Made by hand in our partner workshop in China  ·  Shipped worldwide  ·  Every symbol comes with its sources
Atlas  /  For children  /  Turtle and lizard navel amuletsNo. 123
Plate INorth America & Arctic · Great Plains (Lakota, Kiowa and other nations)Turtle and lizard navel amulets, drawn by Wishlore
Pl. ITurtle and lizard navel amulets. Two beaded hide amulets, a turtle and a lizard, each with a loop for tying on; the bead patterns are simplified. Drawing: Wishlore.
No. 123  ·  For children  ·  North America & Arctic

The turtle and the lizard

On the Great Plains, mothers kept a baby’s dried umbilical cord inside a small beaded amulet. One museum label says beaded turtles were given to girls and lizards or snakes to boys; another records that the amulet was kept in the hope of good health and a long life.

Earliest record
Plains girl’s dress with a lizard umbilical amulet, about 1870 (Gilcrease Museum)
Source
Gilcrease Museum, Lakota Sioux beaded girl’s dress with umbilical cord lizard-shaped bag, about 1870 (84.1795)
Region
North America & Arctic · Great Plains (Lakota, Kiowa and other nations)
Wish
For children
Layers
Record Folk Modern
Keep this symbol · from £2.99Read the sources
The story · three layers

The story, in three layers.

Record, Folk and Modern are kept apart, and each one carries its source.

I
Record
About 1870

A lizard on a girl’s dress

The Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa holds a child’s beaded hide dress of about 1870, titled as Lakota Sioux (its record also allows a Blackfoot origin), with a lizard-shaped amulet of dyed porcupine quill fixed at the front. The museum says the amulet contains the umbilical cord of the child who owned the dress. The Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, holds a beaded turtle of 1870–75, catalogued as Kiowa, made of hide, glass beads, tin cones and horse hair.

To verify: A lizard amulet at the Baltimore Museum of Art is reported as dated 1867, which would be earlier; we have not yet been able to read its record

II
Folk
Plains nations, 19th century

Tied to the cradle

The Fenimore Art Museum’s label for a beaded turtle ‘navelstring charm’ of 1870–75, catalogued as Kiowa, says Plains mothers kept the baby’s dried cord inside such amulets, believing it kept sickness away. Lizard and snake amulets were given to boys and turtles to girls, and the amulets were fixed to the child’s cradle or clothing. The Gilcrease Museum says its amulet held the child’s own cord and was kept in the hope of good health and a long life. Not every piece follows the pattern: the Gilcrease amulet, on a girl’s dress, is a lizard.

To verify: Whether every Plains nation followed the same turtle and lizard pattern; the label speaks of the Plains in general

III
Modern
Wishlore, today

Not ours to copy

These amulets held part of a real child’s body, and they belong to living nations. We tell their story; we do not copy, make or sell them.

To verify: Why a turtle and a lizard were chosen; we have not yet read a museum or community source that explains it

Turtle and lizard navel amulets
Plains girl’s dress with a lizard umbilical amulet, about 1870 (Gilcrease Museum)
Story and sources on the reverse
Pl. IIThe story card. Every printed piece carries the story and a code that opens the full source list.
Keep it close

How would you like to keep it?

Add to bag · £8
  • No jewellery for this symbol yet; story card and download only
  • Printed cards are made in our partner workshop in China and shipped worldwide
  • Delivery: [UK/EU/US days TBC]; duties shown at checkout
In one breath
A turtle for a girl, a lizard for a boy. Who would you keep it for?
Also for children

Other symbols to keep

See all symbols for children

No. 26
Taweret
Egyptian amulet, 664–332 BC
No. 59
Longevity lock (Changming suo)
No early record of the lock itself
No. 69
Tumar (empty case)
Photographed 1898–99; museum pieces about 1900
No. 77
Hei-tiki
Robley, Pounamu, 1915
No. 82
Akua'ba
British Museum, Af1940,01.1