Image 17
Ketoh (Wrist Guard)
United States (Navajo)
About 1930
Cast silver with turquoise on a leather band
3 1/2 inches high
Bequest of Virginia Doneghy 90.58.373

• Navajo Indian archers wore wrist guards called ketohs (GAY-toe) to protect their forearms from the snap of their bowstrings. Navajo silversmiths adapted the ketoh form into decorative jewelry.
• The Navajo creation story describes the adventure of the earliest beings as they moved through four distinct worlds.
• The design on this ketoh emphasizes the Navajo values of order, harmony, and simplicity. It also evokes the topography of the Navajo creation story.

Before this world existed, and far below it, the First World lay in darkness. Here lived six beings: First Man, First Woman, Salt Woman, Fire God, Coyote, and Begochiddy, the golden-haired child of the Sun. Begochiddy made four mountains in this first world - white to the east; blue to the south; yellow to the west; and black to the north. Then Begochiddy made insects and plants. But conflicts arose and the first beings, tired of the First World and its darkness, decided to leave.

At the center of the First World, Begochiddy made a red mountain and planted a giant reed. The first beings gathered all of Begochiddy's creations and crawled inside of the hollow reed. The reed grew and grew and carried them into the Second World. In the Second World, which was blue, Begochiddy created still more new things. When the Cat People, who lived in the Second World, fought the newcomers, First Man used magic to overcome them. Conflicts again disrupted the harmony of this world and the first beings collected their possessions and travelled in the giant reed up to the Third World.

The Third World was beautiful, yellow and filled with light. There, Begochiddy created rivers and springs, animals and birds, trees and lightning, and many kinds of human beings. When the men and women began to quarrel, Begochiddy separated them. But they were so unhappy that Begochiddy reunited them, warning that the Third World would be flooded if there was any more trouble.

And then Coyote caused trouble. Walking by the river, he spied in the water a baby with long black hair. He lifted the baby from the river and hid it under his blanket, telling no one. Colorful storms and torrential rains approached from all directions. Everyone fled to the protective hollow of the giant reed, which carried them upward. But the reed stopped growing before it reached the next world. So Locust helped Begochiddy make a hole that led to the Fourth World, an island surrounded by water.

Seeing the waters still rising in the Third World, Begochiddy asked who had angered the Water Monster. Coyote tightened his blanket about his body and Begochiddy ordered him to open it. There was the water baby. Coyote returned the baby to the Third World and the waters receded. In the Fourth World, Begochiddy set out the mountains and placed the moon, sun, and stars in the sky. Begochiddy taught everyone the right way to live, including how to care for plants such as corn, squash, and beans, and how to give thanks.

The Navajo
The Navajo call themselves Dine (DEE-nay), meaning "the people." They migrated from northwestern Canada sometime around 1400 to what is now the southwest region of the United States. The early Navajo were nomadic hunters. They learned farming and weaving from the native Pueblo peoples, with whom they also developed trade networks.

Since the 16th century, various peoples, including the Spanish, Mexicans, and Euro-Americans, tried to control the Navajo. But their sophisticated native culture remained strong. The United States Army began an aggressive campaign against the Navajo in 1863, destroying their livestock and crops. Many Navajo were then forced onto government reservations.

Silver
While on the reservation, many Navajo artists created silver jewelry and textiles for trade. When white traders opened trading posts on the reservations, a barter system developed, enabling the Navajo to exchange their handmade products for tools, canned foods, and other manufactured products. Silver jewelry was a particularly valuable trade item, especially by the turn of the century, when railroad expansion brought a flourishing tourist market to the Southwest. Commercial jewelry businesses coerced Navajo artists to mass-produce nontraditional objects such as boxes, letter openers, and ashtrays. However, silversmiths who lived outside of large trade centers continued to produce more traditional art forms, including bracelets, buckles, and ketohs.

