A number of years in the past, the Gwich’in jeweler Tania Larsson was on the hunt for supplies to create some new items. Particularly, Larsson was looking for dentalium shells—the lengthy, tubular shells deriving from Dentalium, a sort of marine mollusk. Solely drawback was Larsson couldn’t discover any; all of her ordinary suppliers, together with varied buying and selling posts, had been utterly depleted of the more and more uncommon shells. However then Larsson obtained a name: One vendor had a superb assortment up for grabs. The artist didn’t hesitate: “I used to be like, ‘Can I purchase all of them?’”
Within the Indigenous vogue world, dentalium shells—which resemble tusks attributable to their curved form and milky white colour—are thought of simply as treasured as diamonds, if no more, as a result of they’re turning into more and more tough to seek out. “My most precious shells are vintage ones from North America, as a result of these are thick and lengthy,” says Larsson. “These will not be even like diamonds—they’re one in 1,000,000.” It’s not only a query of rarity: Dentaliums proceed to be wanted for his or her distinctive histories and particular meanings too.
So the place precisely do these shells come from—and why are they thought of extra helpful than treasured gems?