If I had to name the top three traditional Navajo silversmiths working today, Jeanette Dale would be one of them. I don’t know who the others are, but I don’t think she’d be in second place.

Jeanette Dale ranks near the top in the Traditional Navajo Silversmiths category. She comes from a family of artists. Her mother, father, and brother were accomplished silversmiths, and another brother, Eugene Joe (Baatsoslani), is arguably the finest sand painter on the Navajo Nation.

Over the years, we have become accustomed to Jeanette Dale creating amazing jewelry. She puts her entire soul into crafting beautiful work, small and large.

Jeanette Dale and her husband Harry live on the Navajo Nation, about halfway between Gallup and Shiprock, off to the west of the highway near a beautiful rock formation. For about fifty years, she has been known to dealers in Indian jewelry as one of the best and least-known Navajo silversmiths.

Coral became a popular material for Native artists to work with hundreds of years ago when European Traders began to bring it to the Southwest as a trade item. Early on, the small pieces of coral were drilled and strung on necklaces made of drilled shell beads and, usually, pieces of turquoise.