Turtle Shell Rattle Use by Indigenous Peoples of the Contiguous United States: Ethnographic Documentation

**When using this data and information, please cite all of the following:

Gillreath-Brown, Andrew. 2019. Creation to Rhythm: An Ethnographic and Archaeological Survey of Turtle Shell Rattles and Spirituality in the United States. Journal of Ethnobiology 39(3):425–444. http://doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771-39.3.425

Gillreath-Brown, Andrew. 2019*. Turtle Shell Rattle Use by Indigenous Peoples of the Contiguous United States: Ethnographic Documentation. Version 1. Zenodo. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2545989. Date of use: day month year.**

*Please update year and DOI if you cite a newer version. The DOI changes with each version in Zenodo, or you can use the DOI to cite all versions.

**Example: Date of use: 17 April 2019.

OVERVIEW OF CONTENTS

The purpose of this work is to summarize information from published and unpublished ethnographies that document how Indigenous Peoples of the contiguous United States used—and, in some cases, continue to use—turtle shell rattles. The data contained herein have been used to suggest and support interpretations of turtle shell rattle remains recovered from the archaeological record across the United States.

This compendium draws on an extensive database compiled and maintained by the author. The compendium lists the relevant ethnographic references; it gives the state and region of the United States and the Indigenous group that use(d) turtle shell rattles; it identifies the turtle shell rattle type and the various chelonian taxa by both their scientific and common names; and it describes the documented uses for turtle shell rattles for specific ethnic groups. I intend this compendium to serve as a summary of, and a guide to, the extensive ethnographic literature, which I encourage the reader to consult for additional, more-detailed information, as well as to understand the unique context.

I used several criteria for deciding which information to include in the compendium. First, I was interested in what Indigenous Peoples used turtle shell rattles or turtle substitute rattles for (see Gillreath-Brown 2019) across the United States. I also try to include alternate or contemporary preferred names of the Native American groups in addition to the group name used in the literature. Second, I include primary ethnographic references in addition to other supporting references. In addition to providing the references in a word document, references are also compiled in the author’s Paperpile account, which is publically available at https://paperpile.com/shared/KU55Rg. Third, I was also interested in the type of rattle that was used and what turtle taxa (given by its scientific name according to Turtle Taxonomy Working Group 2017) was used in the construction of the rattle(s). I also provide the common name for scientific names. Fourth, I provide a use category for the rattles, which is comprised of ritual/ceremonial, medicinal/healing, and myth/creation. Finally, an ethnographic description and additional comments are provided to give further context for the turtle shell rattles and to further expand on the use categories. For example, for a use category of ritual/ceremonial, the description and comments field will generally list the dances or ceremonies where turtle shell rattles were used.

A goal of the compendium is to aid researchers in their interpretations of archaeological turtle shell rattle remains, as well as to understand and document Indigenous music. Although turtle shell rattles have been present in the United States since the Archaic Period (ca. 8000–1000 BC), the specific uses of turtle shell rattles vary from group to group and over time. Some Indigenous Peoples may not have traditionally used turtle shell rattles or at least not for specific dances (e.g., Stomp Dance). For example, Howard and Kurath (1959:6) explain that the Ponca (of the midwestern United States) likely borrowed the stomp dance from eastern groups. Many Indigenous Peoples were forced from their traditional homelands and were placed in close proximity to other Indigenous Peoples, such as in the state of Oklahoma, that they may not have interacted with the past. Additionally, the Seminoles of Oklahoma may have learned about the use of condensed-milk can rattles as a substitute for turtle shell rattles from the Natchez-Cherokees around 1920 in Gore, Oklahoma (Howard and Lena 1984:117).

Turtle shell rattle type is defined by the author and is presented in Gillreath-Brown 2019 (see also Gillreath-Brown and Peres 2017, 2018). In published literature, “turtle shell rattle” is phrased many different ways including: turtle shell rattle, terrapin carapace rattles, turtle carapace rattle, shell shakers, terrapin rattle, turtle shell shakers, terrapin shell rattle, turtle shell shackles, tortoise shell rattle, turtle shell leggings, and tortoise rattle (see Gillreath-Brown 2019: Supplemental Content, Supplementary Table 4). Additionally, sometimes turtle shell is hyphenated (i.e., turtle-shell). Tortoise and terrapin are also used as substitutes for “turtle.”

Download the current version of the excel file below.

References cited in the description above are in the word document “References Cited” and in Paperpile, except for Turtle Taxonomy Working Group (2017).

Turtle Taxonomy Working Group [Rhodin AGJ, Iverson JB, Bour R, Fritz U, Georges A, Shaffer HB, et al]. 2017. Turtles of the world: Annotated checklist and atlas of taxonomy, synonymy, distribution, and conservation status. 8th ed. In: Rhodin AGJ, Iverson JB, van Dijk PP, Saumure RA, Buhlmann KA, Pritchard PCH, et al, editors. Conservation biology of freshwater turtles and tortoises: A compilation project of the IUCN/SSC tortoise and freshwater turtle specialist group. Chelonian Research Monographs 2017;7: 1–292. https://doi.org/10.3854/crm.7.checklist.atlas.v8.2017

Acknowledgments

This publication would not have been possible without the support of many people and institutions. I also thank the editors and reviewers for the original article (DOI) that was published in the Journal of Ethnobiology Special Issue, “Ethnobiology Through Song.” I also thank my colleague Dr. Tanya Peres, who I have worked extensively with on this topic.

Andrew Gillreath-Brown is currently a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University.