Turquoise has been valued for millennia by all Pueblo groups and is used by many to ornament and add power to jewelry and other objects. Some Pueblo groups developed distinctive tribal styles, including Santo Domingo and Zuni Pueblos.

Hopi artists have also long used turquoise and have developed their own characteristic style. They created the silver overlay technique, in which two sheets of silver, with a cut-out design on the upper layer placed over another with a darkened surface, are soldered together.

Artists are not limited to the techniques commonly used by their mentors and peers, however, and often borrow ideas from farther afield.

Unmarried Hopi girl, ca. 1901. (Courtesy Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Neg. No. 37534, Origin/Artist: Photograph by Carl Werntz)