Victor Coochwytewa

Master Hopi jeweler, Victor Coochwytewa was born in 1922 at Oraibi on Third Mesa in northern Arizona. He served in the South Pacific during World War II and earned the Purple Heart, Good Conduct and Asiatic Ribbons. Upon his discharge in 1946, he returned to Arizona where he became one of Paul Saufkie's and Fred Kabotie's first students in their jewelry-making classes at the art center at Oraibi under the auspices of the GI Bill.

Victor added a new dimension to the traditional Hopi overlay technique, by texturizing the backgrounds of his designs. He is responsible for developing the original designs of the Starblower and the Village and he is a leader in the use of Hopi gold. He has won top awards from the Heard Museum, the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Inter-tribal Ceremonial in Gallup and the Northern Arizona Museum in Flagstaff. Victor Coochwytewa was one of 3 Native American elders selected as a "Living Treasure" at the 7th annual Arizona Living Treasures award ceremony in 1994.

"Jewelry is my hobby; corn is my work," Victor has said. Using no fertilizers, chemicals, irrigation or pesticides, his vegetables have won as many awards as his jewelry. A Hopi religious leader of the highest order who has devoted as much time to ceremonials as he does to his farming and his jewelry, he attributes his good crops to blessings from the Creator.