a long piece of a white dentalia shell.

CRAFTING WITH DENTALIA SHELLS:

A PRACTICE IN KINSHIP AND THE SHARED EXPERIENCE OF CREATION

By Jacquelyn Cabarrubia, Yasemin Özden, and Adela Thompson

Jacquelyn Cabarrubia, Adela Thompson Page, and Yasemin Özden learn the process of crafting with dentalium shells, a traditional practice represented in Dyani White Hawk’s exhibited screen prints with metal foil Wačháŋtognaka (Nurture) and Nakíčižiŋ (Protect). 

Dyani White Hawk is a contemporary Native American artist of Sičáŋǧu Lakota descent, and independent curator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is known for her work in the field of visual arts, particularly painting and mixed-media installations. White Hawk earned a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011. She served as Gallery Director and Curator for the All My Relations Gallery in Minneapolis from 2011-2015. In 2021 Marot Lurie (Amherst College, ‘21) interviewed White Hawk on her work and process. White Hawk often explores themes related to her Native American heritage and identity in her artwork, which is exhibited in several collections across the states.

Dentalia—Latin for “tooth shells”—are the shells of a marine scaphopod mollusk.1 Historically dentalium shells were beaded into regalia as necklaces, capes, and breastplates, and into long strands for trading. With long-standing roots in North American indigenous trade, dentalia were used as both indicators of wealth and as currency themselves.2 Archaeological evidence dates the use of dentalium shells as trading items in Northwestern North America to 2000-3000 years ago.3 European settlers entered the dentalia trade as early as the 1790s, incorporating the shells as a currency in the fur trade.4 White naturalists of the 1800s were quick to publish demeaning accounts of the use of dentalium shells as currency, despite extensive settler involvement in their use.5 The history of the dentalia trade deconstructs the colonial narrative regarding indigenous peoples in the United States: primarily myths that tribes were “primitive,” isolated from each other, and did not engage in extensive trade routes. 

Dyani White Hawk’s prints Wačháŋtognaka (Nurture) and Nakíčižiŋ (Protect) below were the inspiration for our project. White Hawk credits inspiration from feminine indigenous relatives for the pieces; the way they collectively care for us. She hopes viewers will recognize the profound influence of Native contributions to American art and development despite its lack of representation in media and academia.6

A screen print based on a traditional Lakota dress.

Dyani White Hawk
Sicangu Lakota, German and Welsh ancestry, American, born 1976

Wačháŋtognaka (Nurture) from the Takes Care of Them suite, 2019

Screenprint with metal foil
Museum purchase with Trinkett Clark Memorial Student Acquisition Fund, 2020.05

A screen print based on a traditional Lakota dress.

Dyani White Hawk
Sicangu Lakota, German and Welsh ancestry, American, born 1976

Nakíčižiŋ (Protect) from the Takes Care of Them suite, 2019

Screenprint with metal foil
Museum purchase with Trinkett Clark Memorial Student Acquisition Fund, 2020.06

In the video below, Jacquelyn Cabarrubia demonstrates the creative process of working with Dentalia shells.

Credits:

Featured artist: Jacquelyn Cabarrubia
Videography: Adela Thompson Page
Edited by: Adela Thompson Page
Voiceover: Jacquelyn Cabarrubia, Yasemin Özden, Adela Thompson Page
Sound: Adela Thompson Page
Transcript

CONTRIBUTORS:

Jacquelyn Cabarrubia ‘25 is from Naaminitigongg ndojeba (the land under the trees) where her Nation Gaaching Zibii Daawaa Anishinaabek (Little River Band of Ottawa Indians) is located in (Manistee, MI). She is double majoring in American Studies, Education Studies, and working towards completing the Five College Native American Indigenous Studies certificate.  

