North American Beads

Note: Not all described/ pictured beads are available .Collectible beads are often named after the area in which they are best known for having been traded in. For example, the highly decorative glass "African" beads were used in

Africa as money for every day items, but they were also traded for expensive como-dities including land and slaves. Actually manufactured in Venice, they were also traded in other places, including the western hemisphere.

NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

Manhattan: Legend tells us this type of Dutch beads was among those of the Manhattan Transfer. Commonly traded by the Dutch, they were an attempt to copy the Venetian chevron. Strands or individual beads in groups of 5.

NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Russian Blues

"Russian Blues" were traded in the Pacific Northwest. Their name derives from the fact that they were transshipped across Russia into China and then across the Pacific to be utilized as a trade

item with the Native American population .However, their story is a bit more complex in that the beads were actually manufactured in Czechoslovakia and then shipped across Russia to China, where they were faceted.

The faceted blue beads were then shipped to Alaska and down the North American west coast into the American "North West." The illustrated strand is made from a Tlingit cache found in Craig, Alaska.

Dentalium

Dentalium and "Russian Blues", Chinese glass beads: Dentalium is a shell found in the nootka sound area of British Columbia, Canada and was used as ornamentation before the western incursion. It was traded to the Chinook people in return for items from the Columbia River. Widely disseminated, this sea life shell has been found as far East as Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Dentalium and chinese glass beads. Dentalium was found in the nootka sound area of british columbia and used as ornamentation before the western incursion. The pictured necklace is a combination of dentalium

and chinese glass. From alaska, though not pictured,the necklace was part of the C. Richard le roy collection in the july 1971 issue of arizona highways.

"Peking" Glass

"Peking" Glass: These cobalt blue beads were actually made in Boshan, Shandong province; they were an active trade bead into California and the Pacific Northwest. Late 19th and early 20th century. Shown in july, 1971 issue, Arizona Highways.

"Lewis and Clark" beads

These "Lewis and Clark" beads illustrate a style carried by Lewis and Clark for trade on their expedition to the Pacific Northwest.

These glass beads were made in Venice from the earliest years of the 1800's and have also been traded in West Africa. Africans refer to them as "Lewis and Clarks".

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

Padres: Spanish Priests brought this once popular blue bead into the Southwest for trade and labor.

It is said that thirty beads were worth a good pony. They have lost some of their original value. Strands only.

Mohave necklace: A distinct style of seed bead weaving, unique among the Mohave Americans.

Hubble and Old Tile beads:

Hubble Turquoise:

Our Catalog of North American Beads

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Prices updated on 16 December 2001


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