The cover of our newest release, Garden of the Gods Trading Post, shows Navajo silversmith William Goodluck and members of his family sitting on the porch of the Trading Post in 1929. The cover utilizes about half of the original postcard as seen in the below image.
Goodluck came to work for Charles Strausenback during the time Charles managed “The Indian” trading post. The earliest confirmation of his employment is provided by a postcard postmarked July 16, 1927:
Providing a clue to the type of jewelry Goodluck may have made while working at “The Indian” could be what he chose to wear while being photographed for the postcard above. The close-up below shows Goodluck’s arm and hand. Note the top bracelet, half hidden by his sleeve, is similar in construction to the top bracelet with the teardrop turquoise setting in the second image below.
Beginning in the 1920s, William Goodluck and his family traveled to the Pikes Peak region to work during the summer months. Goodluck demonstrated silversmithing and his wife, Yekanasbah, worked as the resident Navajo rug weaver.
Goodluck continued his employment with Strausenback in 1929 when Charles opened his own Trading Post on the southern edge of Garden of the Gods park.
According to a Colorado Springs Gazette article dated June, 9, 1929, “Indians Transplanted to Garden of the Gods in Strausenback’s New Trading Post,”
Four adult Navajos, a Navajo baby in its carriage and a family of Santa Claras are living at the Trading Post in Indian fashion. There are two hogans where the Indians live. In the Trading Post they weave blankets, work in silver and with the Indian’s choice gem, the turquoise. Heading the redskin delegation is old Hosteen and his son, Bill Goodluck. Hosteen is one of the old types of Indian silver workers, distaining modern bench conveniences for the methods of his forefathers. Hosteen and his son were in a party of Navajos at the Buffalo Exposition [in 1901] when President McKinley, a few hours before he was the victim of an assassin, stopped to talk to the Indians. Asking them their name he caught the Navajos phrase as “good luck” and the family adopted the name thereafter.
Strausenback took a number of souvenir photographs of the Goodluck family, while they were at “The Indian” trading post and then again shortly after Garden of the Gods Trading Post opened in 1929. Goodluck continued to work for Strausenback into the 1930s.
Hoske Nal Wooty was born about 1891 around Lupton, Arizona. He attended the Navajo Training School at Ft. Defiance from 1905-1908 and then in 1909 was enrolled at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania by his mother, Mrs. Good Luck. After enrollment it was noted in his student records that he “wants to be called Wm. Goodluck,” and Superintendent Friedman agreed he should be called by that name. His student records for the years 1909-1912 can be accessed at the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center. By 1920 he added the middle name Patrick and became known as William Patrick Goodluck in official documents.
While attending Carlisle, Goodluck apprenticed as a carpenter and between terms participated in the Summer Outing Program, where jobs and boarding in local homes or businesses was arranged for students allowing them to learn labor or farm skills and interact with the white world. From 1909-1910 he worked for Amos Krusen of Newtown, Pennsylvania and from 1910-1911 he worked for Joseph P. Canby of Hulmeville.
Under the employment of Canby it was noted, “Haski seems to be well pleased with his country home. He said he did not care if he returned to Carlisle in the fall or remained out.” On July 5, 1912 it was reported that, “He is a good earnest faithful worker. He has had experience living on good farms, also in the carpenter shop. Under the proper supervision he would make a good helper to a carpenter.” But he was to follow in his famous father’s footsteps.
Though he likely learned to work silver from his father Hosteen Goodluck, the first mention of William working as a silversmith is in the Carlisle records where on February 4, 1914 it was reported that he was working at that trade in Manuelito, New Mexico.
Anthropologist John Adair reported in his book The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths that in 1938 the “Goodluck outfit” was situated near Lupton, Arizona and that Billy Goodluck made approximately $1000 working year-round, Adair considered silversmiths of that caliber to be professional. Adair also referred to William as “Billy Goodluck,” as that seems to be the name the reservation traders knew him by, consequently, William has been known as Billy ever since.
Goodluck worked silver for many decades and attained a reputation as a master silversmith, when not in Colorado he worked from his home in Arizona. John D. Kennedy describes William in his book A Good Trade: Three Generations of Life and Trading in and around Gallup, NM:
Billy Goodluck was a fine Navajo silversmith who lived twenty miles west of Gallup, near Lupton, Arizona. He would come to see me in Zuni for piecework. I would give him about 200 ounces of silver and he would return in a few weeks with finished goods. He made fine, large concho belts that were very popular trade items with Navajos, Zunis and reservation traders.
Goodluck registered for the draft on April 21, 1942 at Ft. Defiance, his place of residence was listed as Houck, Arizona, but it appears he never served in the military. In 1958 William Goodluck served as the first president of the newly formed Navajo Chapter at Lupton. He died October 1967 near his home in Lupton.
No confirmed identification hallmark has been recorded for William Goodluck. Though Barton Wright included a drawing of a comb-like hallmark in the Second Edition of Hallmarks of the Southwest, there is currently no evidence that William Goodluck used this or any other personal hallmark. However work he made while employed by Charles Strausenback would be stamped with the shop marks used at “The Indian” (SOLID SILVER HAND MADE AT THE “INDIAN” GARDEN OF THE GODS-COLO) or Garden of the Gods Trading Post (SOLID SILVER HAND MADE BY INDIANS, or the Tewa Thunderbird logo).
A biography of William’s father Hosteen Goodluck can be found at the bottom of the blog To Be (Hosteen) or Not To Be, That is the Question.
Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog May 27, 2019.