Shining examples

Former U. S. senator leaves statecraft for his art

Lesley Kennedy, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 17, 2006 at midnight

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A former U.S. senator, judo champion, horse trainer and award winning jeweler, Ben Nighthorse Campbell knows a thing or two about variety.

But through Olympic competition and senate floor showdowns, his passion for American Indian jewelry design has remained constant.

For more than a decade, Campbell says, politics nearly consumed him. In 1982, he was elected to the Colorado State Legislature, serving four years. From 1987-92 he served in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Colorado's Third District, and, in 1992, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, the first American Indian to serve in the Senate in more than 60 years. He retired from public office in 2004.

"Now you know I have a real life," he joked to visitors last week during a tour of an exhibition that chronicles his career from childhood (when he helped his father, a Northern Cheyenne Indian, with silversmithing) through his 200- plus awards as a jewelry designer and his advocacy of American Indian arts.

"Public office is pretty darn tough to be in - that's a life I left behind," he says. "I didn't really get to see my children grow up ... I was a jeweler before I was a politician. Jewelry was my sole income for years. What had been my full time living out of office became my therapy in office."

The traveling exhibit, "The Jewelry of Ben Nighthorse", running at the Colorado History Museum, covers periods and pieces ranging from a presidential bolo tie to the Painted Mesa style he originated to a buffalo skull inlaid with precious stones.

The exhibit debuted in 2004 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., (which he initiated and passed legislation to establish) and runs through the end of the year.

An innovator in American Indian jewelry, Campbell was one of the first Indian artists to use diamonds, opals and gold, something celebrities have taken a shine to.

"Mick Jagger ordered a bracelet," says Campbell, who lives in Ignacio, in the Southern Ute Indian Reservation. "My son loves him, so he didn't want to send it, he delivered it in person. Kathy Mattea ordered a piece, and for a while the state of Colorado, when they were trying to encourage films being made here, would give a piece of my jewelry to whoever was here. So, Billy Crystal got one when he filmed City Slickers, and so many others.

"And then, when the Smithsonian was trying to raise money for the museum, I donated pieces, but for people who agreed to let their names be used on the letterhead as a fund-raising mechanism, as a thank you, I made them each a piece of jewelry. So, Kevin Costner and Paul Newman and I don't know how many others got pieces. That's kind of fun to know they're out there."

Campbell's start in jewelry making came as a boy, when he learned from his father. He says he used silver from silver dollars flattened on train tracks and created designs by stamping, shaping and bending metal using hand-made tools. In the early 1970s, he found a necklace for sale in a California store that he had made years before. The $400 price tag convinced him to make more jewelry.

His favorite piece in the exhibit is a bracelet with a golden horse that he made for his wife, Linda, but Campbell says experiences and even dreams also serve as inspiration.

"Sometimes I dream about an idea, so I keep a pad and pencil next to the bed, so if I wake up in the middle of the night, I can jot it down before I forget it in the morning," he says. "I sketch it down and then when I look at it in the morning sometimes it's awful, and sometimes I think, that's OK, I'm glad I remembered that one. But I really don't use pre-designed plans. I usually just start hammering and shaping."

Select pieces are on sale at the museum gift shop, with prices ranging from $150 to $2,000.

"Really good artists, always think that what they do with their hands is really an extension of what the Creator wills," Campbell told the Smithsonian. "The only person that can create is the Creator."

Museum quality

• What: The Jewelry of Ben Nighthorse

• Where: Colorado History Museum, 1300 Broadway, 303-866-3682

• When: Through Dec. 31. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.

• Cost: $7 for adults, $6 for students and seniors, $5 for youth ages 6-12 and children 5 and under are free.

• Get it: Several Nighthorse pieces are for sale at the museum store. Prices range from $150 to $2,000.

IN HIS WORDS

"I've made one for every president since Richard Nixon. This one is George W. Bush's, but he won't get it until he's out of office. Some people think that time can't come soon enough."

Ben Nighthorse Campbell

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