A copper letter opener, featuring Native American chief.  A stunning, stamped, double sided letter opener depicted with a Native American chief looking into the distance on the top of the handle.  He is kneeling on his shield with feathers along with a paddle. On the reverse side are his arrows and some local flowers and more feathers.

One the blade it is engraved for the city of Douglas, Arizona.  Douglas was first settled by the Spanish in 1776 and then abandoned in 1780, having already being part of the original land of many different tribes of the Native Americans.  The US Army then set up Camp Bernardino in the latter half of the 19th century near the presidio, and in 1910 Camp Douglas was built next to the town.  

Douglas was founded as an American smelter town, to treat the copper ores of nearby Bisbee, Arizona.  The town is named after mining pioneer Dr. James Douglas and was incorporated in 1905. Two copper smelters operated at the site; The Calumet and Arizona Company Smelter was built in 1902. The Copper Queen operated in Douglas from 1904 until 1931, when the Phelps Dodge Corporation purchased the Calumet and Arizona Company and took over their smelter. The Calumet and Arizona smelter then became the Douglas Reduction Works. Douglas was the site of the Phelps-Dodge Corporation Douglas Reduction Works until its closure in 1987. The smoke stacks of the smelter were not taken down until January 13, 1991. The town was a site of the Arizona Copper Mine Strike of 1983.

The town also has a rich Western history.  The "Cowboys Home Saloon" was the location of the fatal shooting of bar owner Lorenzo "Lon" Bass. The accused was Arizona Ranger  William W. Webb. The date was February 8, 1903.

In 1916, the Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa threatened to attack Douglas, believing Americans responsible for his defeat at the Second Battle of Agua Preita.

On June 23, 1926, missing evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson was found collapsed near a road at the adjacent Mexican town of Agua Prieta. She was driven into Douglas and told a story of kidnap, torture and escape as she convalesced at Calumet Hospital. There, large crowds gathered, anxious to see the famous Canadian-American celebrity minister. She had earlier disappeared from a beach near Los Angeles and was believed drowned. For a period of several weeks, Douglas enjoyed a brisk tourist boom as police, reporters and others visited the town and the nearby desert to investigate her story. The L.A Times wrote, "Mrs. McPherson put Douglas square on the map and the citizens here appear grateful that it was in Douglas she sought refuge.

This highly detailed piece is a fine example of tourist wares that were produced and sold from areas that were part of the early Native tribes.  It also makes sense that it is made of copper, since this was a huge part of the local economy at this time.  Made in America, circa 1900.