A Navajo, Zuni & Hopi silversmiths is typically worth $150 – $30,000, depending on reference, condition, originality, and provenance.
Market values current as of September 2026Short answer: some of it is worth a great deal, and most of it is not. In June 2024 Bonhams Los Angeles sold an early Diné (Navajo) first-phase concha belt for $28,160 including premium, against a $6,000 high estimate. In the same sale a Diné squash blossom necklace realized $14,080 against a $3,500 high estimate. Yet at Bonhams Skinner in late 2023, another Navajo silver and turquoise squash blossom — ten blossoms, a seven-stone naja — sold for $358.40. Same category, same materials, roughly eighty times the difference.
What separates them is hand-work, the turquoise itself, and whether the maker is identifiable. This guide helps you work out which side of that gap your piece sits on.
What these pieces actually sell for
Every figure below is a realized auction price including buyer's premium — money that genuinely changed hands. That matters here more than almost anywhere, because galleries and online marketplaces routinely ask two to four times what the same piece brings at auction. Treat asking prices as advertising, not evidence.
- Ordinary vintage cuffs and mid-century squash blossoms: where most inherited jewelry sits, and the numbers are humbling. A pair of three-stone Navajo bracelets with twisted wire accents made $382.50 at Bonhams in late summer 2020 — about $191 each. The $358.40 Bonhams Skinner squash blossom belongs in the same bracket. Three Zuni inlay bracelets together made $1,708 at Bonhams San Francisco — but that was a February 2009 sale, and for three bracelets, not one.
- Good period pawn-era silver: a Diné squash blossom necklace with cross sold for $2,816 at Bonhams Skinner in October 2024. A Fred Peshlakai bracelet with seven graduated turquoise bezels made $3,125 at Bonhams San Francisco in December 2016.
- Documented early work: the June 2024 concha belt at $28,160 and the $14,080 squash blossom top the anonymous-maker market.
- Named masters: a Charles Loloma 18k gold Katsina mosaic cuff realized $76,700 at Bonhams Los Angeles in August 2023, the strongest published result for the artist; a 14k gold Loloma mosaic bracelet in the same sale made $32,000.
The pattern is consistent, and it is not simply that older means dearer. What lifts a price is rare stone, documented provenance, and a maker whose name can actually be verified. Weight of silver alone carries almost none — and outstanding modern work can beat old pawn outright: Jesse Monongya's 14k gold and multi-stone cuff A Day in the Life of Monument Valley realized $64,000 at Bonhams Skinner in October 2024.
Natural, stabilized, or not turquoise at all
This is where most owners are wrong about their own piece. GIA reports that much less than 5% of mined rough turquoise is suitable for cutting without treatment, and that turquoise is routinely impregnated with acrylic polymer or epoxy resin, often alongside dyeing. The widely repeated claim that 98% of market turquoise is treated comes from the International Gem Society and cites no study, so treat it as industry impression, not measured fact.
The categories, in descending order of value
- Natural, untreated: nothing added. Hard, gem-grade material from a known American mine. The only category that reliably adds real money.
- Stabilized: genuine turquoise impregnated with resin to harden it and deepen color. Legitimate and disclosable, but worth a fraction of natural.
- Reconstituted: turquoise powder or chips bound in resin and pressed into blocks. Contains turquoise; is not a turquoise stone.
- Block: a trade term for plastic or resin containing no turquoise whatsoever. Common in imported jewelry.
- Dyed howlite or magnesite: white minerals dyed blue, often with a convincing dark web. Cheap, and everywhere.
Practical checks, with their limits. Real matrix is host rock running through the stone, so its edges are irregular and it never repeats between stones; printed or painted matrix sits on the surface and a fingernail glides straight over it. If several "different" stones share one pattern, you are looking at a mould. An acetone swab on a hidden edge that lifts color proves dye, but a clean swab proves nothing, because resin can seal dye in. Heft separates plastic from stone and nothing more — dyed howlite's density sits inside turquoise's own range, so weight will never expose it. Ignore the hot-needle test entirely: since most genuine turquoise is resin-stabilized, a hot needle smells of plastic on real, honestly sold stone too. It scars the piece and settles nothing.
