Utilitarian and ornamental, Native American Sioux jewelry honors Mother Earth.

The people of the Sioux Nation honor nature, animal spirits, and the Great Spirit through their handmade jewelry. For hundreds of years, the Native American Sioux jewelry traditions have captured the culture’s beauty and spirit. Using natural materials and items acquired through trade, the various factions that make up the Sioux Nation continue to create ornate patterns in jewelry that tell the story of their culture.

With 13 Sioux political subdivisions making up seven major tribes, the original Sioux homelands include what are now the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Over time, autonomous tribes traveled through Iowa, Montana, Illinois, and Nebraska. Today, Sioux bands, or tribes, live in Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Minnesota.

Native American Sioux uses glass beads, coral, shells, wood, silver, and copper for jewelry making. The materials used in jewelry came from their natural surroundings, a reflection of their home and way of life.

In addition to materials gathered through trade and nature, the Sioux hunt for food and use the remaining parts of an animal to make tools, clothing, and jewelry. Sioux jewelry uses bones, antlers, and sinew, muscle-tendon (used for thread). These materials make up this jewelry and nothing goes to waste.

Symbols in Native American Sioux Jewelry Traditions

The Sioux use symbols and patterns in their crafts and clothing to represent their people and spirituality.

Buffalo

The buffalo represents mother earth. For men, it represents their role to protect their tribe.

Bear

In addition to the buffalo is the bear. The bear signifies medicine and healing as it demonstrates an instinctual knowledge of herbs.

Eagle

The eagle is a positive sign. Because it flies higher than other birds, it’s considered to see everything from its vantage point.

Beading

Also, the Native American Sioux are highly skilled at beadwork. Prior to obtaining colorful glass, metal, and clay beads through trade, they carved beads from turquoise, wood, ivory, and coral.

Construction

The Sioux use a number of traditional techniques to fashion their jewelry. In necklaces, chokers, and protective breastplates by drilling holes into the bone, the hunters use bones. They also use horns hollowed and dried, then sawed and chiseled for buttons and decorative disks.

Metals

Finally, metal jewelry became popular with the Sioux when the European settlers arrived and began trading. Today, copper earrings and bracelets are still popular types of Native American Sioux jewelry. Tin cones are strung from medicine bags and leggings to add a decorative fringe.

One look at the skilled craftsmanship and ornate patterns of Sioux jewelry shows this culture’s enduring connection to the natural world.

References:
Standing Rock
Native American Jewelry