Vintage Indigenous Northwest Coast Bracelet of Polar Bears

If you're an animal lover, this vintage bracelet just may enchant you with its seven hand carved and painted roaring polar bear faces in relief.

The Indigenous-made bracelet came from Alaska, where you'd find these much-revered bears. If you look closely, you'll see the tiny variations in each bear including teeny (but exceedingly fierce) fangs.

Between each bear is a square spacer bead and everything is strung together on double elastics for stretch. Over time, the elastics have lost some of their stretch, but they still hold the beads securely on the piece.

It's a beautiful representation of the rare and mighty beasts that have co-existed with Native Peoples of the region. May they continue to exist despite all of the modern day challenges.

It's made for a small wrist, which is a welcome find for those of us who often have to sit out unique bracelets due to their larger size. It measures about 6 1/8" inside with some stretch to get over the hand. The bracelet is 3/8" wide along with 3/8" deep.

This polar bear bracelet is from the collection of a woman who purchased fine Indigenous jewelry from all over the Americas, not just the Southwest.