Vintage Sterling Silver Crushed Turquoise & Coral Peyote Bird Thunderbird Squash Necklace Old Pawn Navajo 25" Length 139 grams

Vintage, Old Pawn, Peyote Bird - Thunderbird inlaid sterling silver squash style necklace. With 11 stunning Thunderbird's, set with crushed turquoise and coral.

The handmade silver beads are strung on a silver wire that fastens with a traditional hook-and-eye clasp.

Beautiful patina to the piece, sympathetically cleaned to retain characteristics of it's age.

Weight: 139 grams

Length: 25" approx
Largest Thunderbird 2.1" x 1.7"
Smaller Thunderbirds 1.4" x 1.2"

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One of the most important factors in the Native American Indian culture is their reverence to the spirit world. At the heart of the Native American culture is animal symbolism. One such symbol is a spirit bird that is considered sacred; the Thunderbird, interchangeable with the Eagle for some cultures.

The beautiful symbol of this spirit bird sits atop many cedar wood totem poles, to this day, and speaks of the superior status of the tribe it belongs to. In many Northwestern Native American tribes, this spirit bird is known as the Skyamsen, and commands all of nature’s activity on the ground. Throughout the Native American culture the Thunderbird spirit guide is universally symbolic of profound power and glory, transformation, an indomitable spirit, indisputable authority, being a courier from another realm, provision, and divine dominion.

This Thunderbird animal totem also symbolizes creation and destruction, and divides the heavens from the earth. There are many differing accounts of what the Thunderbird meaning symbolizes, the messages it brings, and the level of importance associated with its presence. These differences can be attributed almost exclusively to the region and varying social aspects of the tribes who hold this animal symbol in such high regard.

The Water Bird is a symbol of the renewal of life, rainy seasons, rivers, distant travel, distant vision & wisdom. It is often also referred to as the Peyote Bird because the Water Bird plays a significant part in the Native American Indian Church Peyote meetings and, in fact, since the early 1900’s has been the symbol of the NAC.

The Peyote/Water Bird is not a Southwest tradition, but one of the Plains Indians. The Peyote Bird is connected with lightning, thunder and visions. Those who dream of the thunder beings will become Heyokas, those who do things backwards, upside down, or opposite. This is a Lakota way of being. It is part of the medicine of the Heyoka to remind us that we should not take ourselves too seriously – that’s why Heyoka is often translated as the “sacred clown”.