Chief Joseph Inlay Pendant
Sterling Silver, Lapis, and Mixed Turquoise Chief Joseph Inlay Pendant by Navajo artist Calvin Desson. This pendant features hand cut lapis and turquoise set in sterling silver to depict a portraiture of Chief Joseph. The pendant measures 2 1/2″ inches around. The beads are sold separate.
Chief Joseph:
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt (or Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it in Americanist orthography), popularly known as Chief Joseph or Young Joseph (March 3, 1840 – September 21, 1904), was a leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce, a Native American tribe of the interior Pacific Northwest region of the United States, in the latter half of the 19th century. He succeeded his father Tuekakas (Chief Joseph the Elder) in the early 1870s.
Chief Joseph’s life remains iconic of the American Indian Wars. For his passionate, principled resistance to his tribe’s forced removal, Joseph became renowned as a humanitarian and peacemaker. Still, some modern scholars argue that contemporary coverage, as well as Joseph’s own speeches and writings, may have distorted the true nature of his thoughts and given rise to a “mythical” Chief Joseph, a “Red Napoleon” that served the interests of the Anglo-American narrative of manifest destiny.