Mine attribution deserves skepticism. Lander Blue, Bisbee, Number Eight and Lone Mountain command premiums, but the production figures repeated online trace to trade lore, not records, and the Turquoise Standard — a 2026 grading framework developed with GIA input — declines to certify origin at all. Without documentation a mine name is a marketing claim. No home test defeats the Zachery process either: applied to millions of carats, it leaves a stone looking gemologically untreated and shows only as excess potassium in lab analysis.
Four distinct traditions, not one style
Blurring these together is the fastest way to misvalue a piece, and disrespectful to makers whose techniques genuinely differ.
- Navajo (Diné): silver-led. Heavy hand-wrought, stamped, repoussé or tufa-cast silver, usually framing one large turquoise stone. The silver is the statement.
- Zuni: lapidary-led. The stonework dominates and silver serves as a setting matrix. Distinguish petit point (small teardrop stones), needlepoint (slender stones pointed at both ends), cluster work, channel inlay and mosaic inlay. Zuni carvers also make fetish necklaces of carved animals on heishi.
- Hopi: overlay. Two silver sheets, the upper pierced with a design and soldered over a darkened, textured base, typically with no stone at all. Formalized through the Hopi Silvercraft Guild after 1945.
- Kewa (Santo Domingo): shell and stone. Hand-rolled heishi beads and shell mosaic. Depression-era "battery bird" necklaces were made from salvaged car battery casings, plastic headbands and Woolworth's plates, and originally sold for 25 cents to $1.50.
Those necklaces warn about asking prices: galleries list them around $500 to $700, but at Bonhams Los Angeles on 12 December 2024 a battery bird mosaic necklace realized $512 and a group lot made $640.
Names that move the price
Charles Loloma (Hopi, 1921–1991) is the outlier, and the spread within his own output is the lesson. His 18k gold Katsina cuff made $76,700 in August 2023; a plain silver tufa-cast Loloma cuff, same maker's mark, realized $6,120 at Bonhams Skinner in December 2022. The signature alone is not what carries the premium — the gold, the inlay and the design do.
Among Zuni makers, Leekya Deyuse (1889–1966) is the benchmark; a two-strand heishi necklace with carved bird fetishes realized $6,375 at Bonhams Los Angeles in June 2022. On the Navajo side, Fred Peshlakai (1896–1975) is the name worth checking for — his openwork bracelet with seven turquoise bezels made $3,125 at Bonhams San Francisco, though that was December 2016.
Other names worth researching before you sell include Kenneth Begay and Mark Chee (Navajo), Victor Coochwytewa (Hopi), and Edith Tsabetsaye and the Quam family (Zuni). Treat any attribution as unproven until it matches a published auction record, not a dealer's description.
The law you need to know
The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 makes it illegal in the US to offer, display or sell any art or craft product in a way that falsely suggests it is Indian-produced or the product of a particular tribe. "Indian" means a member of a federally or State-recognized tribe, or an individual certified as an Indian artisan by a tribe. Where the goods are offered at $1,000 or more, a first-time individual violation carries a fine of up to $250,000, up to five years' imprisonment, or both, and a business faces up to $1,000,000. This is not theoretical: in August 2018 Albuquerque store owner Nael Ali was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and $9,048.78 restitution for selling Philippine-made jewelry as Native American, in the investigation known as Operation Al Zuni.
For sellers the consequence is simple: describe what you actually know. "Navajo-style" or "Southwestern" is honest when attribution is uncertain; "Navajo-made" without evidence is a legal exposure as well as a reputational one.
How to check your own piece
Weigh it, photograph the reverse and any stamp, and search completed sales rather than active listings — filter eBay to Sold (since July 2026 this needs a free account) and use the free Bonhams archive. Expect most pre-1970s work to be unsigned; hallmarking only became widespread in the late 1970s, so an absent signature is normal rather than damning, while a "STERLING" or "925" stamp tells you about metal content and nothing about origin. Hougart's and Wright's references cover signed material.
