For thousands of years, human beings have been using some form of body adornment—jewelry, tattoos, hair styles, body paint, and body modification—to express personality, religion, wealth, social status, and our relationships with the world around us. A display at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria shows some of the adornments used by the First Nations along the Northwest Coast. According to the Museum:
“People in many traditional societies have strong spiritual relationships with certain animals. The people who lived here thousands of years ago often wore animal parts—fur, teeth, bones, feathers, antlers—to show these relationships. They also wore a variety of other body adornments made of carved and polished stones, shells, wood and copper.”
![photo DSCN1298_zps01b9c4bd.jpg](http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/Ojibwa/Victoria/Adornment/DSCN1298_zps01b9c4bd.jpg)
Shown above are some animal teeth which were used as pendants, parts of necklaces, or clothing attachments. The teeth are from deer, elk, dog, bear, seal, and sea lion.
![photo DSCN1299_zps4a0b2442.jpg](http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/Ojibwa/Victoria/Adornment/DSCN1299_zps4a0b2442.jpg)
Shown above are some unidentified ornaments, often called whatzits by archaeologists because their functions and meanings are not readily apparent.
![photo DSCN1303a_zps5300a206.jpg](http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/Ojibwa/Victoria/Adornment/DSCN1303a_zps5300a206.jpg)
![photo DSCN1303_zpsd9f34c01.jpg](http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/Ojibwa/Victoria/Adornment/DSCN1303_zpsd9f34c01.jpg)
Shown above are some beads.
![photo DSCN1303c_zps9832e178.jpg](http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/Ojibwa/Victoria/Adornment/DSCN1303c_zps9832e178.jpg)
![photo DSCN1303d_zps79c63a9d.jpg](http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/Ojibwa/Victoria/Adornment/DSCN1303d_zps79c63a9d.jpg)
![photo DSCN1303e_zps9fb2dfe1.jpg](http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/Ojibwa/Victoria/Adornment/DSCN1303e_zps9fb2dfe1.jpg)
![photo DSCN1305_zps00a4dafd.jpg](http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/Ojibwa/Victoria/Adornment/DSCN1305_zps00a4dafd.jpg)
![photo DSCN1306_zpsb33bb7db.jpg](http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/Ojibwa/Victoria/Adornment/DSCN1306_zpsb33bb7db.jpg)
Shown above are some pendants made from a variety of materials.
Labrets:
![photo DSCN1294_zps9fe2ccac.jpg](http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/Ojibwa/Victoria/Adornment/DSCN1294_zps9fe2ccac.jpg)
![photo DSCN1295_zpse88a1ed0.jpg](http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/Ojibwa/Victoria/Adornment/DSCN1295_zpse88a1ed0.jpg)
![photo DSCN1297_zpsf444176d.jpg](http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/Ojibwa/Victoria/Adornment/DSCN1297_zpsf444176d.jpg)
![photo DSCN1302_zps264de6f2.jpg](http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz139/Ojibwa/Victoria/Adornment/DSCN1302_zps264de6f2.jpg)
One of the interesting features of the First Nations along the Northwest Coast was the use of labrets (lip plugs). The labret is an ornament that projects through a hole or holes pierced through the skin just below the lower lip or, in some cases, at the corners of the mouth. Among the Heiltsuk some of the labrets were more than three inches in diameter. The labrets were generally worn by upperclass women and the labrets tend to be found in the matrilineal groups.
Among the northern tribes, such as the Tlingit, Hiada, and Tsimshian, women wore a large labret which was inserted through a hole beneath the lower lip. At about the time of puberty, girls would have the initial hole made. Over time, the hole was filled with increasingly larger labrets until the hole was about four inches across. The size of the labret was determined by the position of a woman’s clan as well as the number of children to whom she had given birth. Large labrets made of, or inlaid with, expensive materials such as copper and abalone shell were worn by elite women. A woman who did not have a labret was said to be “without a mouth.”