Regional Native culture, and specifically jewelry, has undergone significant changes over the centuries; even so, it has brilliantly maintained its most essential features in spite of the enormous number of acculturative changes. Materials, designs and spiritual connections, enriched over thousands of years, have experienced slow but continuous transformation, particularly over the past 50 years as the range of available materials and styles expanded dramatically. Join us now for an exploration of the evolution of Southwestern jewelry over the past five decades or so as seen through the work of Mary Coriz Lovato, Anthony Lovato and Jesse Monongye.

Mary Coriz Lovato: Maintaining Tradition
"We have kept traditional jewelry going here because it is worn for our dances," explains Mary Coriz Lovato at her Santo Domingo Pueblo home some 35 miles north of Albuquerque. Viewing her splendid mosaic earrings and pendants, I am profoundly aware of the Southwest's jewelry continuum. Although Mary reintroduced stone-in-shell mosaics during the 1950s, Santo Domingans have crafted turquoise and shell heishi beads for at least a thousand years.

"I came up with the shell mosaic work myself. I started in the late '50s, in black, white and orange. Of course, way back, I did the plastic thing [using pieces of] batteries, combs [for materials] and then I went into shell. After going to a museum in Arizona and seeing the Hohokam jewelry, I bought a book, saw what they did, and started doing shell pendants and earrings a different way: I put in silver. These are contemporary. It's mainly what I see and what I think I should do, looking at things but not copying.

"I like doing it because it was there for me to do. And it is the only way of looking after my family. But the main thing is what my dad said:'You do what you have to, what comes to you.'

"Being really traditional, I like to keep that to myself and share it with other people in spirit. I'm praying for everybody-not for myself, but for the whole universe. I talk to my jewelry when I make it. I don't just make them to make them. After it's done, I say, whoever it may go to, may they have strength, may they have a good, happy life. So that is the way I do my work.

"I am kind of slowing down with my jewelry," adds Mary. "So I'm going to stick with the main thing that I was brought up with and chose to do-the mosaic. But it won't be in the [large] batches that I used to do."

Mary raised five sons to become accomplished silversmiths, including Anthony Lovato. "I'm so proud of Anthony and all my boys. They do their own work their own way. They don't copy each other. My dad told them, 'Do not copy.' I think they are keeping that in mind."

Southwestern Jewelry's Long and Rich Path Southwestern Native cosmologies relate sacred geographies (such as mountains and lakes), sacred food (including maize) and sacred jewels (shell, turquoise, jet) to the origins of the First People. The cosmos is understood to be a complex pattern of contrasting but complementary pairs embodied in the familiar metaphor of Earth Mother and Sky Father. Water-fertilizing rain-links earth and sky. Ceremonies-mosaics of dance, song, prayer and regalia-pay respect to ancestral spirits who control the environment. In return, rain blesses the land and ensures the crops. Water has influenced Southwestern craft for centuries. Frogs, lizards and dragonflies, water creatures emblematic of desert survival, recur in designs. Rain-magic symbolism-terraced clouds and lightning-adorn clothing and jewelry. Locally mined turquoise and shell-traded from distant oceans-are widely used materials. Turquoise, perceived as a piece of sky, has been mined and revered for millennia. Coming from water, shell is a symbol of life. Both remain an integral part of Pueblo and Navajo adornment today. Trade for marine shells from the Gulf of California and Pacific Coast began in archaic times; by A.D. 1000, copper bells, inlaid mosaics, parrot and macaw feathers from Mexico, and turquoise from the Southwest, were added to the barter. This infusion of materials and ideas inspired adornment; exquisitely crafted shell, turquoise and jet disk bead necklaces and inlaid mosaic pendants suggest the extent of ancestral Pueblo and Hohokam craftsmanship. Silver arrived in the Southwest via the Spanish, as well as through trade with the Plains Indians. By the 1860s, after learning metallurgy from Mexican smiths, the Navajo began fashioning their reputation as world-renowned silversmiths. In the 1900s, regional jewelry really began a remarkable diversification and phase of technical refinement. Major figures in contemporary Indian jewelry innovation of the past five decades include Kenneth Begay (Navajo, 1913­1977), Charles Loloma (Hopi, 1921­1991) and Preston Monongye (Mission/Hopi, 1927­1987). The technical and artistic abilities of these three deeply creative men have influenced generations of jewelers who followed them. Anthony and Mary Lovato can be reached at P.O. Box 1242, Pena Blanca, NM 87041, 505/465-1046; Jesse Monongye can be reached in Scottsdale, Arizona at mmonogye@aol.com or 480/991-2598.

