Ambrose Roanhorse – Kim & Pat Messier's Blog

A Bracelet with a Story to Tell

We have often stated, and even wrote in our introduction to Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry, that sometimes more can be discerned from the back of a piece of antique American Indian jewelry than from the front.

*Silver ridge bracelet ca. 1938.* Courtesy Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, catalog number 2008.11.001, Gift of Thomas and Deborah Begner.

This modest ridge bracelet, now in the collection of the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, is the epitome of that statement. The underside reveals a fascinating aspect of the establishment of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB) silver stamping program. For an overview of the program see our previous blog Indian Arts and Crafts Board Silver Stamping Program 1938-1943.

*The underside of the bracelet reveals a multitude of hallmark stamps that were tested by Ambrose Roanhorse and Kenneth Chapman for the IACB silver stamping program.* Courtesy Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, catalog number 2008.11.001, Gift of Thomas and Deborah Begner.

Kenneth M. Chapman of the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe was appointed as special consultant to the IACB and assumed responsibility for the silver stamping program. He was assigned the task of developing the inspection and identification criteria for finished Native American jewelry pieces that, after thorough examination, would be hallmarked to certify that the piece was hand made to strict standards set down by the government. His biggest challenge was to find a way to apply marks to finished jewelry pieces. Identification marks, or hallmarks, are typically applied by Native silversmiths while the jewelry piece is under construction to avoid damaging the finished product.

The specifications for the stamps were set down on April 2, 1937 when Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes approved the “Regulations for Use of Government Mark on Navajo, Pueblo and Hopi Silver” which had been drafted by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board on March 10. Among the eight regulations were,

All dies used to mark silver will be provided by and owned by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board.
Dies are marked with name of tribe. A Navajo stamp will be used where the maker is a Navajo Indian; similarily, for Zuni, Hopi and Rio Grande Pueblo.
All dies will be numbered, and each wholesaler or dealer will be held responsible for any violation of standards in silver that bears his mark.

With these specifications in mind Chapman labored to design the marking dies. According to Chapman biographers Janet Chapman and Karen Barrie, “He naturally thought about the mark as a design element.” He considered including Native symbolism to the marks and, “toyed with a mini-squash blossom and crescent” for the Navajo stamp, but none of that transpired.

In early December 1937 Chapman received a shipment of steel dies to test in preparation for the beginning of the program. He visited the workshop of Navajo silversmith Ambrose Roanhorse—teacher at Santa Fe Indian School who would be enlisted to help stamp the approved pieces—to have Roanhorse experiment with the marking dies. Some of the dies broke and on the whole Chapman found them inferior and useless. On top of it all, the bracelet dies were too large, and the U.S. NAVAJO die damaged the bracelet they used for testing.

*Damage, circled in red, to the front of the bracelet caused by the first U.S. NAVAJO die.* Courtesy Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, catalog number 2008.11.001, Gift of Thomas and Deborah Begner.

The large US NAVAJO stamp that damaged the front of the bracelet is shown in the center with the number 10 and an eagle design. Among other stamps that can be seen are various sizes of the same dies plus STERLING, and GA 23. It is unknown what GA 23 may have stood for. Courtesy Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, catalog number 2008.11.001, Gift of Thomas and Deborah Begner.

*Close up of the eagle stamp that was applied at the end of U.S. NAVAJO 10. This design resembles the eagle used for the National Recovery Act, it was never used on government approved silver.* Courtesy Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, catalog number 2008.11.001, Gift of Thomas and Deborah Begner.

Examining the markings on the test bracelet it can be seen that many different dies were experimented with. But in early March 1938 Rene d’Harnoncourt, general manager of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, ordered a new set of four flat punch dies from William A. Force Company in New York. The set consisted of U.S. NAVAJO, U.S. R.G. PUEBLO, U.S. ZUNI and U.S. HOPI along with ten number dies, from 1 to 0. A few weeks later the completed dies were mailed to Kenneth Chapman in Santa Fe.