One firm warning, and it matters more in 2026 than it has in decades: never take these pieces to a cash-for-gold buyer or a general pawn shop. With silver around $65 an ounce, a heavy 110-gram cuff holds roughly $150 of sterling melt value, and scrap buyers typically pay 60 to 90% of that. The same cuff, correctly attributed, can be a four-figure object. High silver prices are exactly what makes the furnace tempting, and melting is irreversible.
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What Drives the Value
- Whether the turquoise is natural and untreated rather than stabilized, reconstituted, dyed or block. GIA reports that much less than 5% of mined rough turquoise is suitable for cutting without treatment.
- A documented, verifiable maker. Charles Loloma's 18k gold Katsina cuff made $76,700 at Bonhams in August 2023 while his plain silver tufa-cast cuff made $6,120 — the same signature on different work.
- Rare, identifiable stone. Named-mine material commands premiums, but only where provenance is documented rather than asserted.
- Provenance and collection history: trading post records, named collections and published references reliably lift auction results.
- Genuine hand-work — ingot or coin silver, hand-pulled wire, hand-stamped dies and tufa casting outperform later commercial production, though age alone does not drive price.
- Condition and originality: original leather on a concho belt, unreplaced stones, intact solder joints, and no resizing or re-stringing.
Identification Checklist
- Check the reverse for hand-tool marks: genuine hand-stamped work varies slightly in depth and spacing between repeats, while cast imports show identical, perfectly regular repetition.
- Look at the bezel — hand-cut sawtooth or scalloped bezels have irregular teeth, while machine-made bezel wire is uniform. Check whether the setting was cut and soldered by hand or dropped in pre-made.
- Expect no signature on pre-1970s work. Hallmarking only became widespread among Native silversmiths in the late 1970s, so an unsigned old piece is normal, not suspect.
- A 'STERLING' or '925' stamp tells you metal content only — it says nothing about who made the piece or where. Country-of-origin marks are what matter for provenance.
- Inspect the drill hole on beads and the girdle on cabochons: a pale or white core visible in the drill channel indicates dye that never penetrated, and a distinct layer at the base may be a plastic backing (a doublet), which is routine construction but should affect price.
- Identify the tradition by technique before attributing a tribe: Navajo is silver-led with stampwork and one large stone, Zuni is lapidary-led (petit point, needlepoint, cluster, channel inlay), Hopi is two-sheet overlay usually without stones, Kewa is heishi and shell mosaic.
- Check whether the back is finished and evenly oxidized — hand-finished Native work is typically tidy on the reverse, while cheap imports leave rough solder and unfinished backs.
How to Spot a Fake
- Compare several stones before trusting one. Real matrix is host rock running through the stone, so its edges are irregular and no two stones repeat; if 'different' stones in a strand share a pattern, it came from a mould or a printer.
- Run a fingernail across the veining: genuine and dyed-mineral matrix is structural, but painted or printed matrix sits on the surface and the nail glides straight over it.
- Swab a hidden edge with acetone. Color lifting onto the swab proves dye — but a clean swab proves nothing, because resin can seal dye inside the stone.
- Use heft only to separate plastic from stone. Dyed howlite's density falls inside turquoise's own range, so weight will never expose it — this is the test most guides get wrong.
- Do not use the hot-needle test. Because most genuine turquoise is resin-stabilized, a hot needle smells of plastic on real, honestly sold stone too. It scars the piece and distinguishes nothing.
- Accept that no home test rules out the Zachery process, which leaves a stone looking gemologically untreated and shows only as excess potassium under lab analysis. For a valuable piece, only a gemological report settles it.
- Under the Indian Arts and Crafts Act it is illegal in the US to sell goods that falsely suggest Native production. Ask for a receipt stating price, maker, and the maker's tribal affiliation — that is what the Indian Arts and Crafts Board itself advises, and a refusal to put it in writing is the answer.