American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwest (Exhibition)
birth: 2004 October 30
death: 2005 July 10
Exhibition. Opened October 30, 2004 and closed July 10, 2005. Located in Section 3, Floor 3 in Gallery 3 at the American Museum of Natural History. Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwest featured more than 500 artifacts, including historic and contemporary Native American jewelry from the Northwest and Southwest regions.
Summary
Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwest featured more than 500 artifacts, including historic and contemporary Native American jewelry, masks, pottery, and basketry from the Northwest and Southwest regions. The exhibition focused on the cultural similarities and differences of the Northwest and Southwest, the role of tribal and individual identity in design, and how artists incorporate images from their physical landscape into their work. The exhibition was co-curated by Peter Whiteley, curator of North American Ethnology in the Museum’s Division of Anthropology, and Lois Sherr Dubin, lecturer and author of several books on Native American jewelry. Advising artists were Jim Hart, A Hereditary Chief of the Haida Nation as well as a carver and jeweler, and Jesse Monongya, a Navajo jeweler known for his inlay work (1, p. 1-2).
Totems to Turquoise showcased artwork from the Haida, Kwakwaka’wakw, Tsimshian, Gitxsan, Nisga’a, Tlingit, Nuu-chah-nulth, Haisla, and Salish peoples of the Northwest, and the Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, Santo Domingo, Taos and other Pueblos, Apache, and Tohono O’odham peoples of the Southwest. The exhibit featured contemporary sculptures, historic and contemporary masks, boxes, weavings, figures, pottery, and other artworks, including more than 100 from the Museum’s collections (1, p. 2).
Key themes of the exhibition (1, p. 2):
*Cultural continuity from ancient times to the present day
*Distinct regional styles
*Jewelry as portable symbolic art
*Motifs transferred to jewelry from other art forms such as masks and blankets
*How contemporary artists both draw upon and depart from tradition
Section titles (2, p. 4-7):
*Introduction
*World View
*The People
*Contemporary Jewelry Showcase
*Coming Together
Highlights (1, p. 2-5; 2, p. 4-7):
*Side-by-side historic and contemporary jewelry
*Native jewelry portraying the cosmos
*Boxes and ritual masks showing historical incorporation of natural and cosmological themes
*Historic and modern photographs of Northwest Coast and Southwest rituals, geography, and landscape
*Interactive stations with historic and modern film footage
*Model of a traditional Haida house
*Carved gold, silver, and copper bracelets from the Northwest Coast representing totemic aspects of clan design
*Grouping of 24 Hopi katsina (kachina) dolls in a traditional water-drinking maidens dance
*A painted wooden Gitxsan Raven mask from the late 1800s from the Museum’s collection
*Miniature carved mask pendants from the Northwest Coast
Artists represented in the exhibition (1, p. 2-5; 2, p. 4-7):
*Haida: Jim Hart, Bill Reid, Charles Edenshaw, Christian White, Robert Davidson, Don Yeomans, Fred Davis, Isabel Rorick, Victoria Moody, Morris White, Gerry Marks, Primrose Adams, Jesse Brillon, Donnie Edenshaw
*Gitxsan: Philip Janze, John Alexander
*Kwakwaka’wakw: Beau Dick, Kevin Cramner, Lloyd Wadhams, Russell Smith, Elsie Nelson, Tony Hunt, Christopher Cook
*Nuu-chah-nulth: Art Thompson, Bill Kuhnley, Ron Hamilton
*Nisga’a: Norman Tait
*Coast Salish: Rod Modeste, Debbie Sparrow
*Haisla: Lyle Wilson, Derek Wilson
*Tlingit: Donald Gregory, Rudolph Walton, Nick Galanin, Louis Minard, Nathan Jackson
*Navajo: Charles Loloma, Preston Monongya, Kenneth Begay, Jesse Monongya, Raymond Yazzie, Lee Yazzie, James Little, Yazzie Johnson, Victor Beck, Harvey Begay, Vernon Begay, Perry Shorty, Vernon Haskie, Cody Hunter, Gibson Nez, Fred Peshlakai, Ambrose Roanhorse
*Hopi: Verma Nequatewa, Michael Kabotie, Victor Coochwytewa, Paul Safkie, Morris Robinson, Ernest Moore, Jr., Gary Yoyokie, Elise Yoyokie, Chalmers Da, Lendrick Lomayestewa
*Santo Domingo: Martine Lovato, Anthony Lovato, Mary Lovato, Angie Reano Owen, Johnny Rosetta, Joe B. Reano, Terry Reano, Charles Lovato
*Santo Domingo/Laguna: Gail Bird, Charlie Bird
*Zuni: Veronica Poblano, Edith Tsabetsaye, Myron Panteah, Eddie Beyuka, Leo Poblano, Ellen Quandelacy, Leekya Deyuse, Frank Vacit, Dennis Edaakie
*San Juan: Mike Bird-Romero
*Apache: Bob Haozous
The exhibition’s opening day ceremony included dancers in ceremonial regalia with representatives of the Haida Nations in Queen Charlotte Islands in Canada and the Cellicion Dancers from the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico (1, p. 5).
A webpage for the exhibition on the Museum’s website provided photographs of objects in the exhibition, biographies and videos of some of the artists, interviews with the curators, links to additional resources, and behind-the-scenes information on the making of the exhibition, as well as information on lectures, workshops, and other programs and activities for visitors (1, p. 5).
The exhibition was accompanied by a book of the same title copublished by the American Museum of Natural History and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. with general editor Kari Chalker and contributing editors Lois Sherr Dubin and Peter Whiteley with Jim Hart and Jesse Monongya. A special menu was available at the Museum’s Northwest/Southwest Café on 4 (1, p. 5-6).
The exhibition was designed by the Museum’s Department of Exhibition under the direction of Vice President for Exhibitions, David Harvey (1, p. 5).
This is a condensed summary of the exhibition. For additional information, see Sources and/or Related Resources.