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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 Company Zuni, NM
Pueblo Indian Arts & Craft Market Albuquerque, 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.