Dentalium Artist Profile: Tipiziwin Tolmanhas audio

“Coming from the ‘rez’, that was a lot for me to save up to get those shells,” she recalls. Today, as an adjunct faculty member and doctoral student at Washington State University, she’s come a long way from those days, but crafting original dentalium jewelry is still a part of her life.

Tolman says she was drawn to work with dentalium after seeing pictures of her great-grandmothers. “They had really elaborate dentalium on their regalia, a cape, double hair ties and earrings,” she said. “I admired their pictures. I think there is something about it in our cultures where we like shiny and beautiful things, and shells are one of them.”

As she started working with dentalium more, she started learning more about the significance to her culture. “As I grew older, I had the realization that we are landlocked people, but we have this relationship with shells that come from the ocean,” Tolman said. “That came from trade and the currency and representation it had.”

“My great-grandmothers came from families that could afford elaborate regalia,” said Tolman. “The cultural implications meant they came from male relatives that could provide for families, in terms of being good hunters so that they could have a fair amount of hides they could trade for those dentalium shells.”

Shells were highly traded in times of peace, when trade centers were established, she said.

“Historically, it was our men who took pride in their women and traded many buffalo robes for dentalium so that women could use the shells to adorn hair ties, earrings and yokes, as well as war bonnets,” Tolman added. “It showed love for their families to be able to afford these things.”

Those days of bartering on trade routes and at trading posts are long gone. But dentalium is seeing a boom, according to Tolman and others. So why is there a recent uptick in its popularity? Tolman says that can be attributed to social media and a social movement.

“From my perspective and my social media circles, that style exploded with social media and the Dakota Access pipeline,” said Tolman. “It took off with a Dakota/Lakota style of how it’s worn, and many other tribes use this style now. Our style became more mainstream, more normalized, and those who don’t traditionally have that style wear that style of earring now: tiered rows of dentalium, historically a Plains tribes style.”

Because of that popularity and the growing scarcity of the shell, price points have changed dramatically since Tolman’s college years. Shells are now sold per ounce or kilogram. She says the larger shells are the hardest to find, and when they are available, they range up to $50 per ounce.

“Fourteen years ago it was more affordable, the very large, very coveted dentalium, 4 to 5 inches large,” she recalled. “They were $1.50 per shell at Prairie Edge in Rapid City. Then they were always out of stock. I couldn’t get them anymore. Prairie Edge said their supplier on the West Coast was buying them in bulk. The larger shell – sturdy, hardy shells – I would save up to buy in bulk: 1,000 shells for $100. But now there are very few places to buy in bulk.”

Tolman and her family moved to Pullman, Washington, to join the inaugural cohort of Titooqan Cuukweneewit WSU’s Indigenous Teacher Prep Project. She and her husband, “T,” have six children and own “Haipazaza Phezuta,” an online soap and body product store that promotes family, sustainability and respectful Indigenous relationships with medicine plant relatives.

When she moved to Washington state in 2017, she could find shells online at Etsy, Ebay and powwow regalia-making sites on Facebook. But now the only place she can occasionally find the large shells is a few trading posts.

“The larger shells are hard to come by,” she said. “The smaller ones are fine. But the ones that are 2½ inches or larger are very difficult to find.” Last year she went to Prairie Edge during powwow and purchased 2 to 2½-inch shells for $50 an ounce.

Nowadays, Tolman lives less than a day’s drive from the traditional dentalium harvesting grounds around Vancouver Island. But she says she isn’t aware of any shell harvesters in her area; she only knows of one in Alaska. Instead, she replenishes her supply through a few area trading posts on the Nez Perce Reservation and the Coeur d’Alene Reservation in Idaho or at the Yellowstone Pawn in Billings, Montana.

Recently, she discovered an unexpected solution to the dentalium shortage: a 3D printer used at a community college in North Carolina that could make imitation dentalium.

“I mailed them my own shells to get a template off of and they made copies of them,” she said. “For the past year and a half, I’ve been using those. I was able to make a necklace with those shells.”

When asked what the dentalium shortage in the U.S. means, Tolman says it’s disappointing but not surprising. The explosion of dentalium sales on the internet is indicative of the effects of systemic capitalism.

Tipiziwin is a graduate student in the University of Victoria’s Indigenous Language Revitalization program and a substitute teacher in the Pullman School District.

“We have the power to make changes, give them a rest. I encourage people to be mindful and keep in mind that the shells are not just an object but that it came from life, a living being from the water,” Tolman said.

“Without the water, none of us can live. Wearing dentalium is a reminder to show gratitude to water. Despite everything that has happened to our people, there are still people who practice gratitude to the water. We can still do that.”