*The final versions of U.S. HOPI, U.S. ZUNI and U.S. NAVAJO stamps that were accepted for use on government approved Native American made silver. The stamp for Hopi was never used.* Courtesy Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, catalog number 2008.11.001, Gift of Thomas and Deborah Begner.

*Close up of U.S. R.G. PUEBLO stamp that was never used during the duration of the program.* Courtesy Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, catalog number 2008.11.001, Gift of Thomas and Deborah Begner.

These were smaller dies that were ultimately approved and used during the life of the program, from April 5, 1938 when Ambrose Roanhorse marked the first inspected pieces of silver until sometime in 1943 when interest in the program waned. Even though dies were made for Navajo, Zuni, Hopi and Rio Grande Pueblo, Chapman only recorded that the Navajo and Zuni dies were ever applied to any government approved jewelry.

The path this bracelet took from Kenneth Chapman’s hands to the Wheelwright will never fully be known. But it was rescued from obscurity by Thomas and Deborah Begner, owners of Turkey Mountain Traders in Scottsdale, when they purchased it on eBay and donated it to the Wheelwright. In the end this important piece of history is now back in Santa Fe where it originated.

We are grateful to Jonathan Batkin, retired director of the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian for granting us permission to tell this story before his retirement. We also thank Karen Barrie for graciously sharing her research into Kenneth M. Chapman including documents she obtained from the National Archives.

All photographs are by the authors.

References

Jonathan Batkin, The Native American Curio Trade in New Mexico, Wheelright Museum of the American Indian, 2008.

Jonathan Batkin, personal communication March 4, 2020.

Janet Chapman and Karen Barrie, Kenneth Milton Chapman: A Life Dedicated to Indian Arts and Artists, University of New Mexico, 2008.

Karen Barrie, personal communication, May 2010.

United States Department of the Interior, Indian Arts and Crafts Board, Reports and Documents Concerning the Activities of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, December 1, 1943.

Indian Arts and Crafts Board Silver Stamping Program 1938-1943

The Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB), an agency of the Department of the Interior, was formally established in 1936 to aid in the revitalization and promotion of traditional Native American arts. The preservation of traditional southwest Indian silverwork was one of the most urgent issues to be addressed by the board.

Bracelets (1938–1943), all marked U.S.NAVAJO by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. The designating numbers were 4 for Fred Harvey Company (top); 40 for Fort Wingate Indian School (far left and bottom right); and 2 for C. G. Wallace (second from left front and far right).

Competition from machine manufactured Indian-design jewelry, such as was made by Maisel’s, Bell Trading Post, H.H. Tammen, etc, was making it nearly impossible for individual Indian silversmiths to make a living. A series of meetings held by the board resulted in a program by which genuine handmade Navajo, Pueblo, and Hopi silver could obtain a stamp of authenticity from the government. An announcement, made in March 1937, set forth the standards by which jewelry could qualify for the stamp, and that the stamp “should be applied only to the finest quality of wholly genuine, truly hand-fashioned and authentic Indian silver and turquoise products.”

*Two silver pins, both stamped with Indian Arts and Crafts Board mark U.S.NAVAJO 60, indicating they were made at the Santa Fe Indian School, 1938–1943.*

The IACB silver stamping program has been examined at length by Jonathan Batkin in his excellent book The Native American Curio Trade in New Mexico. Batkin explains how this program adopted hallmarks that were stamped on silver individually produced and entirely handmade (no power-driven machinery could be used) from silver slugs hammered to shape; the turquoise also had to be genuine, untreated, and cut and polished by hand.

Two silver bracelets and a small buckle, all stamped with Indian Arts and Crafts Board mark U.S.NAVAJO 40, indicating they were made at Fort Wingate Indian School, 1938–1943.

Only an agent of the IACB could determine which silver complied with the standards and therefore could receive the government mark. No jewelry with tourist-type designs, such as arrow stamps, were eligible to receive the hallmark. C. G. Wallace had a bracelet with such stamps rejected. But silver made by casting in an individual tufa mold was approved to receive the government stamp, as evidenced by a cast bracelet by Juan De Dios marked with U.S.ZUNI 1.

