working metals was introduced among them I have not been able to
determine; but there are many reasons for supposing that they have long
possessed it; many believe that they are not indebted to the Europeans
for it. Doubtless the tools obtained from American and Mexican traders
have influenced their art. Old white residents of the Navajo country
tell me that the art has improved greatly within their recollection;
that the ornaments made fifteen years ago do not compare favorably with
those made at the present time; and they attribute this change largely
to the recent introduction of fine files and emery-paper. At the time of
the Conquest the so-called civilized tribes of Mexico had attained
considerable skill in the working of metal, and it has been inferred
that in the same period the sedentary tribes of New Mexico also wrought
at the forge. From either of these sources the first smiths among the
Navajos may have learned their trade; but those who have seen the
beautiful gold ornaments made by the rude Indians of British Columbia
and Alaska, many of whom are allied in language to the Navajos, may
doubt that the latter derived their art from a people higher in culture
than themselves.

The appliances and processes of the smith are much the same among the
Navajos as among the Pueblo Indians. But the Pueblo artisan, living in a
spacious house, builds a permanent forge on a frame at such a height
that he can work standing, while his less fortunate Navajo _confrère_,
dwelling in a low hut or shelter, which he may abandon any day,
constructs a temporary forge on the ground in the manner hereafter
described. Notwithstanding the greater disadvantages under which the
latter labors, the ornaments made by his hand are generally conceded to
be equal or even superior to those made by the Pueblo Indian.

A large majority of these savage smiths make only such simple articles