Vintage Native American White Heishi, Turquoise and ‘Corn’ Shell Jacla 22”

Created by the Rio Grande Pueblo people long before Europeans arrived - using natural and available materials such as turquoise, shell and coral - the two loop jacla often tied to a necklace or worn as earrings were adopted by other Native American tribes with whom they engaged in trade. 
 
We read that historic photos show jacla was worn by both men and women of all Southwestern tribes but some sources say the Jacla were worn as earrings looped over the ears by unmarried women and as necklace pendants by married women. According to others, they were worn as both without significance other than what mood a woman was in at the moment, the jacla a pair of heishi earrings sometimes tied onto a necklace for storage and/or decoration. Jacla is Navajo for ‘ear strings’. 
 
Today, many turn the jacla into earrings by attaching silver cones to the ends of the strings they are strung on or use colorful attachments to affix them to the necklace.
 
Our jacla shines with blue-green-caramel colored turquoise discs smoothly hand cut and shaped in graduated sizes, ranging from 1/8” to 5/16” in diameter. These lead to three vertical chunk stones believed to be made of white oyster shell, which both resemble and represent corn. More expensive versions use orange spiny oyster shells or coral for the corn beads. 
 
Ours are also just looped over the necklace, rather than tied to it, but they are secure. The necklace which is made of white heishi beads is simply tied using the string on in the back. The ends of the jacla loops are the same. Many much more ‘finished’ sets are available online at much, much higher prices than we are asking.
 
Some of the beads on ours are chipped and there is natural discoloration on the ‘corns’. Ours is also missing the red coral beads that usually sit on the ends of the jacla as shown in this Etsy example (shared with permission from Rare Native Jewelry):  https://www.etsy.com/listing/1757071640/vintage-native-american-traditional
 
Necklace length 22” end to end, weight 1.23 oz (35g)
Jacla length 8” end to end, weight 0.56 oz (16g)
 
Disclaimer: We have tried to make sure colors shown in photos are representative of the real colors of each item. We have tried to identify all imperfections in descriptions, but we may have missed some. If you are unhappy with your purchase, let us know