Jaclas and Heishi: Shell and Turquoise Ear and Necklace Traditions

Jaclas — loops of turquoise and shell beads worn in the ear or hung from the bottom of a necklace — are among the oldest and most functionally specific ornaments in the Navajo and Pueblo tradition. Bedinger documents their shift from ear to necklace as a social adaptation, and the resulting forms have become one of the most recognized elements of Southwest jewelry assemblage. This page covers jaclas, heishi strands, and the shell bead traditions they draw from.

Mateo's Field Notes

The documentation of jaclas in Bedinger is specific and worth quoting directly: "The loops — jacla — hang down for 3 to 5 inches, and end in three red shell beads with a few white shell ones on either side of them. Apparently both sexes used to wear these strings in their ears, but the women found them too convenient a tool for a jealous husband's rage, so wives discreetly removed beads from their ears and hung them at the bottom of their shell necklaces."

The source for this observation is Stephen (1893), via Bedinger: "Navajo men said women's ear-ornaments could be torn through lobes as punishment; wives wore them hanging from necklaces instead." A photograph documented by Tanner (1954) shows a girl with loops of turquoise beads in each ear, "exactly like the strings of turquoise one sees hanging from the bottom of shell and turquoise necklaces." The form is identical in both positions — the only difference is where on the body it is worn.

The spelling varies in the literature: jacla, jocla, and jackla all appear. None is definitively authoritative. This guide uses jacla as the primary spelling while acknowledging the others as equally valid in collector and dealer usage.

Adair documents the shell-bead trade as a currency of the silversmithing world: "I used to make ketohs for the Zuni, and I would trade one of those for a necklace of shell beads." This positions shell beads — and by extension jaclas — as objects of recognized value equivalent to a ketoh, one of the most labor-intensive silver forms. Shell beads moved through trade networks across the Southwest and were not locally made by all groups that wore them.

Heishi — the tiny disk bead ground from shell — is the foundation of many of these necklace assemblages. The grinding of shell into disk beads is a lapidary tradition that predates silver in the Pueblo world. A strand of heishi by itself is an object of considerable labor: each bead is ground individually to a uniform disk, drilled, strung, and ground again on the strand to achieve a smooth, even surface. The quality of heishi is assessed by disk uniformity, surface finish, and the whiteness and translucency of the shell.

When Zuni elaborate silver-set earrings became available, Navajo women adopted them — Bedinger records this shift explicitly. The jacla-to-necklace adaptation predated this; the Zuni silver earring adoption further reduced ear use of the traditional jacla. The result is that jaclas in the assemblage sense — hanging from the bottom of a shell or turquoise necklace — became more characteristic of the traditional form than jaclas worn in ears, which shifted toward the elaborate inlay earrings Zuni produced.

Makers Known for This Form

• Angela Cellicion — Zuni; inlay earring and necklace tradition
• Vivian Haloo — Zuni
• Vivian Hattie — Zuni

Related Links

• The Squash Blossom Necklace
• Clusterwork: Zuni's Dimensional Stone Setting
• Needlepoint and Petit Point
• Southwest Jewelry Field Guide — hub
• Glossary of Silversmithing Terms

Browse earrings at T.Skies.

References

• Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. University of New Mexico Press, 1973, p. 75.
• Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. University of Oklahoma Press, 1944, p. 56 (shell bead trade).

By Mateo James | T.Skies Co-Op Field Guide