The Americas · c. 1500 BCE – today

Northwest Coast & Arctic shaman charms

What it is

Tlingit and Haida shamans wore carved bone and ivory charms of spirit-helpers (land otters, octopus, bears, and faces with tongue-links). Soul-catchers were bone tubes that retrieved lost souls. Inuit hunters sewed tiny amulets into clothing.

Making yours

Bone, antler or walrus ivory 5–15 cm with abalone inlays, sinew-bound. Soul-catchers are 15–25 cm tubes with animal heads at each end.

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Four carved ivory amulets, Eskimo.

Amulet Peak rising above Matanuska River

Anything in the gallery can be made, by hand, in the prescribed metal or yours and, where the tradition names an hour, at that hour or with a plain note that it was not. Numbered. Price on commission, quoted first. I reply within one business day.