Hi Again Pappy,
As a child I played with these buttons on a string. There were four kids in our family and when all the cousins came over to play there were a lot of kids in one small house. Sometimes as many as 16 or more. So our parents had to find something to amuse us on a rainy day. We just called them ‘buzz buttons’ when I was growing up. Because to us, they sounded like buzzing bees when you really got them whirling! To make them go fast, I used to twirl them more than two times though. I’d twirl them several times to get them started and then alternately pull my hands apart and then let them go closer together to keep the twisting action on the button working indefinately.
I used to love making them go really fast and then letting them tighten up around my fingers (middle fingers only). I remember as a kid, I was always afraid that they’d tighten so much that they’d cut off the circulation to my fingers and my fingers would fall off. LOL. I do remember a few times that my fingers actually did turn purple and I had to run to Mama. LOL But we played with these for hours and hours and I also made them for my kids and grand kids.
Like everyone else, I have no idea what the gorget found on the child was used for. It could have been all of the things that have been discussed here in this thread, or it could have been none of them. Since a similar design was found on a spoon bowl, it could have even been a family or tribal symbol or, something we don’t even know about.
To me, the use of the child’s gorget is secondary compared to the meaning of the symbols. But that, too is lost to time. So we can only speculate again unless further evidence is found which would put some clarity on this object.
I often wish I could be a ‘time traveler’ and go back and see what our ancestors were really like. There is so much speculation when a people and their culture have been lost to time, or thrown aside, or discounted or ignored or down right sabataged. It’s too bad that our ancestors of all races didn’t realize the importance of preserving culture. Of course, for the white people, maybe they did and that is why they tried so hard to destroy anything and anyone that didn’t fit into their white culture.
In my opinion, it was both white and NA peoples who are to blame. Blame sounds like too harsh a word, but I can’t think of another right now. The white man for oppressing the NA’s and the NA’s because they were so secretive about their roots- even to their own children. And because of that a whole culture was lost.
Of course, I understand that it was often dangerous to pass the information along and that for generations the sacred rituals and rites were banned by the government under threat of heavy penality to those sharing or taking part in any kind of ritual. It must have been a very hard time to live in for our NA ancestors.
And that this circle of events brings us to today, and to us here, sharing our collective stories, oral traditions and research – trying to reconnect to the ancient past. Perhaps it is fitting that the symbol that has been adopted has a circle of ‘mountains’ with a whirlwind in the center because it seems that many of us have been in a kind of geneaolocigal whirlwind and have had to pass over many mountains and valleys just to get to where we are today. Finally, I am ok with this symbol. It is a fitting symbol of our search.