Beaded & Quilled Blue & White Turtle Amulet by Rick Gray Buffalo (Sicangu Lakota)

White porcupine quills contrast with blue and white beads in this turtle amulet by Rick Gray Buffalo.

 

Before European traders introduced glass beads, porcupine quills were one of the main materials used to decorate clothing in North America. The tips are snipped off of the quills, usually 2 to 3 inches long, which are then dyed, today using aniline dyes.

 

Among the Northern Plains tribes, a baby's umbilical cord is placed in a buckskin amulet -- lizards for boys and turtles for girls -- which are kept close at hand for the rest of the person's life, to protect them and to keep them connected to Mother Earth.

 

Length of turtle 4", width 3"