Current Exhibitions
Turquoise, Water, Sky: The Stone and Its Meaning
April 13, 2014 through May 30, 2016
Turquoise, Water, Sky: The Stone and Its Meaning highlights the Museum’s extensive collection of Southwestern turquoise jewelry and presents all aspects of the stone, from geology, mining and history, to questions of authenticity and value.
People in the Southwest have used turquoise for jewelry and ceremonial purposes and traded valuable stones both within and outside the region for over a thousand years. Turquoise, Water, Sky presents hundreds of necklaces, bracelets, belts, rings, earrings, silver boxes and other objects illustrating how the stone was used and its deep significance to the people of the region. This comprehensive consideration of the stone runs through May 2, 2016.
View the online version of the exhibition at http://turquoise.indianartsandculture.org
Turquoise-Color and Meaning
Color and Meaning
While the exact meaning of turquoise differs for the various Native peoples in the region, it symbolizes aspects of a good life for all of them. For Pueblo groups, blue/green means water, sky, health and plenty. Josephine Humetewa is wearing three necklaces, including a Zuni-made squash blossom (Cat# 56591/12, 14” by 10”) and a Pueblo bead necklace made of turquoise and shell (Cat# 50262/12, 11.5” by 9”). Bracelets are all Navajo-made (Cats # 44186/12, 38138/12, 10610/12, and 10229/12; each approximately 3 inches wide), except for the multiple row bracelet (Cat# 56786/12, 2.5” by 1.75”), which is Zuni in origin. Likewise the rings are Pueblo- (Cat # 57103/12), Zuni (Cat # 36071/12), or Navajo-made (Cats # 40661/12, 57290/12, 40659/12, 10146/12) and range from one to two inches long. Her pin (Cat # 48140/12) is Zuni needlepoint and 1.5 inches long and wide.
Large single cabochons and clusters of smaller stones on bracelets and rings
Large single cabochons and clusters of smaller but precisely cut stone ornament Southwestern bracelets and rings. These pieces of jewelry date from the 1910s to the present and show turquoise at its best. (Courtesy of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology. Photograph by Kitty Leaken.)
Squash-blossom necklace
Squash-blossom necklace, 1920–39, Navajo, maker unknown. Silver, Turquoise Mountain turquoise. Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology (45626/12). Photograph by Blair Clark.
'Fake' Turquoise
To the Native American it is the turquoise color that carries all the power and references to sky, water, birth, health. The stone does not necessarily have to be used for ritual or decoration. These pieces dating from 800-1200AD are wood painted to resemble turquoise. Given the scarcity of turquoise and the difficulty mining the fragile stone with primitive tools these three pieces are not fake in the eyes of a Native American.