Four bracelets with Indian Arts and Crafts Board marks, 1938–1943. Top cast bracelet with mark U.S.ZUNI 1 assigned to C. G. Wallace; bottom left marked U.S.NAVAJO 5 for Kelsey Trading or Pueblo Indian Arts and Crafts; middle and far right U.S.NAVAJO 1 for Gallup Mercantile.

Kenneth Chapman, curator of the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, and a respected authority on southwest Indian arts, assumed responsibility as special agent for the silver program. It was Chapman who developed the marking system for approved silver, spending months in research until he and Ambrose Roanhorse, a well-respected Navajo silversmith who taught at the Santa Fe Indian School, settled on the small dies that were eventually put into service.

The marks included the letters “U.S.” and then the tribal identification, NAVAJO, ZUNI, HOPI, and RGPUEBLO (for Rio Grande Pueblo) followed by a number identifying the participating trader, wholesaler, or federal Indian school. Stamps were designed and made for HOPI and RGPUEBLO, but apparently never used, possibly because there were no interested traders who employed Pueblo or Hopi smiths.

Three pieces of silver made at Albuquerque Indian School and stamped with U.S. NAVAJO 50 exhibit additional stamped numbers not seen on other pieces stamped by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. Each piece possesses a different number, suggesting the numbers were assigned to each student in the silversmithing class. The AS in front of two of the numbers (AS 195 and AS 40) could possibly designate “Albuquerque School.”

Chiseled ingot silver pin marked U.S. NAVAJO 50 made at Albuquerque Indian School includes the stamped number AS 195 on the reverse, likely indicating Albuquerque School and the student that made the piece. Courtesy Gloria Dollar.

US Navajo 50 pin with additional hallmark AS 40. — *Fabricated pin with small turquoise setting marked U.S. NAVAJO 50 made at Albuquerque Indian School includes the stamped number AS 40 on the reverse, likely indicating* Albuquerque School and the student that made the piece. Courtesy Gloria Dollar.

*Cast bracelet marked U.S. NAVAJO 50 made at Albuquerque Indian School includes the stamped number 177 on the reverse, likely indicating the student that made the piece.* Courtesy Gloria Dollar.

Ambrose Roanhorse was responsible for applying the stamp to approved pieces, and later Dooley Shorty, the silversmithing teacher at Fort Wingate Indian School, also did some marking of approved silver.

The first numbers were assigned and stamped under Chapman’s supervision on April 5, 1938, in Santa Fe. Chapman and Roanhorse then traveled throughout New Mexico to stamp the silver held in anticipation of the start of the program. After three weeks, Chapman estimated that 4,000 pieces were examined in the first batches of silver with 2,322 qualifying for the stamp.

Response to the program was mixed. C. G. Wallace was enthusiastic and sent many pieces of silver for marking during the life of the program. On the other hand, Herman Schweizer was cautious about the objectives of the program but still submitted some of the first articles stamped in April 1938, thinking the Harvey Company should be in on the ground floor.

These two silver pins were stamped by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board with U.S.NAVAJO 2, indicating they were made for C. G. Wallace, 1938–1943. Bottom pin also includes unknown artist’s hallmark of curved arrow.

Complaints arose quickly. Traders and silversmiths were concerned that the rules were too stringent. Even C. G. Wallace, the program’s biggest supporter, complained to Chapman that he had to put a man on the road to try to sell the stamped silver because his biggest clients, the Fred Harvey Company and the Gallup wholesale houses, had turned their backs on Wallace’s government-stamped jewelry.

Schweizer’s support of the program was short lived, and he quickly concluded it was a failure. He told Chapman the IACB had not advertised the program as promised, and the traveling public knew nothing about it. When tourists were shown the marked silver they became suspicious of the unmarked silver in the store. Schweizer ceased selling government-stamped silver by late 1938.

Two silver pins stamped with Indian Arts and Crafts Board mark U.S.NAVAJO 70, designating they were made for the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild, 1940–1943. This number was originally assigned by Chapman in March 1940.

