It’s common in the Indian art business for people to stop in and ask for help valuing jewelry they have inherited or received as a gift. Sometimes, they want to sell it; sometimes, they just want to know more about it.

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.

Wilson and Carol Begay were raised at Manulito, not far from Gallup. Carol went to school at the Navajo Bible Mission by the Catholic Church there. One of her earliest memories of Wilson was when he and a group of boys would come to the school to play basketball. Carol's mother always told her not to hang around with those boys and to come home if they were down at the school.

My mother always gave male shoppers good advice when they didn't know what to buy for the women in their lives.

"Every woman needs at least one strand of silver beads!"

Her reasons were pretty simple.

From Santo Domingo Pueblo (Kewa), Larry Pacheco was never known for traditional lapidary Santo Domingo Jewelry. He first came to the attention of jewelry collectors for what would generally be considered traditional Navajo jewelry.

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.

Mark Chee (1914-1981) was one of the Navajo Nation's most famous silversmiths. His silverware work was precise and clean. He used top-quality turquoise. Toward the end of his career, he always had a line of customers waiting for his work

Back in December, we featured a Navajo artist named Fritson Toledo who was making some incredible jewelry that looked like it could have come out of the early 1900s.

That is not easy to do.

I believe that the Squash Blossom necklace is one the most beautiful jewelry designs in the history of the world!

How’s that for a strong opinion?

One of the nicest people I have met in the last few years is a silversmith named Karl Nataani. Karl is about my age, and lives on the Navajo reservation north of Winslow.

A lot of you know that my father was a Pepsi Cola dealer in Durango and got into the Navajo Rug business by trading Pepsi accounts for rugs with the trading posts. One of the jobs that I had before I got out of college was driving a Pepsi delivery truck and a couple of my routes were on the Northern Navajo reservation.

A couple of months ago, we sent a newsletter that talked about one of our favorite silversmiths, Jeanette Dale, that featured a beautiful sterling silver necklace and earring set made with #8 Turquoise from a mine by that name in the Lynn Mining District of Eureka County, Nevada.