Anthony Lovato: Seeing Both Sides
Anthony Lovato's unique tufa-cast and fabricated jewelry bridges both traditional and contemporary styles. It also conveys great presence, while reflecting his family's creative legacy as well as Santo Domingo's religious heritage. "I really come from a traditional jewelry family," recalls Anthony, a fifth-generation, 43-year-old jeweler and the son of Sedelio and Mary Coriz Lovato. "I grew up with my grandfather, Leo Coriz, who was taught tufa casting [using a soft, carved stone for one's jewelry mold] by his father and grandfather I learned to roll turquoise and inlay mosaic work from my mother. I've always been around it and absorbed it. They never said, 'Come here and learn this.' I just got interested and started watching. And the religion is a really strong traditional religion. So that's my traditional side.

"My contemporary side is being part of the upcoming new artists, who-after high school-decided to go further and learn more techniques in metalsmithing, coloration, and two-and three-dimension[al] design. That's the reason I went after my fine arts degree at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, and why I feel that I'm in between the two [traditional and contemporary]-because I've seen both sides. My three main influences are sculptor Allan Houser, jeweler Charles Loloma and my grandfather, Leo Coriz. I learned from them and then went off on my own."

Anthony resides physically and spiritually within the heart of Santo Domingo, generally acknowledged as the most conservative pueblo. He returned home in 1982 after living outside. "I have my studio right in the middle of the village because I feel that if I worked elsewhere, it would be a little bit harder to come up with my designs Our Indian religion is harmony, balance, well-being for the world, and peace. All the symbols go right into my work. I start carving in the stone mold; it just comes as I work-it flows right through. I've always said that we are just the tool for the creative spirit. I've always told people that's who we are as artists, and that good things take time."

Anthony explains how he personally bridges the privacy of Santo Domingo religion while creating his reversible spirit pendant jewelry: "I have a limit, especially on my faces. On the spirit figure side, the stone or turquoise pieces that I use for the face make up the personality and coloration for each piece. I normally will not put eyes or mouth or facial stuff on my stones. Grandpa always told us that we do not make people. Whoever is upstairs makes people, makes their faces. But lately I've been going over to the realistic side and making faces. It's getting to the edge."

Jesse Monongye: Pushing the Medium
Jeweler Jesse Monongye has an uncommon ability to transform traditional motifs into ultra-contemporary designs, breathing life into inanimate objects. His contemporary, intricate and technically complex jewelry-such as a pendant depicting a Long Haired katsina, a belt buckle illustrating a sunset at Monument Valley, or a bracelet capturing the full moon, shooting stars and Big Dipper of the Southwestern night sky-evolves from the traditions and landscape of his Navajo and Hopi heritage.

His life story is an epic tale. Abandoned as an infant, he was brought up traditionally on the Navajo reservation by distant relatives whom he calls "grandmother and grandfather." At age 21, while he was training for a career as a heavy equipment operator, Jesse began exploring jewelrymaking with his father, Preston Monongye (a Mission Indian of Mexican ancestry who was adopted by the Hopi). A year later, following a dream where he was encouraged by his mother (whom he's never found) to focus these talents, Jesse became a full-time jeweler and is, today, at age 49, a master goldsmith and one of the world's finest gemstone inlayers. He is equally proud that following years of alcoholism, he's had nearly 20 years of sobriety. "Not bad for a lost little Navajo sheepherder," remarks Jesse with a smile.

A perfectionist who uses the very best in materials and strives to produce ever finer work, he notes, "This was instilled in me by my grandfather. Why do something wrong and then do it over again?"

