Peshlakai, Fred

(Navajo, active 1920s-1960s). The son or nephew of Slender Maker of Silver, one of the earliest Navajo silversmiths. Peshlakai was one of the first smiths to hallmark his work, though he usually did so only on request. He taught Kenneth Begay while at the Fort Wingate school, and later opened up his own shop on Olvera Street in Los Angeles. His pieces are very technically precise and elaborate, sometimes even to the point of seeming Mexican, and his turquoise is always of the highest quality. (One of his hallmarks was an FP superimposed on an arrow--an old story was that the left pointing arrow was the hallmark of his brother Frank, while the right pointing arrow was Fred's hallmark. According to Lauris Phillips, this is untrue--they were both Fred's hallmark.)