Joe H. Quintana (b.1915-d.1991, Cochiti)

Joe Herrera Quintana (b.1915-d.1991, Cochiti Pueblo) was a silversmith from Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico, known for traditional revival hand-wrought, hammered, repoussé, stamped and tufa-cast silver. He apprenticed under Frank Patania of Santa Fe's Thunderbird Shop, and in 1944 anthropologist John Adair recorded him as one of five Cochiti silversmiths doing benchwork in Santa Fe. He credited his wartime welding work in California shipyards with teaching him much about silver soldering. From 1966 until 1971 he was the leading silversmith at trader Irma Bailey's shop, Irma's Indian Art & Pawn, in Albuquerque, where in 1967 Jim Morrison bought one of his concha belts. At Santa Fe Indian Market, where he showed from before 1970 until 1990, he won first place in 1970 (the School of American Research Prize for Excellence in Traditional Design in Jewelry) and again in 1971. His work is held in the Joe Ben Wheat Collection at the University of Colorado, was shown in Jewels of the Southwest at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture in 2002, and was the subject of the museum's 2004 exhibition and catalogue Joe H. Quintana: Master in Metal, drawn from Irma Bailey's collection of some 600 of his pieces. He taught his sons, Cippy Crazy Horse and Jerry Quintana, to make jewelry, and his grandson Waddie Crazy Horse carries the family tradition forward today.