Know Your Story, Live Your Story
4 Ways to connect to your Native Roots
- Listen To Your Elders - Next time you're around your grandparents, ask them questions about your culture and traditions. Ask them if you can take notes or record what they are telling you. If you don’t have access to your elders, please continue to watch our videos and learn everything you can.
- Apply What You Know - Try to apply what you already know, or what you are learning to your life. Sometimes we think that the old ways are not applicable to modern life. But if we look hard enough we can see how to apply the old ways today.
- Genealogy / DNA - Genealogy can tell you a lot about where your native roots come from but records for many tribes only go back to the 1800’s. DNA is a good place to start and as more people use DNA it will be able to pinpoint tribal affiliation. However, currently DNA can only tell a person what percent of their blood is Native not which tribe your DNA comes from.
- Blaze Your Own Trail - This option if for those of who cannot find their genealogy but remember a grandparent or great grandparent telling their history. Those who may have been adopted and have no way of knowing their relations. Blazing your own trail requires you to follow your heart and listen to what your ancestors are telling you. This is one of the reasons the Story Pouch was created.
The Use of Symbolism
Native people use storytelling to pass on the traditions. This storytelling is rich with symbolism and deeper meaning. Because Native people didn’t have a written language, these stories and symbols are very important and hold many different meanings.
A Scattered People
During the 1800's many tribes were at war with the U.S. Government and were scattered. Thriving tribes were never the same when the dust settled. Misinformation began to creep into traditional teachings as western anthropologists and archaeologists wrote history. Some say they did the best they could, others say they deliberately wrote history to benefit western expansion and manifest destiny.
Corrupted Culture
When Native people look at the things they were taught by the old ones, and the things they learn in western classrooms often times it doesn't add up. Pure tradition is nearly impossible to come by.
Necessary Tools
For people who struggle to trace their genealogy to their native roots it can be even more difficult to know their story. When Navajo Traditional Teachings first started sharing their culture, many people reached out to them looking for answers about their own native roots. Wally Brown and his son Shane, the founders of Navajo Traditional Teachings knew they needed to do something to help these people connect to their roots.
Traditional Tools
In traditional settings, native people use their medicine bundles and corn pollen pouches for traditional purposes but also for everyday application of their traditions. The medicine bundle would include things used in the different ceremonies that mostly the men would practice and offer to others. It would contain different herbs, stones tools and mountain soil.
The Story Pouch
Out of necessity, to help others connect to their native roots, the "Story Pouch" was created. The pouch is a hybrid of traditional teachings and an object journal. The pouch has symbols that tell the Emergence story along with 4 different stones each a color of the 4 planes of existence, which are "The Black World", "The Blue World", "The Yellow World", and "The White World".
Printed on the leather pouch, hand pressed from an original painting, are symbols showing the 4 sacred mountains, 4 sacred types of vegetation (Corn to the east, beans to the south, squash to west, and mountain smoke to the north). and the continual growth spiral.
"The purpose of the story pouch is to help connect you to your past but let you carry that into the future". Says Shane Brown, the designer of the story pouch. Shane, who is half Navajo and sometimes doesn't have the right skin tone to be accepted, says "no one can take away your culture, you have to let them, and I'm not about to do that". He says he hopes people will take the story pouch, learn the emergence story... Add other things to their pouch. Then move forward sharing their story with others as they go.
Authentic Turquoise
Why Wear Silver & Turquoise
How We Test Our Turquoise
4 Ways To Know if Turquoise is Real or Fake
Testing is a skill. Some pieces of turquoise you can tell right when you pick them up. Others require a more scientific approach.
Keep Reading To See The Four Ways To Test Turquoise:
1) Visual Test
This is the first and easiest way to test turquoise.
It may look “real,” and sometimes the fake stuff looks just as good as the real thing. When looking at real turquoise, the color can be more uniform, like Sleeping Beauty turquoise, or it can have more tones, like green Kingman turquoise.
The thing to look for is how the color changes. In real turquoise, the color change happens abruptly. It almost seems blotchy. It isn’t a smooth transition from one shade to the next.
You also want to look for color tone. The color should be similar. If you have a blue stone on one side and white on the other, this may indicate fake turquoise, or further testing is needed.
The matrix is the vein or other material visible in the turquoise. Some turquoise has a deeply defined matrix, while some has hardly any. It is rare to find turquoise with little to no matrix, which is why those stones are considered more valuable.
Matrix can be black, grey, or different shades of brown. Matrix will also vary in intensity. If the matrix looks too uniform or if the patterns of the matrix repeat, that may be a sign the turquoise is fake.
Failing any of these tests doesn’t automatically mean the stone is fake.
2) Acetone Test
This test uses the powerful chemicals in acetone or paint thinner. This test may be the fastest way to tell, but you probably won’t be able to do this test if you are browsing a piece in a shop.
Just like paint, dyed turquoise will show its true color when introduced to paint thinner.
Some say you can tell with acetone fingernail polish remover, but in some cases, those chemicals are not strong enough to break down the dye.
Using paint thinner, apply some to an inconspicuous spot on the turquoise in question with a cotton swab or cotton ball.
Then, rub vigorously. If the turquoise is dyed, the cotton will show a tint of blue or green. Be careful, as this may ruin the piece if it is indeed fake turquoise.
That’s why you should do it in an inconspicuous area if you do it at all.
Dyed howlite and magnesite are favorites of imposters, and this test will reveal their true colors. These stones are naturally white but have a similar matrix to turquoise. The white dyes easily, and the matrix gets darker. A dark matrix is a good indicator of dyed stone but isn’t always accurate.
3) Heat Test
Some fake turquoise is plastic. It will pass the acetone test in many cases. It can also feel and look real. There is a turquoise called “block” or “composite.” This is made from turquoise scraps that are ground down and pressed together. Although chemically it is technically turquoise, it doesn’t feel like turquoise and can easily be mistaken for plastic.
To test with heat, a lighter and a heavy-gauge safety pin will be needed. Find an inconspicuous area of the stone in question. Heat the safety pin until it’s red hot. This shouldn’t take long.
Take care not to overheat, as the heat will travel through the safety pin and burn your fingers.
Once the tip of the safety pin is red hot, apply it to the inconspicuous area. If the turquoise is plastic, you will see the plastic melt and a pinhole start to form. Real turquoise doesn’t melt.
4) Stress/Scratch Test
Real turquoise is brittle, which is why the standard for turquoise is high-quality stabilized turquoise. Dyed howlite and magnesite will be white under the surface.
The problem with this method is that all the stones will scratch.
So, if you are performing this test, find an inconspicuous area to test. Basically, what you’re looking for is whether the turquoise is white below the surface. You shouldn’t have to scratch too deeply before you see white.
But the piece will be permanently damaged.
If you can’t tell and, say, you are testing an entire bag of turquoise beads, you can get a hammer and smash one completely. Real turquoise will have the color all the way through. Dyed howlite and magnesite will be white.