This Diné sterling silver necklace was owned by photographer Ben Wittick and used as a studio prop. The central pendant is an ancient symbol known as a naja. It traveled to the Southwest with Spanish soldiers used as a protective decorative motif embellishing their horse saddles. The naja has roots in Moorish culture. The Diné were introduced to metalwork as a trade skill when forced to occupy the Bosque Redondo Reservation in the 1860s. The naja remains an important component in contemporary Diné silver jewelry designs, often embellished with turquoise stones and squash blossoms.

Born in Pennsylvania, Ben Wittick arrived in New Mexico Territory in 1878 as a photographer for the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad. He left behind a wife and six children in Moline, IL, where he’d operated a photo studio following the Civil War. He later operated studios in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Gallup, and Fort Wingate. Until his death in 1903, he photographed landscapes, settlements, events, and people throughout the Southwest during a period of immense cultural and economic upheaval. He is best known for his wide ranging photography of Native American subjects, especially his portraits of Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache people, which included unidentified sitters as well as tribal leaders and military scouts on all sides of 1880s conflicts.