He frequently mentions the need to give back and is quite conscious of his responsibility to the younger generation. Two years ago, Jesse sponsored the Best of Show award at the annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market to encourage younger, emerging artists. "I think that it is important to start talking to the young generation and tell them what success is all about. The only way you can make something beautiful is to stay in tune with your faith and yourself. You can never just say,'I'm going to pick up a stone and make something beautiful.'"

Jewelry and Beadwork Dazzle in Heard Museum Exhibit In its latest exhibit, the Heard Museum will spotlight some of the finest works of jewelry and beadwork created by Native American artists over the past 900 years. "Be Dazzled! Masterworks of Jewelry and Beadwork from the Heard Museum" opens on March 23 and continues through October 2002. For "Be Dazzled!," jewelers Gail Bird (Santo Domingo/Laguna) and Yazzie Johnson (Navajo), along with beadworker Maynard Lavadour (Umatilla/Cayuse), examined more than 4,500 such works to select some 250 for inclusion in the exhibit, including many of the finest examples within the Heard's impressive permanent collection. Curator Diana Pardue worked with the master artists throughout the process. "The task of selecting great work from such a collection was a daunting one," Bird says. "It is our hope that when others view this exhibition, they come away with admiration and respect for work created by these artists." "Be Dazzled!" is the second in a triad of exhibits that showcases the Heard Museum's world-class collections of Native American art. The first exhibition, "Hold Everything!," featured selections of basketry and pottery; it remains on display through March 10, 2002. The third exhibit, "So Fine!," opens in November 2002 and will focus on paintings, sculpture, prints and other fine art from the Heard's collection. Partnering with master artists in each of the featured disciplines, the Heard has created an exhibit series that places Native art in a context of both great art and living cultural expression. In "Be Dazzled!," Bird, Johnson and Lavadour's reasons for selecting each piece are shared with visitors through label text and the accompanying publication named for the exhibit. The challenge in developing the exhibits was not simply in selecting objects from the Heard's collection of more than 32,000 objects, but in defining a Native "masterwork." Dr. Ann Marshall, director of collections, education and interpretation for the Heard Museum, explains, "The Masterworks exhibits establish the notion of Native American art as artistic masterpieces, in much the same way that we view European masterpieces. We took that concept and applied it to pieces created within Native traditions that are based on different value systems. The artwork displayed in "Be Dazzled!" demonstrates that Native artists have created, and continue to create, work that is both technically demanding and aesthetically stunning." The works in "Be Dazzled!" range from a solid-gold pre-Columbian frog pendant to the work of contemporary masters such as Hopi jeweler Charles Loloma. Elaborately beaded bags will be displayed, along with elegantly formed silver bracelets. In each piece, the adornment of person and personal effects-and the ensuing aesthetic change throughout the last several centuries-are depicted. Native peoples' ability to transform everyday objects into works of art is beautifully demonstrated. -Rebecca Stenholm

The Common Thread: A Profound Sense of the Spirit
American Indians' survival as a people-as well as the continuing high quality of authentic Indian art-owes much to an understated yet enduring spirituality. Notes Anthony, "I've always told people that each person, wherever they come from, is put here on earth with a spirit. And when they go, they still have that spirit within them. Because you were put here on earth by the Great Spirit for a reason to serve and provide, you must reach in from your mind, inside yourself and pull out that spirit, bring it out and use it in your everyday life."

I also recall that time spent with Indian friends always includes much laughter. Suggests Anthony, "There always has to be humor and happiness within different people. It goes along with grief. Every time something [bad] happens, you have to be brought back up. That's why it's so important to have the humor in your life, because your happiness is a lot stronger than your sadness."

American Indian peoples struggle to retain their identities and sacred beliefs despite enormous outside pressures. Native belief systems encourage wholeness of thought, rather than fragments of strife. Multiple realities emphasize balance and harmony: finding the middle ground. Sacred ways of knowing and living are keys that connect each of the award-winning artists portrayed here with the larger universe, and, in a sense, with each other. Their wonderful jewelry reflects that all parts of the world are powerfully charged and alive.