Daniel G. Brinton reports that the Tarascos in Mexico "worked with skill" with metals; they also had defensive armor such as helmets.
Daniel Garrison Brinton, The American Race: A Linguistic Classification and Ethnographic Description of the Native Tribes of North and South America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 137-38
In their costume the Tarascos differed considerably from their neighbors. The feather garments which they manufactured surpassed all others in durability and beauty. Cotton was, however, the usual material. Gold and copper are found in the mountains of the district, and both these metals were worked with skill. Nowhere else do we find such complete defensive armor; it consisted of helmet, body pieces, and greaves for the legs and arms, all of wood covered neatly with copper or gold plates, so well done that the pieces looked as if they were of solid metal.