When did silver start being used in Native American jewelry and does it have anything to do with silver mining in the Americas?

It depends what you call "recently." Silver was incorporated into the jewelry of Native American tribes after the Europeans came to the Americas and began to tech the local tribe jewelers the secrets of silversmithing. Up until then most Native American jewelry was made of beads. The jewelry of the different tribes differed from one another, but they did have some elements and styles in common. Tribes that came in contact with the Europeans went on to teach the different tribes what they had learned as far as silversmithing goes. And pretty soon many of the local Native American tribe jewelers mastered it. Since then (that is, around the 17th century) silver has become prominent in the jewelery of the Navjo, the Hopi, the Zuni and other Native American tribes.

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I actally read that it was much later than that that silver became widely used by the Native American tribes. More towards the second half of the 19th century. They became good silversmiths by mimicking what they had observed from the Europeans and Mexicans blacksmiths. At the beginning they used very crude tools to make their jewelry so it was not very intricately designed and were for the most part quite heavy. That changed throughout the decades and today Native American silver jewelry is known for its beautiful complex patterns. South America is a great place for silver jewelry to develop as the soil is of the richest in silver to be found worldwide.

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