We Are Still Here: The Endurance of Native Jewels

We Are Still Here: The Endurance of Native Jewels

By Stephanie Gilmore

Continuing our Indigenous Connections initiative, Golden History Museum & Park is hosting its first-ever exhibit co-curated by members of the local Native community. We Are Still Here: The Endurance of Native Jewels is about the perseverance of Indigenous people, especially women, despite 500 years of colonialism which has included exposure to foreign disease, warfare, genocide, forced relocation to reservations, boarding schools designed to eliminate their culture, broken treaties, and blatant disregard for tribal sovereignty.

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines a jewel as 1. a precious stone, 2. an ornament of precious metal often set with stones or decorated with enamel and worn as an accessory of dress, and 3. one that/who is highly esteemed. Under definition number three, people (in this case, women) can be jewels, too.

person holding baby wearing Native American clothing

Object ID# 72.0074, Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, Golden, Colorado

Though Native Americans most certainly exist today, an astonishing 40% of non-Native Americans believe that they are extinct[1]! There are numerous reasons for this, but perhaps the strongest is due to a lack of education about modern Indigenous people and their impacts on society. A 2015 survey found that 87% of what is taught about Native Americans in K-12 school textbooks took place before the year 1900[2]. This simple fact illustrates how American schoolchildren are primed to believe Natives are no longer here. Therefore, this exhibit aims to show that Indigenous people are still here, and they are also doing amazing things while maintaining their cultural heritage through different traditions. These traditions come in many forms, including, but certainly not limited to, speaking and teaching Indigenous languages, making and wearing traditional clothing, practicing Native religions, and creating traditional artwork.

Examples of Native Jewels

For millennia, Indigenous women of the Plains region (what is today the central United States) have worn clothing decorated with elk teeth and dentalium shells. These kinds of Native jewels hold great value, and thus they identify women of great value, within tribes.

Elk teeth are commonly used to adorn women’s and girls’ dresses. One dress can contain tens to hundreds of teeth. However, the teeth used for these dresses are not just any elk teeth. They are specifically the “vestigial tusks” or “ivories,” of which there are only two in an elk’s jaw. Therefore, if a dress contains 100 elk teeth, that means that at least 50 elk were required to make that dress (and of course the remaining parts of the elk were used for meat, clothing, tools, etc.). The number of elk teeth signifies how much a woman is valued by her spouse, father, or brother, as evidenced by his hunting prowess.

Similarly, dentalium come from small, sea-dwelling mollusks. Dentalium shells, shaped like tiny tusks, are used to create collars and dresses among Plains women and girls. These tiny shells, which decorate clothing by the thousands, are only found in saltwater environments. Specifically, the shells used by Plains peoples are from the northwestern coast of what is today British Columbia. Therefore, to reach the region they had to be traded and moved either by foot or via waterways, as there were no large beasts of burden or wheels prior to European colonization.

Women as Jewels

While traditional elk tooth dresses and dentalium collars are still worn for special occasions and communal gatherings like powwows, today’s Native women also incorporate them into their everyday wear as an intentional celebration of their Indigeneity. In this exhibit we will explore the strength of Indigenous women and their cultural expression through clothing they make for themselves and their families.

[1] https://www.metgroup.com/ideas/reclaiming-native-truth/

[2] Sarah B. Shear, Ryan T. Knowles, Gregory J. Soden & Antonio J. Castro (2015) Manifesting Destiny: Re/presentations of Indigenous Peoples in K–12 U.S. History Standards, Theory & Research in Social Education, 43:1, 68-101, DOI: 10.1080/00933104.2014.999849