If you just learned some of the reasons why to wear Native American jewelry, you could be looking for the different types of jewelry to wear. The history of Native American pieces of jewelry has been passed down from one generation to another. there is a lot of evidence showing that these pieces of jewelry date back to around 8800 BC when people used stone drills for sharpening shells and stones in jewelry. Today, this history of making jewelry spans the whole country from the Eastern Woodland Indians to the great Southwest Pueblo tribes.
Types of Native American pieces of jewelry
There are a lot of Native American pieces of jewelry. The jewelry consists of necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings. Using items that were readily available, some of the materials used to make these pieces of jewelry might be sourced from turquoise, coral and shells. Semi-precious and precious pearls are available.
Craftsmen manipulate and transform these materials into beautiful pieces of jewelry for both ceremonial and personal adornment significance. In addition to decoration, Native Indian jewelry was used to signify the social status of an individual. Native Americans traditionally used copper in the earlier years of making jewelry. It was not until more modern times that indigenous southwestern people learned to make jewelry from silver.
After the introduction of silversmith’ing, Native American pieces of jewelry became valuable and large assets in the trade economy. A lot of southwest Indian tribes transitioned from trade to a merchant-based society. In the 20th century, Native American craftsmen of the southwest started selling their turquoise and silver jewelry to tourists. Now let us look at some types of Native American jewelry.
The squash blossom necklace

The most ubiquitous pieces of Native Indian jewelry are the squash blossom necklace. This necklace is crafted in turquoise and silver and consists of round beads that are interspersed with beads that bloom. This leads down to something that looks like a horseshoe. This is what is known as a Naja and was created to protect and ward off evil eyes.
The complexity of this necklace design was an indication of the social status and wealth of the wearer. The more elaborate it was, the higher the status of the wearer.
Other necklaces and pendants
Native American necklaces come in other styles in addition to the squash blossom style necklace. For instance, we have a necklace that has carved smooth bone segments separated by silver beads. There is also the Native American choker necklace that has five strands of smooth carved graduated cylindrical bone pieces that are separated with leather and sterling silver beads.
The central medallion is a huge abalone shell that is shaped into a disk and it has additional beading, silver hanging on the suede and bone.
While there are different types of Native American pieces of jewelry, there are reasons why to wear Native American jewelry. Some pieces of jewelry were designed to protect people from evil, others were designed to serve as memories of good events, and so on.