Number Designations for IACB Hallmarks

No. Trader or School Location

U.S.Navajo

1 Gallup Mercantile Company Gallup, NM

2 C. G. Wallace Zuni, NM

3 Berton I. Staples, Crafts del Navajo Coolidge, NM

4 Fred Harvey Company Albuquerque, NM

5* Kelsey Trading CompanyZuni, NM

Pueblo Indian Arts & Craft MarketAlbuquerque, NM

6 Zuni Trading Post (Robert Wallace) Zuni, NM

10 Tuba City Indian School Tuba City, AZ

11 Drolet’s Trading Post (J. M. Drolet) Naschitti, NM

20 Shiprock Indian School Shiprock, AZ

30 Crownpoint Indian School Crownpoint, NM

40 Fort Wingate Indian School Fort Wingate, NM

50 Albuquerque Indian School Albuquerque, NM

60 Santa Fe Indian School Santa Fe, NM

70 Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild Fort Wingate, NM

U.S.Zuni

1 C. G. Wallace Zuni, NM

4 Fred Harvey Company Albuquerque, NM

5* Kelsey Trading Company Zuni, NM

Pueblo Indian Arts & Craft Market Albuquerque, NM

6 Zuni Trading Post (Robert Wallace) Zuni, NM

11 Gallup Mercantile Company Gallup, NM

*It appears the numbers U.S.NAVAJO 5 and U.S.ZUNI 5 were reassigned in 1941. Kelsey Trading Company in Zuni was originally assigned those numbers and had 170 pieces stamped in April 1938. Kelsey must have stepped away from the program because Chapman notes on June 10, 1941, that he marked 36 pieces U.S.ZUNI 5 and thirteen pieces U.S.NAVAJO 5 received from the Pueblo Indian Arts & Crafts Market.

Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild

The foundation for an arts and crafts guild for the Navajo tribe was laid in 1939 when a crafts program was established at Fort Wingate, New Mexico with assistance from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Ambrose Roanhorse was selected as director of the project, the purpose of which was to provide employment for those who had learned silversmithing at federal Indian schools as well as for established silversmiths in the vicinity. Roanhorse distributed supplies on the reservation and collected finished work to be sold through the guild. By 1940, with the help of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB), the program was established as the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild (NACG), though it was not formally chartered by the tribal council until 1941, at which time it moved to Window Rock.

Bolo, buckle and cast pins made for the Navajo Guild 1940s-1950s. — *Bolo, buckle and cast pins made for the Navajo Guild 1940s-1950s*.

Silver was produced either at the guild shop, in the homes of the craftsmen, or at community workshops established on the reservation. Materials and supplies were issued only to craftsmen who could meet the standards and requirements for quality established by the guild. These standards were similar to the stringent standards set in 1938 by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board silver stamping program (which meant no power-driven machinery nor sheet silver could be used in the production)[see Note * below]—though craftsmen having their own materials, supplies, and workshops could offer their products for sale to the guild. Full-time managers were hired, and one of the first was Anglo anthropologist John Adair.

Two bracelets made for the Navajo Guild 1940s-1950s. — *Two bracelets made for the Navajo Guild 1940s-1950s*.

In his 1944 book The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths, Adair wrote,

The purpose of the guild is to increase the tribal income from the sale of arts and crafts by promotion of fine handicrafts which will sell in quality stores in the East, Middle West, and Southwest. The tourist market is purposely avoided, as it does not yield as high a return per man hour as the more exclusive stores and shops. The type of silverware that the guild promotes is similar to that which has been at the Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Fort Wingate Indian schools; a revival of the old simple types of jewelry, without sets for the most part. Emphasis is placed on cast work. The guild also handles vegetable-dyed rugs and some aniline-dyed rugs of similar pattern and excellent workmanship. (pg 209)

Two of the “quality stores” who purchased from the Navajo Guild in 1947 were Marshall Field’s and Tiffany’s.

In 1943 the United Indian Traders Association (UITA) complained that the guild was in direct competition with the traders. The controversy continued in 1946 during the Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial when Arthur Woodward, one of the judges of the silversmithing division, was shocked to learn that the craftsmen who worked with the NACG were not permitted to submit their work for competition. The Ceremonial board contended the Navajo Guild was government subsidized and should be disqualified; Woodward refuted their claim in an open letter published in the Gallup Independent newspaper, saying that guild craftsmen were in business for themselves and questioned whether the Gallup traders feared their silver would fare poorly in competition with the silver made by guild craftsmen.

