And now I come to Beads or Beadwork. This artistry spans all the geographic regions of Native culture. The Pueblo Indians of the Southwest, however, have special abilities when it comes to making beads for adornment. But beadwork in the Southwest expands far beyond that particular heritage. One concern I always have relates to the fact that many Natives make beadwork from trade kits with plastic and other phony materials. Such beadwork then gets sold at highway rest stops and near national parks, monuments, and other beauty stops. Tourists zooming through Indian Country can get the impression that this low-level ornamentation is real “Indian jewelry.”

Fact: Junky beads made from commercial kits are NOT “Genuine Indian jewelry.” It’s commercial jewelry made by Indians …   Okay?