Disclaimer

 

To Our Customers,

Due to the involvement of the Arizona Attorney General's office in interpreting whether American Indian jewelry is handmade or not, we, Silver Hills Trading Co. will no longer label nor claim our jewelry is 100% Indian handmade.

Since almost every piece of jewelry has a machine made finding attached to it or is strung on machine made materials,  technically earrings, necklaces, pins, buckles, bolas with Bennet clips and many other articles of jewelry cannot be considered 100% Indian handmade because of the use of machine made findings.  Also it would require that we all become certified gemologists so we can state for certain whether a piece of turquoise is treated or stabilized, likewise we would have to test each piece for purity of silver.

We have bought directly from Indian artists, have items made in shops that employ Indian craftsman and from trading posts that still buy, sell and pawn with the Indians.  We have always been as honest about our merchandise as we possibly can and will always continue to do so.  However, whether dealing with an Indian artist, a trader or anyone else, you still have to go by their word.  We try to deal with only reputable people and if we find their word is not good we don't do business with them again.  We are always searching for new and different items so it is a case of trial and error.

We sincerely regret having to delete the "Genuine Indian Hand-Made" labels from our jewelry, but until we have an equitable way of determining what is handmade and what isn't and become certified gemologists with the equipment to test each stone and silver content, we have no choice.