Early Navajo Silver Curio Bracelet With Whirling Log

If you're new to Native American jewelry collecting, you may be wondering why in the world a symbol associated with the horrors of World War II appears smack dab in the center of this vintage Navajo silver bracelet. This symbol is an actually an ancient one used by many cultures around the world including the Navajo. In fact, swastika comes from the Sanskrit svastika, which means “good fortune” or “well-being." For Diné people too, the Whirling Log represents good luck.  Sickeningly, the Nazi Party coopted this symbol and turned it into something horrendous. In 1940, A Whirling Log Proclamation joined the Navajo, Papago, Apache, and Hopi in opposing its use by the Nazis. The proclamation stated “because the above ornament, which has been a symbol of friendship among our forefathers for many centuries, has been desecrated recently by another nation of peoples, therefore it is resolved that henceforth from this date on and forever more our tribes renounce the use of the emblem commonly k