

“You will get there because your heart is right,” the Chief told him, “but now this night you must sleep here.” During the night the Chief instructed him about the Snake cult, the altar, and the ceremony he would perform when he returned to his people.

In the morning he went with Spider Woman and made a rainbow road to the home of Huruing Wuhti high on the cliffs. They went in and found a withered old hag. All the walls were hung with beads and shells. The young man gave her a baho and she thanked him in a faint, far-away voice. At sundown she went into a side chamber and returned as an alluring young woman carrying many robes with which she made a bed. Then she commanded him to sleep with her. Spider Woman whispered that he most comply. Thus he remained four days with the goddess, but after that he wanted to return to his people. She went into a room on the north side and got a turquoise bead and from the west room the same. From the south room she brought a coral bead and from the east a hard white bead made of shell. Then she gave him all kinds of other beads and put them in a bag for him, instructing him not to open the bag or all the beads would be gone and could never increase.

He returned to the Snake kiva and stayed four nights, taking the beautiful girl who had been the most ferocious snake as his wife. Then he made ready to take her and the beads to his people waiting in the Grand Canyon country. As he was leaving the Chief said, "This woman will bear you children and there will be many. They will hold the Snake ceremony with you."

So they started on their way. Spider Woman also warned him not to sleep with his wife during the journey or she would disappear, along with the beads. As they started, the beads were not heavy and the first night they slept separately. The next three nights were spent in the same manner. The beads increased and the bag became very heavy. As they approached his home, the young man was overcome with desire to see the beads and sleep with his wife, but she remained strong and forbade it. They were almost home and had but one day’s travel to fill the bag completely with beads. During the last night the man opened the bag, although his wife begged him not to. As he took them out he saw they were the finest beads and shells. He spread them on the ground and hung them around his neck and was very happy. But in the morning all the beads had disappeared except the few original ones that the Huruing Wuhti had given him. Hence the Hopis have so few beads at this present time.