Beads to Buckskins

“VANISHING SPIRIT” was titled after a great elder lady of the Sioux Nation. Her name was White Buffalo. She came to me during our Gem & Mineral Show in Quartzsite Arizona five years ago. After she looked me over good and ask a lot of questions about the different types of beadwork I could do, she ask me to create a necklace for her. She was getting her burial attire arranged and the breastplate necklace was to be part of the ceremony.

Alice Kroach, editor of Bead & Button Magazine published White Buffalo’s story in August issue 2003, as a tribute to White Buffalo. I was very pleased with the presentation, and I am sure White Buffalo would be too. However as a refresher I will give you a brief history of how the design of this necklace came about.

I spent the day with White Buffalo as she described to me what the necklace was to represent. She was very specific about the details and colors used. This little lady was a walking history book. She was born on the day Sitting Bull died and on that same day a white buffalo was born on the Sioux reservation, so she was named after the animal that is very sacred to most all Native American Nations. However the most amazing thing about her was her age. I later put dates together and realizing Sitting Bull died in the year 1890 that made her one hundred & nine years old at the time she ordered this necklace. Sadly she passed away before I could finish the project. I put the unfinished project away and a couple years passed before I decided to finish

White Buffalo’s necklace. As a result of the publicity that Bead & Button gave

the necklace, I have been asked countless times to publish the complete pattern and illustrate the instructions.

It is very difficult to illustrate a free hand design bead for bead, because the basic pattern was just the outline of a buffalo ready to stampede. Everything else on the necklace was designed freehand creating the pattern as the project progressed. As a result I have illustrated each technique that I used to achieve the look White Buffalo wanted. You can arrange these techniques anywhere you care to place them in the neck line.

The peyote swirl stitch was used to indicate the presently, combined existence of the white man and the Native American living in harmony. There is a turquoise bead on each side of the neckline covered with silver beads which indicates the Indian in captivity, first by force and second by reservation. The turquoise beads represent the forgotten tribes and families that were never recorded. The red coral beads represent the blood of the buffalo as they were being slaughtered by the thousands and left to waste on the plains.

White Buffalo said “Just as the buffalo have disappeared, so goes the Native American Indian. Their blood and the white mans mingle in Mother Earth. The destiny of all nations will someday be as one. The earth will claim us all”.

Generations go by as we ignore the wisdom of our elder people. The one day I spent with White Buffalo gave me a completely different outlook on what is most important in life and has made me appreciate more the simplicity of how we are to live. She also made me realize that nothing is impossible if you give it enough thought before you begin. Instant spontaneous words and actions seem always to result in mistakes and short lived emotions. Time is one of our greatest gifts. Use a little of it creatively in beadwork or spend some on other people. You will be proud.