Yasemin Özden is a graduate student in education at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Currently, she serves as a Language Assistant, teaching German at Amherst College. She is the granddaughter of a so-called ‘guest worker’ who immigrated to Germany in the late ‘70s. As a member of a large stateless nation, she identifies with her indigenous roots in the mountainous Kurdish regions of the Middle East.

Adela Thompson Page ‘26 is a geology major at Amherst College. She grew up on Vashon Island in Puget Sound off the coast of Seattle, Washington. She is grateful to take the course Indigenous Books and Art and learn in the Mead Museum, which has led to her newfound appreciation of the art of curation itself. 

  1. Dobkins, Rebecca J. “Exhibit Essay: Life Stories for New Generations: The Living Art of Oregon Tribal Regalia.” Oregon Historical Quarterly 110, no. 3 (2009): 420–39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20615987.
  2. Moss, Madonna L. “Shellfish, Gender, and Status on the Northwest Coast: Reconciling Archeological, Ethnographic, and Ethnohistorical Records of the Tlingit.” American Anthropologist 95, no. 3 (1993): 631–52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/679654. 
  3. Turner, Nancy J., and Dawn C. Loewen. “The Original ‘Free Trade’: Exchange of Botanical Products and Associated Plant Knowledge in Northwestern North America.” Anthropologica 40, no. 1 (1998): 49–70. https://doi.org/10.2307/25605872.
  4. Nuytten, Phil. “Shelling Out.” Diver Magazine 34, no. 3 (July 2008): 14–23. https://amherst.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=34736837&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
  5. Stearns, R. E. C. “Shell-Money.” The American Naturalist 3, no. 1 (1869): 1–5. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2447524. 
  6. Interview: Dyani White Hawk & Margot Lurie. MEAD SEEDS. https://meadeducation.wordpress.amherst.edu/2021/12/08/interview-dyani-white-hawk-margot-lurie/.

WORKS CITED

Ames, Michael M. Museums, The Public, and Anthropology: A Study in the Anthropology of Anthropology. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1986. 

Byram, Scott, and David G. Lewis. “Ourigan: Wealth of the Northwest Coast.” Oregon Historical Quarterly 102, no. 2 (2001): 126–57. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20615134. 

Curtis, Edward S. The North American Indian, Vol. 13: The Hupa, edited by Frederick Webb Hodge. Privately Published. https://search-alexanderstreet-com.amherst.idm.oclc.org/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C4405018#search/dentalia 

Dobkins, Rebecca J. “Exhibit Essay: Life Stories for New Generations: The Living Art of Oregon Tribal Regalia.” Oregon Historical Quarterly 110, no. 3 (2009): 420–39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20615987. 

“Indian Tooth Shell Money.” The Science News-Letter 12, no. 342 (1927): 281–82. https://doi.org/10.2307/3903241. 

Moss, Madonna L. “Shellfish, Gender, and Status on the Northwest Coast: Reconciling Archeological, Ethnographic, and Ethnohistorical Records of the Tlingit.” American Anthropologist 95, no. 3 (1993): 631–52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/679654. 

Nuytten, Phil. “Shelling Out.” Diver Magazine 34, no. 3 (July 2008): 14–23. https://amherst.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=34736837&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

“Shells and Beaver Skins for Money.” Scientific American 12, no. 11 (1865): 161–161. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24977947. 

Stearns, R. E. C. “Shell-Money.” The American Naturalist 3, no. 1 (1869): 1–5. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2447524. 

Turner, Nancy J., and Dawn C. Loewen. “The Original ‘Free Trade’: Exchange of Botanical Products and Associated Plant Knowledge in Northwestern North America.” Anthropologica 40, no. 1 (1998): 49–70. https://doi.org/10.2307/25605872.

Dyani White Hawk. https://www.dyaniwhitehawk.com/

Interview: Dyani White Hawk & Margot Lurie. MEAD SEEDS. https://meadeducation.wordpress.amherst.edu/2021/12/08/interview-dyani-white-hawk-margot-lurie/.