I began collecting Native jewelry, because my dad left me a beautiful belt buckle after he passed when I was a teen. Years later in my 20’s I did some traveling in the southwest (we went there once when I was 5) with friends and fell in love with not only the area, but also with Native American art, especially jewelry. So for me all my pieces also have sentimental value. I was very fortunate to have shopped at some wonderful places back in the 90’s where the shop owners spent a lot of time chatting and passing on their knowledge. I was able to get some really cool pieces, but didn’t really know what all to ask when I bought them, so I joined this site to learn even more. I’ll be honest, there’s nothing like hands on learning of Native art, but I know that’s not an option for everyone. I have learned from being on here that you CANNOT trust a lot of what you see regarding Native art on eBay and Etsy. People say pretty much whatever they want (or at least don’t dig very hard to verify) to sell their items.
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Thank you for sharing that. I think I first started out with the perspective that I was going to find some Native American jewelry pieces and sell them to make a little cash. But after hearing your story I change my way of thinking about Native American Jewelry. I’ve realized it’s not something that exists for me to make profit off of but it’s much more than that. And I’m just learning that now from you passing on some information about your experiences that you’ve had taught to you. To me, thats priceless.
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I do agree that there are probably lots of dishonest sellers on the internet and there are probably a lot of sellers who are just lacking the knowledge. So if I see that happening I’ll just direct them to this website🙂
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