Back when Pete Schultz owned Running Bear in the early-mid 70’s, they produced a lot of high quality Bear Claw jewelry. Practically every silversmith who iived in or around Gallup back then was making Bear Claw bolas, buckles, bracelets, pendants, rings, lighter cases, you name it, for Pete.
This was a major fad in the mid - late 70’s. You can’t imagine how much bear claw jewelry was going out the door!!! I don’t know how many bear claw pendants, rings, and lighter cases and all of the above, Jana Mitchell, Bobby McGee (his real name), and I made between 1973 and 1976. Must have been thousands… I used to wonder how the species survived!
Pete would send bear claws over by the bagfull to make jewelry out of, with big chunks of dried flesh still on them, and we’d have to grind all that off on lapidary wheels, and shape them for silver caps. Let me tell you, grinding bear claws down on a lapidary wheel with or without water, stinks like hell. Somewhere between teeth being drilled in a dental office, and burning hair. Really, really, really bad… I don’t even know if respirators existed back then, but I wish I’d had one.
Anyway. The jewelry in the photos looks like Running Bear production from that period.