[NATIVE AMERICAN] Crow Beaded Loop Necklace with Shell Discs & Ermine Pendants

A Crow (Apsáalooke) Loop Necklace with Shell and Ermine Ornaments. Northern Plains.

A substantial loop necklace composed of nine graduated strands suspended between paired vertical leather supports. Dark, rounded metal beads form the greater part of each strand, interrupted at the center by short passages of turquoise-blue glass barrel beads. These repeated blue accents describe a descending axis through the open, draped composition. Pale shell discs secured along the leather sidepieces introduce a contrasting series of circular forms.

Two white ermine skins, retaining their dark-tipped tails, hang along the outer edges. At the upper corners, domed metal ornaments and small bells accompany remnants of red and darker cloth streamers; a hide thong provides suspension. The combination of metal, glass, shell, fur, and leather gives the necklace considerable textural variety, while the limited palette preserves the clarity of its arrangement. When worn, the flexible strands and hanging ornaments would have responded to the wearer’s movement.

Loop necklaces occupied an established place in Crow formal attire during the nineteenth century. The Brinton Museum preserves examples dated circa 1860 and circa 1880 and notes that, by the 1880s, necklaces incorporating prominent shell ornaments were characteristic of Crow dress for special occasions. These works also reflect longstanding networks of exchange through which shells and manufactured beads reached the Northern Plains and were incorporated into locally distinctive forms of adornment.

The example offered here is particularly effective in its juxtaposition of the dark bead strands, bright blue centers, and pale ermine pendants. Its ornament is carried as much by the graduated sweep of the loops as by the individual materials, producing a handsome and immediately recognizable expression of Crow personal adornment.

[Native Americans, Native American History, American Indian, Indian History]