Despite complaints from the reservation traders, the guild continued to succeed and grow; Ned Hatathli was named the first Navajo manager in 1951. In 1964 the guild opened its first branch at Cameron, Arizona, under the management of Kenneth Begay. By the late 1960s the NACG had added branches at Betatakin (Navajo National Monument), Kayenta, Teec Nos Pos, and Chinle.

In 1971 the guild became the Navajo Arts and Crafts Enterprise (NACE) and continues to be the only Navajo Nation–owned business engaged in the purchase and sale of Navajo-made arts and crafts.

The title “Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild” and its Horned Moon logo were registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1943. Items made through the NACG were hallmarked with the Horned Moon logo and often included the word NAVAJO. Sometimes individual silversmiths’ hallmarks are also found on these pieces.

Navajo Guild hallmarks on the back of the two bracelets above.

Note* For discussions of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board silver stamping program that ran from 1938-1943 see Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry by Pat & Kim Messier, Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks by Bille Hougart, and The Native American Curio Trade In New Mexico by Jonathan Batkin. IACB numbers were assigned April 1938, but the Navajo Guild at Fort Wingate was assigned US NAVAJO 70 in March 1940.

Two pins marked U.S. NAVAJO 70 made for the Navajo Guild at Fort Wingate.

Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog October 19, 2017.

Roanhorse and Lincoln: Two Very Different Ambroses

Since the publication of Hallmarks of the Southwest in 1989 Ambrose Lincoln and Ambrose Roanhorse have been unfortunately described as the same person, which has caused their jewelry to be misidentified for decades. In fact, they were two distinctly different individuals. Although both were Navajo silversmiths, Lincoln was more than a decade younger than Roanhorse and worked in a different style.

So how did this happen?

In the beginning Ambrose Lincoln and Ambrose Roanhorse were listed separately, and on the same page, in the appendix of Navajo silversmiths working in 1940 in John Adair’s book The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths:

In 1980 Mark Bahti published Collecting Southwestern Native American Jewelry, and incorporated an appendix of hallmarks for many prominent Native American silversmiths. He included the mark for Ambrose Lincoln:

Ambrose Lincoln mark in Mark Bahti's book.

But something went wrong during Barton Wright’s research for Hallmarks of the Southwest and he wasn’t able to discern that Roanhorse and Lincoln were two different people:

Lincoln/Roanhorse in Barton Wright's book.

Barton Wright made no corrections and continued to confuse the two Ambrose’s in the second edition of Hallmarks of the Southwest.

Wright’s entry of Roanhorse and/or Lincoln was debated among dealers and collectors for years, with the conclusion that they must have been two different silversmiths. Unfortunately once something appears in print it is then considered gospel and nearly impossible to correct.

Jonathan Batkin divulged much biographical information about Ambrose Roanhorse in his 2008 publication The Native American Curio Trade In New Mexico, also observing that John Adair’s field notes of 1940 identified Ambrose Lincoln as working at Zuni, and provided irrefutable evidence Roanhorse and Lincoln were not the same person.

Still the question remained, did Roanhorse sign with the A-in-keystone hallmark? If not, then how did he hallmark his work? The problem was solved when California Academy of Sciences made their collections database available via the Internet. CAS is in possession of the Elkus Collection, one of the most thoroughly documented collections of Indian art from the 1940s/50s era. In the collection are ten pieces of Roanhorse’s jewelry, three of which are hallmarked, here is a link to the Ambrose Roanhorse items in their collection, CAS Collections Database.

Once representative pieces of work with both hallmarks could be compared side-by-side it didn’t take much to figure out the rightful owner of each hallmark.

It is now abundantly apparent that Ambrose Roanhorse used a stick figure of a horse with his initials AR forming the legs…

Ambrose Roanhorse hallmark. — *Courtesy Karen Sires.*

and that Ambrose Lincoln signed his work with a capital A inside a keystone shaped design.

