Heishe or heishi (pronounced "hee shee") are small disc- or tube-shaped beads made of organic shells or ground and polished stones. They come from the Kewa Pueblo people (formerly Santo Domingo Pueblo) of New Mexico, before the use of metals in jewelry by that people.Sky Stone
"All about heishe"
. Retrieved on 2008-10-07. The name is the word for

shell bead Shell jewelry is jewelry that is primarily made from seashells, the shells of marine mollusks. Shell jewelry is a type of shellcraft. One very common form of shell jewelry is necklaces that are composed of large numbers of beads, where each ...

in the Eastern Keresan language of the Santo Domingo Indians. The oldest specimens of heishe date back to around 6000 BCE, although the same technique was used in northern Africa 30,000 years ago, using ostrich eggshell. Modern heishe beads are commonly mechanically mass-produced; however, some artists still handmake beads. The beads are hand-chipped, with holes drilled through their centers using pointed stones.

References

Jewellery components Indigenous culture of Oasisamerica Indigenous beadwork of the Americas Pueblo art Seashells in art {{NorthAm-native-stub