native insight : a definition for dead pawn jewelry

Silver jewelry also served as barter on the Reservation where money was practically non-existent. Traders took silver and turquoise jewelry as collateral, without giving a specific value to the piece, and the customer’s purchase debt was secured by the jewelry. Any pawn unclaimed after the agreed period of not less than six months was considered “dead” and the trader could sell it. | By Bruce Bernstein former Curator at the Laboratory of Anthropology and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe.