Identify American Indian tribe by its jewelry?

Answer 1

Yes. Most often an Indian tribe can be identified by its jewelry. Examples:

The Zuni Pueblo people are famous for intricate, perfectly matched turquoise pieces

hand cut and fit into silver in very specific and repetitive designs. This is often called

"cluster work, needlepoint or petilt point." They also a known for cutting small pieces

of turquoise, coral, shell and black jet and inlaying them in traditional designs set in silver. The pieces will be set in channels separated by silver or next to each other in mosaic design.

Navajo jewelry is recognized for a greater and more obvious use of silver or gold metal in the design. Either a natural shaped stone, or a cabachon, will be set into the metal that has been tooled, chiseled or stamped beforehand. For the Navajo, the setting is as equally important in the finished piece as is the stone or shell set into it.

For the Zuni, it's the design or pattern of the stones that takes precedence.

The Hopi, also a Pueblo people, make jewelry unique to them: two layers of silver are

soldered together with the top layer cut out in a design--clouds, bear, deer--and the layer beneath chiseled and oxidized, giving the resultant jewelry a distinctive two-dimensional look and the name "Hopi overlay." Hopi jewelry is seldom set with stones.