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The family traveled 12 hours from Flagstaff to San Jose, California, to participate in the Stanford University Powwow, when their inventory was stolen.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — After driving 12 hours from Flagstaff to San Jose, California, Maryetta and Henry Jackson were ready for some rest.
The couple and their family was set to attend the Stanford University Powwow with more than $175,000 of handcrafted Native American jewelry.
“We started silversmithing back in 1972,” Maryetta Jackson said.
The Jacksons’ jewelry company, H.J. Jewelers, is about much more than handcrafting jewelry pieces. They are Navajo artisans and each piece represents part of their heritage and way of life. They carefully craft each piece with sterling silver, 14k and 18k gold, copper, and more than 45 different types of natural stones.
“It’s like putting yourself into the piece that you’re making. Your thoughts and your creativity is all within the pieces that you’re making,” Jackson described.
The family prefers to sell their pieces in person so they can talk to each buyer and show them the raw stones they started with. They’ve had some of those stones for decades.
Those stones were some of the items were in a trailer in San Jose. They parked it in a well-lit parking lot at their hotel Thursday night before going to sleep. They woke up to realize that everything inside the trailer was stolen.
“I’ve had those stones for so long,” Jackson said through tears. “It’s really been emotional and devastating for me.”
Jackson said their trailer was locked with padlocks, but the criminals responsible drilled through them.
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The San Jose Police Department confirmed that they responded to a report of vehicle burglary and that the investigation is “active and ongoing.”
“I felt like I really didn’t have a place to turn to where some I could get some help. I consistently had to ask them, ‘Can you do this for us? Can you do this?’ And all I got was, ‘Well, there’s so much backup in our system,” Jackson said.
The Jackson Family estimates the jewelry and stones stolen were worth between $175,000 and $300,000, but the most devastating blow was losing the irreplaceable stones and the effort put into their items from skills passed down from generation to generation.
Jackson’s grandchildren have set up a GoFundMe page to help their grandparents get their business back up and running.
“It’s just devastating to see that someone, or some people, would target elders who have made this sort of livelihood who come from the reservation who literally grew up without running water and electricity and have made this livelihood for themselves,” said Tracie Jackson, Maryetta and Henry’s granddaughter. “Seeing so many people support my grandparents means so much to me because my grandparents do so much for the community.”
The Jacksons are asking the public to keep an eye out for their jewelry pieces, which are marked with distinct markings.
- Diné (our tribal affiliation)
- Sterling (metal identifier)
- The family hallmark: a conjoined HJ, with the “J” joined to the right side of the “H”
They have a message for whoever stole from them.
“They don’t realize what they took from us. It means so much to us. And if they could just give some of it back to me, I really would like that,” Jackson said.
You are asked to report any sightings of the jewelry to the San Jose Police Department.
To learn more or donate, head to the GoFundMe page. You can also follow Maryetta and Henry Jackson’s granddaughter, Tracie, on social media where she plans to share some of their jewelry pieces. She can be found on Instagram @rezilient.soles.
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