Ketohs
Ketohs were originally leather straps worn by Navajo archers to protect their forearms from the snap of the bowstring when shooting an arrow. By the 1870s, silver was commonly attached to the leather to give the wearer more protection. The designs of the silver ketohs gradually became more intricate as they evolved into the purely decorative form of jewelry they are today. In the reservation barter system, a ketoh could be traded for several sheep.

Ketoh
This ketoh features an open-worked rectangle of silver attached to a dark brown leather strap. An oval of INLAID turquoise marks the center of the piece. Broad curves of silver, like pairs of leaves around a central bud, extend to the four corners of the design. Single corn stalks emerge from the top and bottom of the turquoise.

Ketoh designs often have an emphatic center like this one, recalling the sacred place from which the first Navajo emerged from the giant reed into this world. The symmetrical four-part organization seen here is also commonly used to evoke the four cardinal directions. In the Navajo creation story, Begochiddy brought order out of chaos by dividing the fourth and final world into four quadrants, marking each with a mountain. Order and harmony are further evoked in the ketoh through the careful balance of curved lines, symbolizing the female ideal of activity, and straight lines, symbolizing the male ideal of stasis.

Hózh;ó
The Navajo ideals of order, balance, and harmony are encompassed in the concept of hózh;ó, which roughly means "beauty." To the Navajo, a person is beautiful if his or her life is in balance. Hózh;ó guides all aspects of traditional Navajo life, from agriculture to architecture to medicine. Hózh;ó is represented in art through balanced, symmetrical, centralized designs like that of this ketoh.

Look
1. Tell the Navajo creation story. The design of traditional Navajo ketohs recalls this creation story. When the six beings rose into each of the four worlds, they always emerged at the center. How has the artist marked the center of this ketoh? (With an INLAID turquoise oval.) In the story, Begochiddy brought order out of chaos in the Fourth World by dividing it into four quadrants, marking each with a mountain. How has the artist who made this ketoh divided it into four parts? (Four curved lines radiate from the center to the edges.)

2. Where do you see straight lines in this ketoh? (Two straight lines extend vertically from the center, four straight lines make up the edges of the rectangular ketoh.) Where do you see curved lines? (Four curved lines radiate from the center to each of the four corners, two small curved lines branch off from each of the straight lines extending from the center.) Does it appear as if there are equal amounts of curved and straight lines when you look at this ketoh? (No right answer.)

3. Look at the two forms that extend vertically from the center of this ketoh. What do they remind you of? (Plants.) What kind of plants do they look like? (They are ABSTRACT corn stalks.) The Navajo people settled in the southwest United States. Why do you think this artist put corn stalks on the ketoh? (Corn was an important source of food for the Navajo. It remains an important part of Navajo life today.)

4. SYMMETRICAL balance is an exact balanced arrangement of forms on both sides of an imaginary line through the center of an object. ASYMMETRICAL balance is an arrangement of forms that do not appear the same on both sides of the imaginary center line. Is this Ketoh symmetrical or asymmetrical? (Symmetrical.)

2. The artist who made the ketoh balanced it SYMMETRICALLY. It is an exact balanced arrangement of forms on both sides of an imaginary line through its center. Look around your classroom. What other examples of symmetry do you see? (Faces, our bodies, the number 8, desks, chairs, etc.)

3. The Navajo ideals of order, balance, and harmony are encompassed in the concept of hózhó, which roughly means "beauty." Hózhó is represented in art through balanced, SYMMETRICAL, centralized designs like that of this ketoh. How do we experience the presence or absence of order, balance, and harmony in our lives? How do you feel when you don't get enough sleep? How do you feel when you don't get enough to eat? When you eat too much?

4. In Navajo art, curved lines SYMBOLIZE the female ideal of activity, and straight lines symbolize the male ideal of stasis. The artist who made this ketoh carefully balanced curved and straight lines in the design. Why might it be important for male and female to be balanced entities? (The balance of male and female ensures reproduction in plant, animal, and human life as well as harmony and happiness.)