To further the argument, below are signed pieces of work by both men and a discussion of their styles and skills.

Ambrose Roanhorse was one of the most influential Navajo silversmiths of his time and became famous for hand wrought, traditional old style Navajo silver. When he used stone settings they usually consisted of one large stone set in the center of the piece. He was considered a master of his craft and won many awards for his hand wrought work; his plain silver concho belt took a first place ribbon at the 1956 Gallup Ceremonial. His work was highly prized and compared favorably alongside the highest quality master silversmiths of the time including Georg Jensen. While many pieces of his work do not bear his hallmark, they are distinctive for his use of bold, simple design and high quality of workmanship.

Here are two typical plain silver pieces made by Ambrose Roanhorse.

Silver fabricated bracelet by Ambrose Roanhorse in the style known as “Indian School” for its simplicity and for evoking the early phases of Navajo silverwork. Courtesy Karen Sires.

Silver concho pin by Ambrose Roanhorse. Courtesy Karen Sires.

Ambrose Lincoln, on the other hand, worked in the Gallup/Zuni area for C.G. Wallace and Charles Kelsey, among others, and most commonly produced cast silver pieces, often with turquoise channel inlay. At the 1956 Gallup Ceremonial, mentioned earlier in connection with Roanhorse, Lincoln won a second place grand prize for a bracelet with channel work inlay that was a collaboration with Zuni lapidarist Lambert Homer; thus establishing that Lincoln was an excellent silversmith in his own right.

Illustrated below are two pieces by Ambrose Lincoln.

Necklace by Ambrose Lincoln with sand cast Yei figures and Zuni turquoise channel inlay. Courtesy Karen Sires.

Fabricated bracelet by Ambrose Lincoln, with turquoise settings. Courtesy Karen Sires.

So, as we made clear in Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry, Lincoln’s jewelry, though good, should not be mistaken for Roanhorse’s (who was considered a master silversmith) nor should it command the same value as Roanhorse’s.

Following are short biographies of Roanhorse and Lincoln, more information is available in Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry.

Ambrose Roanhorse

Ambrose Roanhorse was born about 1904 near Ganado, Arizona and started learning silverwork at the age of nine by helping his grandfather, the famed early silversmith Peshlakai. Roanhorse moved to Santa Fe about 1928 where he worked at Southwest Arts and Crafts as a silversmith. He was hired as the first instructor for the silversmithing classes at the Santa Fe Indian School, where he taught hand forging methods from 1931 to 1939.

In 1936 Roanhorse became involved with the Indian Arts and Crafts Board’s program for promoting (and hallmarking) hand made Indian jewelry and in turn became Kenneth Chapman’s assistant, inspecting and stamping the jewelry that was submitted.

In 1939 Roanhorse was selected as director of the Wingate Guild, and left Santa Fe for the headquarters at the Wingate Vocational School. In 1941 the guild expanded to become the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild, where he served as assistant manager for a few years.

In 1954 Roanhorse was one of twelve American Indian artists honored (additionally Dorothy Dunn Kramer, an Anglo art teacher was honored) by the French government, awarded with the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, the French Republic Award for his distinguished achievements in silver work.

After retirement from the Bureau of Indian Affairs he continued to teach silversmithing at various venues. Roanhorse passed away in 1982 and is buried in St. Michael’s, AZ.

Ambrose Lincoln

Ambrose Lincoln was born in 1917, and graduated from Wingate Vocational High School in 1939, the term before Roanhorse became an instructor there. Ironically, Lincoln worked as the silversmithing instructor at Santa Fe Indian School in 1942, three years after Roanhorse left the position to work with the Navajo Guild.

Lincoln worked primarily in the Zuni and Gallup areas, in the 1940s for C.G. Wallace and Charles Kelsey.

Ambrose Lincoln died in 1989 and is buried in Gallup, NM.

Update August 2019: These hallmarks have been properly identified in the third and fourth editions of Bille Hougart’s Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks.

Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog April 3, 2016.